To have inspired a generation of young leaders that will rise up, take their seat at the table and empower America from the local level — the neighborhood — to influencing every level of government with their active participation in civic engagement.

To be known by the boldness of my faith and perseverance of my story.

To be known for having a gracious spirit, servant heart, and as a women of strength and dignity.

Jennifer Knesek was born in Seoul, Korea to an inter-racial couple — her father was re-assigned when she was 10 months to Fort Hood Army Base (soon to be renamed Richard E. Cavazos Army Base) — she moved there her parents living in the small town of Copperas Cove, Texas 20 minutes from Killeen, Texas and an hour north of Austin. She is an Army brat that grew up traveling the world with her military family living places such as California in the late 1980s to being stationed all over the world like Germany, also places like the Korean Peninsula and credits her military upbringing on Army bases with her appreciation for the sacrifices of those who serve and has grown up to understand that the US Army is truly a melting pot. Her strong Czech roots in Texas are from generations of life-long Texans that value hard work, higher education and a strong work ethic.

For the last decade Jennifer has followed a professional journey in the political arena working as a political strategist for over 7 years. Over the last two years she transitioned to a PR and media relations heavy portfolio working for a Cybersecurity Public Relations firm expanding her skill set to include writing thought leader pieces for a number of publications from the New York Times and Forbes to small tech publications. Professionally she finished out that year as the social media producer for Dolcefino Consulting, an investigative media firm, and the Public Relations Director for the national non-partisan organization Bienvenido that focuses on the advancement of Hispanics in the United States — that continues to be a volunteer position that she champions to this day as an advisor to her friend President and founder, Abraham Enriquez. She does not hold a candle to their new PR team — but she looks forward to their success and hopes to see him as the Ambassador to Mexico in her lifetime — he is truly gifted.

Jennifer has been the finance director for a Texas Governor’s race, finance director and consultant for multiple congressional races with experience across multiple states. Her campaign experience spans the entire state of Texas at every level. She has worked on races for State Board Of Education to Railroad Commissioner to United States Senate and include judicial wins at every levels including statewide high courts like the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals in addition to winning races at the appellate judicial level to local courts in many counties across the state. Jennifer has been a District Director for a State Representative from Texas and now is a Texas Senate Staffer for Senator Joan Huffman — the chair of the powerful Texas Senate Finance Committee that is tasked with overseeing and drafting the budget for the entire state of Texas.

She has also worked as the Executive Director for the Texas Chapter of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly under Chairwoman Carmen Crenshaw and also had a column called “Winning on the American Idea” at the national level of the nationwide umbrella organization RNHA (Republican National Hispanic Assembly) — an organization that was helmed by the uber talented national leader, Betty Cardenas. In a volunteer capacity she also currently serves on multiple national, statewide and local non-profit boards such as the Federation of Korean American Associations Mid-South (Covering 5 states and serves with fellow Texans like Representative Jacey Jetton and Tarrant County Judge Alex Kim), Korean American Association and Community Center of Houston, World Affairs Council of Houston — Global Young Professionals, Senior Advisor to the Dallas Korean American Chamber of Commerce, the Houston Liberty Leadership Council of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, as well as partisan organizations like the National Federation of Republican Women serving on the Youth Outreach Committee (1 of 5 women under the age of 45 chosen nationwide and appointed to NFRW — shout out to our incredible Chairwoman Maria Sofia out of Maryland), the statewide Texas Asian Republican Assembly, Texas Asian Republican Club serving Greater Houston and Fort Bend, formerly a board member on many local level Republican Women’s Clubs and Young Republican Organizations to her continued second term on one of her favorite boards — THE Greater Houston Council of Federated Republican Women covering over 13 counties across South and Southeast Texas and advancing the Republican Woman for over 60 years.

