Elizabeth Heng

            My VIP for this week is Elizabeth Heng, a young woman who is running for Congress against Democrat Jim Costa in California’s 16^th district. The last time that a Republican won in that district was forty years ago.

            Heng’s parents fled the violence in Cambodia in the early 1980s and immigrated to the United States. She was student body president at Stanford and graduated in 2008. She and her brothers opened some cell phone stores in the central San Joaquin Valley. Being and business owner and manager of 75 employees was a learning experience for her. She recognized that capitalism was struggling to survive the effects of progressivism and says the following.

I saw firsthand how regulations impacted businesses negatively. I constantly felt that from Washington, D.C., and Sacramento, they were saying that I was everything wrong with our country, when all I was doing was creating jobs.

            Heng saw the need for good people to become involved in government and stop the spread of progressivism. She moved to Washington, D.C. and worked for six years to gain knowledge about legislation and campaigning. She became a director for the inauguration ceremony for Donald Trump. At the same time, she finished her MBA at Yale.

            One of the biggest lessons that Heng learned from her Washington experience is the very platform that she is using for her campaign: fiscal responsibility. She realizes that families and businesses are not surprised at the idea of making an annual budget. She knows that a budget is a critical item in fiscal responsibility, and she believes that she has the knowledge and skills to help Congress pass a budget.