Lydia Bean

Texas State House District 93

2020 Race Update: Lydia lost 45.53% to 54.47%

Dr. Lydia Bean has spent her life teaching and serving in the church and the community. Dr. Bean comes from a family of preachers and teachers. Growing up, her dad was a pastor and her mom was a public school teacher. Her two younger brothers are now public school teachers in Tarrant County. Dr. Bean completed her PhD at Harvard University and went on to teach sociology at Baylor University. In 2014, Lydia Bean founded a nonprofit called Faith in Texas that brings faith communities together to work for justice and fairness. Faith in Texas helps people of faith work to change unfair policies that take advantage of our neighbors. Dr. Bean also helped found Working Texans for Paid Sick Time, a campaign that won earned paid sick time for all workers in Dallas, San Antonio, and Austin.

Dr. Bean has experience as both a nonprofit employer and small business owner. She is Business Director and part-owner of RE:site Studio, a fast-growing public art business that she helped build with her husband, Norman Lee. As an advocate for good, safe jobs, Dr. Bean prioritizes smart public policy that helps working families and spurs economic growth and entrepreneurship.

Dr. Lydia Bean is passionate about equipping ordinary people to make their voices heard in state politics. She is a Fellow at New America, where she studies state politics and how states are interfering with local policy using preemption. She has written about faith, values, and politics for the Washington Post, Sojourners, and academic journals. Her first book, The Politics of Evangelical Identity, was published by Princeton University Press in 2014.  As a writer, Dr. Bean has sought to create greater mutual understanding between people with different politics and religious beliefs.

Dr. Lydia Bean and her husband, Norman Lee, live in Arlington and belong to Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. She holds a PhD in Sociology from Harvard University and a bachelors from Austin College in Sherman, Texas.