Her greatest achievement has been her ability to grow her influence in philanthropic circles and the advancement of community through civic engagement. Jennifer truly believes in having a compelling cause, collaborating and connecting faith institutions, non profits and government so that they can work together to solve issues like generational poverty to just name one of the many she is passionate towards.

She currently resides in Houston, Texas and in January will return to Austin after 10 years — this time with the 88th legislative session traveling back and forth between Senate District 17 and the Texas Capitol to help a team craft legislation that will move Texans forward and help build/pass a strong fiscally responsible budget that will meet the growing needs of Texas. Knesek is a Fighting Texas Aggie that bleeds maroon — her favorite presidents are Calvin Coolidge & Ronald Reagan — she loves to play golf, both bay and deep sea fish and is a hard core foodie that is an avid volunteer in her personal life.

Knesek has dedicated her life to spreading a message of hope from sea to shining sea and believes all politics is local. Jennifer believes there are young conservatives across this country that will rise up in coming years who have the ability to impact the American conservative movement in a way never seen before.

Books:

Street Saints: Renewing America’s Cities by Barbara Elliot

Words that Work by Frank Luntz

What Americans Really Want…Really: The Truth About Our Hopes, Dreams, and Fears by Dr. Frank Luntz

Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert Putnam

The Battle: How the Fight Between Free Enterprise and Big Government will shape people by Arthur Brooks

Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City by Elijah Anderson

Mass Hate: The Global Rise of Genocide and Terror by Neil Jeffrey Kressel

Fear Less: Real Truth About Risk, Safety, and Security in a Time of Terrorism by Gavin de Becker

America’s Covert Border War
The Untold Story of the Nation’s Battle to Prevent Jihadist Infiltration by Todd Bensman

The Conservative Heart: How to Build a Fairer, Happier, and More Prosperous America by Arthur C. Brooks

If You Want Something Done: Leadership Lessons from Bold Women by Nikki Haley

Fossil Future: Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas — Not Less by Alex Epstein

Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

I was 28 years old and working for a commercial real estate firm running 13 entities and an associate/assistant property manager for a large portfolio of more than a million square feet — living and working in Downtown Austin paying absurd prices for rent and a door man that parked my car and ran my groceries upstairs for me — a young professional on the rise in a city with an inner circle I was privileged to see because of who I worked for and our exclusive client list.

I had spent almost 2 years dating the nephew of the Governor of Minnesota before settling down (or what I thought would be a life long relationship in my late 20s) with the son of one of the Austin elite inner circle families — the great great grandson of Commodore Perry, the right hand of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Both of that happen by chance, unknown to me early in both relationships — I still remember the text I got — “Turn on the TV in about an hour, my uncle will be on the late show.” Well — he just happen to be running for President of the United States on the Republican ticket. This isn’t even the tip of the iceberg…

Austin is a very small town and most of us ran in the same circles as we all loved to work hard and play even harder. We all did business together and enjoyed a very charmed life — most of my friends and on occasion myself working bankers hours living the dream in the beautiful Austin, Texas. I have always worked hard to advance my career and would capitalize on rare opportunities given to me early on in my professional journey — jobs hard earned without a traditional path after college — if you know anything about the late 2000’s and the millennial mindset you may undoubtedly understand the value of this story.

I spent my twenty something years professionally switching between opportunities like working for ESPN on ABC SPORTS to giving brain maps/brain training at Peak Performance Institute to trying my hand at residential real estate investing and ended up in the commercial real estate (excluding multi family) world, an animal all its own. A field that was thriving for those that had access to millions of dollars — a male dominated good ol’ boys club that I can say was a lot of luck falling into that job and an earned resume that my employer was willing to take a chance on because I was recommended by a family friend of theirs and I interview very well — thankful to have always had that gift. This was a wild year and a half where I had the opportunity to learn an industry from legends known across the United States (my big boss was the property tax genius known across the nation) and in some countries as leaders in this space.

