About Melissa McDonough

Melissa McDonough has an extensive background in small business management, real estate, title, finance and economics. She has also lobbied Congress for consumer protection and healthcare, as well as facilitated in Harris County elections as presiding judge at one of the highest attended polls, Signature Verification Committee, Early Voting Ballot Board (mail-in ballots), and Central Count.

She has almost 30 years of experience as a REALTOR^© and 20 years of real estate brokerage owner/manager experience with over 45 agents. She has represented hundreds of people with the most expensive purchase they may ever make, their home.

Melissa has consulted with many small business owners to grow their businesses from home base, to commercial lease, and to owning their own commercial property. This enabled these small business owners to leave a legacy for their extended families and children.

Congress, like real estate, is about representing the client and negotiating the best end result to get what the client wants. Melissa has been a keynote speaker at the National Association of REALTORS^© annual conference, and a national marketing director for 24 states.

In addition to real estate Melissa has experience in the following areas:

Lobbying US Congress and TX State Legislatures
Certified Texas Arbitrator
ABR, ABRM, GRI, Certified Property Management
Women’s Council of Realtors, Houston Chapter President in 2003
Texas WCR technology committee
WCR national leadership committee
Risk mitigation review for laws
Small business mentor
Top producer field sales, presentation
Tomball ISD School Bond Committee
PTO President
Band booster President
Kids Ministry Leader at Salem Lutheran Church for 5th and 6th graders

Family

Melissa and Tim McDonough will be married for 30 years this year and they have two brilliant sons. Tim is a Cyber Security Architect. Their oldest son is a Sergeant in the Air Force Cyber Warfare Department. Their youngest son is an Aerospace Engineer and pilot working for a large defense contractor supporting missions in Ukraine.

Their sons attended public schools and entered college at ages 16 and 14. Their oldest son attended Texas Tech University and their youngest son graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering, pilot’s license, and a business minor.

Melissa explains their philosophy on education, “As parents it was our responsibility to educate our children. Whom we choose to partner with is a choice but ultimately it is our responsibility to make sure at the end of each school year our boys are accomplished in all areas of academic, spiritual, and life lessons. Public schools are a great foundation.”

Both Melissa and Tim played multiple volunteer roles throughout their kids’ primary and collegiate years. Melissa taught private music lessons and was a volunteer clinician at public schools. She also volunteered in the school library and helped children fall in love with reading.

“It just takes a conversation with each individual kid to know their interests and suggest an appropriate book. Having a literate population produces a better, stable, economic and caring society.”

Where are you in your story and where is your line?

Melissa believes in supporting people; wherever they are in their story. Everyone has a different story and timeline. What is right for one person is not necessarily right for another. We have all been blessed with free will. However, our individual freedoms end where it impacts someone else’s individual rights to health, safety, speech, and liberty.

“There are a number of things that have happened in recent years that crossed the line for me personally.” If you are silent, then you agree with what is going on. Ask yourself, “Am I okay with any of the following?”

Being told what you can and cannot do in the privacy of your bedroom?
Being told you cannot give water to someone standing in the heat?
Being told that you must be on the verge of death before medical treatment can be legally given?
Taking children from their parents with no means of reuniting them?
Passing laws based on misleading, false information and lack of knowledge in subject matter?

During World War II a very powerful poem was written that still applies today:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller

The steps are slow but steady. One of the first things Hitler did in his rise to authoritarianism was to suppress public knowledge by burning books. There are parallels happening now, in today’s society with book bans and selectively rewriting history.

Yes, there is harm in any decision or even a lack of decision. This is why each choice needs to be considered critically. It is the job of our representative to negotiate for the best result and mitigate harm for Congressional District 38.

“I recognize that I am at a place in MY story where I can speak up for those who cannot. Among many other things, attacks on individual people’s freedoms have crossed MY line. My generation has allowed this to happen. I don’t want to pass this on to my children. It is time to speak up. This is why I am running for Congress!”