Betsy DeVos

Elisabeth Dee DeVos (' Prince'''; born January 8, 1958) is an American politician, philanthropist, and former government official who served as the 11th United States secretary of education from 2017 to 2021.

DeVos is known for her conservative political activism, and particularly her support for school choice, school voucher programs, and charter schools.

DeVos was born Elisabeth Prince on January 8, 1958.

She grew up in Holland, Michigan, the eldest of four children born to Elsa (Zwiep) Prince (later, Broekhuizen) and Edgar Prince, a billionaire industrialist.

Edgar was the founder of Prince Corporation, an automobile parts supplier based in Holland, Michigan.

She is of Dutch ancestry.

DeVos was educated at the Holland Christian High School, a private school located in her home town of Holland, Michigan.

During college, DeVos was involved with campus politics, volunteered for Gerald Ford's presidential campaign, and attended the 1976 Republican National Convention to participate in a program for young Republicans.

DeVos grew up as a member of the Christian Reformed Church in North America.

She has been a member and elder of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids.

Former Fuller Seminary president Richard Mouw, with whom DeVos served on a committee, said she is influenced by Dutch neo-Calvinist theologian Abraham Kuyper, a founding figure in Christian Democracy political ideology.

She graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in business economics in 1979.

Since 1982, DeVos has participated in the Michigan Republican Party.

She served as a local precinct delegate for the Michigan Republican Party, having been elected for 16 consecutive two-year terms since 1986.

The DeVos family has been active in Republican politics for decades, particularly as donors to candidates and the party, giving more than $17 million to political candidates and committees since 1989.

Like other members of the DeVos family, Betsy strongly opposed government limits on political donations and spending.

While popular with the American public as a way to prevent (perceived) unfair domination by the wealthy in politics, DeVos and many other conservatives argue it is an infringement on free speech.

She was Republican national committeewoman for Michigan from 1992 to 1997 and served as chair of the Michigan Republican Party from 1996 to 2000, and again from 2003 to 2005.

She has advocated for the Detroit charter school system and she is a former member of the board of the Foundation for Excellence in Education.

She has served as chair of the board of the Alliance for School Choice and the Acton Institute and headed the All Children Matter PAC.

DeVos is married to former Amway CEO Dick DeVos.

Her brother, Erik Prince, a former U.S. Navy SEAL officer, is the founder of Blackwater USA.

Their father is billionaire industrialist Edgar Prince, founder of the Prince Corporation.

She was a Republican National Committeewoman for Michigan between 1992 and 1997, and served as chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party from 1996 to 2000.

In a 1997 op-ed for Roll Call, defending unlimited donations of "soft money" in political spending, DeVos compared government limits to Big Brother of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Betsy was a founding board member of the James Madison Center for Free Speech which the DeVos family funded and whose "sole goal was to end all legal restrictions on money in politics."

DeVos resigned the position in 2000.

She said in 2000, "It is clear I have never been a rubber stamp ... I have been a fighter for the grassroots, and following is admittedly not my strong suit."

In 2003, DeVos ran again for party chairman and was elected to the post without opposition.

In 2004, the Lansing State Journal described DeVos as "a political pit bull for most of (Democratic) Governor [Jennifer] Granholm's 16 months in office," and said that if DeVos was not Granholm's "worst nightmare," she was "certainly her most persistent".

Bill Ballenger, editor of the newsletter Inside Michigan Politics and a former Republican state senator, called DeVos "a good behind-the-scenes organizer and a good fund raiser" as well as "a true believer in core Republican issues that leave nobody in doubt on where she stands".

DeVos personally raised more than $150,000 for the 2004 Bush re-election campaign, and hosted a Republican fundraiser at her home in October 2008 that was headlined by President George W. Bush.

During the Bush administration she spent two years as the finance chairperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and worked closely with the administration on "various projects".

In 2016, the family was listed by Forbes as the 88th-richest in America, with an estimated net worth of $5.4 billion.

On November 23, 2016, then-President-elect Donald Trump announced that he would nominate DeVos to serve as Secretary of Education in his administration.

On January 31, following strong opposition to the nomination from Democrats, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions approved her nomination on a party-line vote, sending her nomination to the Senate floor.

On February 7, 2017, she was confirmed by the Senate by a 51–50 margin, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking the tie in favor of her nomination.

This was the first time in U.S. history that a Cabinet nominee's confirmation was decided by the vice president's tiebreaking vote.

On January 7, 2021, DeVos tendered her resignation as education secretary as a result of the January 6 United States Capitol attack, saying to President Trump in her resignation letter, "There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation."

Her resignation took effect on January 8, 2021, twelve days before her term would have ended with the inauguration of Joe Biden as president.