Kimberly Willingham

Kimberly Willingham says she and her fiancé believe that “God put us in the right place at the right time” to meet one another after connecting on an online dating site. But the man upstairs didn’t give Willingham, who’s prepping for her October wedding, and her future hubby compatible football teams.

The communications director for Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) even owns a cocker spaniel named Dallas. 

{mosads} “It’s kind of really cliché for a person from Texas [to name her dog] after the Dallas Cowboys,” Willingham says. “And my fiancé is a major [Washington] Redskins fan so he’s like, ‘We cannot have a dog named Dallas.’ ”

When she’s not working or rooting on her home team, Willingham is an avid blogger. Her site, tradingpapercrowns.com (named after a poem she penned) is a mix of recipes, Christian devotionals and stories. 

“I feel like when you write about serious topics all the time, it kind of makes you a really serious person, and that’s not my personality,” Willingham says. The subject matter is a little bit different than the topic du jour on Capitol Hill, she says, and “I kind of feel like it keeps me sane when you’re discussing immigration and Social Security and all that stuff.”

The Baylor University grad landed on Capitol Hill after working as a booker for Fox News. While she calls the TV gig a great experience, she says it showed her work she might enjoy more.

“I booked a congressional debate segment for Fox, and I talked to press secretaries all the time, and I was like, actually that’s really more what I want to do,” Willingham said.

The yoga fan and gluten-free cook is just as comfortable in dressy, feminine clothes as she is in jeans and a T-shirt. 

“I am a Texas girl,” she says, “and was taught style is not necessarily what you wear — it’s how you hold yourself, smile, and in your personality.” 

She’s recently started using Clary Sage essential oil, dabbing a little of the aromatic liquid on her hands each morning and patting the different scents, such as lavender and lemon, on her face.

Willingham says she “loves” her job and wants to start a family “sometime in the future” after her vows in Texas. As for what’s next for her and her attorney fiancé: “Working in D.C., and seeing where God leads us.”

— Judy Kurtz