My personal life threw me a curve ball and I left my incredible job to move out to my family ranch living next to my grandparents in one of their bed and breakfast cabins, planted potatoes with my grandfather and waking up for morning prayers and coffee on the back porch with grandma. I difficult choice I made to leave. I finally allowed my family to put me into intensive therapy that would take up to 6 hours a day (a few times a week) in deep sessions to address my PTSD, somatic anxiety disorder and trauma from my years at TAMU and later attempted to unpack unaddressed childhood trauma.

It wasn’t by any means a convenient time to stop life and focus on me — but when is the best time to have the courage to heal instead of continuing to just survive year after year, some years better than others.

One of my best friends called and told me I could not retire at 28 and live in rural Texas planting potatoes with my grandfather — I laughed and said, “I know…”

A second call came about a month later, “are you ready for a job yet because we have THE candidate?” I interviewed but already had the job from that second call with the hire already being blessed by the candidate — the call was that a Governor’s race needed a finance director team lead — little did I know my second day at work I was thrown out into the deep end and promoted to acting finance director as my direct boss got on a plane with her family to Europe for the summer without time or consistent access to email and daily phone calls. I was challenged in ways I never expected and realized later that year that this world of politics had never seen someone like me — a compliment given by a top consultant formerly of Red Rock Strategies.

The fluid nature of this political gamesmanship was hard to navigate alone as you have to always be in client support and client recruitment mode often not getting paid according to your contract — often not on the same starting line with professionals your age (give or take 10 years) — especially if you weren’t related to or parents weren’t best friends/donors of anyone already associated with a top political consulting firm or a former staffer or elected official.

This is a small club in Texas but a few sneak through and I was fortunate enough to work hard paying it forward and setting myself apart for the last 8 years. I had to pivot, get creative, remind myself of requirements I had when taking clients so I could hang on to my integrity and self respect — sometimes hurting financially because the cause was often bigger than a paycheck.

Some look at me now and will say those sacrifices were worth it because of the position I now hold but I am here to tell you that there are so many things that I would have calculated differently and have the wisdom to have done differently in my political journey to today. I did not take an easy road — but in this game, I don’t believe an easy road actually exists — for what that is worth.

I owe my success to my mentors, a few select clients and a number of top political consultants willing to take a chance on an operative that was known to be unconventional but honest and a hard worker. Potential only takes you so far — you have to have people willing to truly invest in that potential to thrive and reach the next level. That also depends on you — not just luck — you have to earn trust and show value.

I remember this daily as I get up for work.

I know without using my network and resources around me I will not continue to grow and achieve all that could be accomplished for Texans and my own professional development. I am beyond blessed to currently have a chance to work on the best team in the pink dome, be on a champion team working in district with great partners, phenomenal advisors and a boss that is known to actually get things done unlike a number of others in the building. To have the opportunity to learn from her — that is a privilege I take seriously, she is a Texas giant.

I am going to take this opportunity to learn skills and develop relationships that will prove me to be valuable to a number of official state agencies or official government offices — this is my passion and to be able to have a chance at impacting millions of Texans through this side of public service still feels like a dream. I know it can end at any time — that is the nature of this beast. Nothing in life is guaranteed so I encourage you to wake up and be intentional about your work, take chances and push the envelope, dedicate your free time to creating more collaborative ways to expand your influence — government work is not meant to make you rich; public service and giving back has not made me a rich woman but rather a woman that has proudly earned her way but because of my connections I have had to prove myself 10x that of colleagues — it is about using your talents, power and skills to fight for and create meaningful opportunities for others above yourself. I will champion and defend policies that will help every Texan prosper.

Public service can seem sexy at times but the political arena is the hardest of them all — often a thankless job but a worthy choice. I will continue to earn my way every step forward and I take mentoring others seriously— I want to continue to give back and continue to work behind the scenes to ensure good governance.

All Texans and every American deserves my commitment to that.

Find whatever makes you alive and go do that — people need what you bring to the conversation — each of us have value.