About Tanya
Meet Tanya Lloyd
Tanya is a fifth-generation Texan, born in Waxahachie in 1970. As the daughter of a high school football coach, she moved around for several years, attending Kindergarten in Moody, first grade in Del Valle, and second grade in Robstown.
After the passing of her grandfather in the summer before her third grade year, she moved to Lockhart where her family owned a small farm. Her dad was a math teacher and one of Lockhart High School’s football coaches. Her mom was a business-owner and respected retailer, with her floral and gift shop Mas Macetas. Tanya learned the value of hard work by helping her grandmother take care of livestock.
After graduating from Lockhart High School in 1988, Tanya attended a few semesters at Southwest Texas State University before putting things on hold to work full time in Austin, where she met and married her husband, Scott, himself raised on a North Texas dairy farm. They have been married nearly 30 years.
In the years between leaving college and her daughter being born, Tanya worked as a receptionist and office manager of body shops and car dealerships, including McMorris Ford and Capitol Chevrolet. She put to use the accounting courses she took at Austin Community College (ACC), managing accounts receivable and payable, and reconciling accounts for the parts department. Eventually, she obtained her real estate license and worked for Prudential Owens Real Estate out of Round Rock.
While expecting her daughter, Jenna, Tanya became very ill and had to stop working for a time. Jenna was born 10 weeks premature and the doctors advised against putting her in a daycare setting for at least a year. To care for her daughter, Tanya then resigned from her position as a realtor and her part-time position as secretary of St Mark United Methodist Church in North Austin. This, along with the events of 9/11, and the downturn in the economy, prompted her small family to downsize and move back to her hometown of Lockhart.
While taking care of her daughter she worked at her parents' small business, Mas Macetas, in downtown Lockhart. It was at this time that Tanya made the decision to complete her college degree by re-enrolling at Southwest Texas State University, which later became Texas State University. Having made the decision to pursue a degree in education, she focused on her studies and graduated with honors in December of 2006.
In 2007, Tanya became a teacher in the Lockhart Independent School District, where for the last 17 years, she has not only taught the children of her friends, but the next generation, her friends' grandchildren. She is now also the campus science fair coordinator. Her experience and expertise in working against generational poverty among her students is driven by a passion to ensure children have what they need, not only to survive, but to thrive. In Congress, as in her classroom, Tanya will work to make sure the smallest, most quiet voices are heard.
“We need a voice in Congress that recognizes and can discuss from lived experience the challenges that face agricultural professionals and communities. A voice that can be our advocate on rural health care. A voice for investing in our communities. A voice to make sure that no rural community, town, or city is left behind.”
Along with her job duties, Tanya is also very active in the community. She and Scott have been members of the Lockhart FFA Booster Club, Lockhart Athletic Booster Club, and the Caldwell County Aggie Moms Club. Within those organizations, she helped to create scholarships for local students and with fundraising for those projects. She and Scott were club managers for the Chisholm Trail 4-H club for several years, helping kids with their livestock projects and making sure they met all of the criteria to be able to compete with their livestock in various shows. 4-H not only focuses on raising livestock but also community service: volunteering and raising funds for local animal shelters, Brown Santa and sending Christmas cards and magazines to local nursing homes.
Tanya brings a perspective common to Texas farm-and-ranch communities, but not common to the halls of Congress. She has been an educator for an economically challenged community, and guided those children (and their parents) to success. More still needs to be done. Tanya’s tired of representatives in Congress who are all hat and no cattle – she’s ready to roll up her sleeves and get the work done for the people of TX-27.