In her 10 years working on Capitol Hill, Dominique McKay held nearly every staff position possible, starting as an unpaid intern and working her way up to communication director for Tim Scott, the junior senator from South Carolina. She knows better than most the drive it takes to stick it out in a work setting that demands so much from employees and leaves little room for a personal life.

McKay now leverages her years of experience and knowledge of Capitol Hill dynamics to minister to the women on the Hill. Since July 2022, McKay has served as the women’s ministry associate for Ministry to State, filling a position left vacant since before the pandemic.

There are lots of ministries on Capitol Hill, McKay says, but most of them have two-fold aims. They want to minister, but they also want to gain the ears of politicians to advocate for a political position. Not so with Ministry to State. 

“Ministry to State is different because they are there to minister to people in government with no alternative public policy agenda,” she said. Instead, Ministry to State focuses on evangelism and discipleship, and McKay wants to help women working on the Hill to learn how to be Christians who are confident in their calling and pursuing meaningful, lifelong relationships with nonbelievers. 

“Ministry to State is different because they are there to minister to people in government with no alternative public policy agenda.”

In her decade working in government, McKay, who attends McLean Presbyterian Church, was often involved with Ministry to State as a federal employee. She saw the high turnover rate among her colleagues as they realized they did not want to continue working a demanding job with little pay. Over time, McKay’s priorities shifted, too. “At some point it stopped being about my career and became about ministry and gospel opportunities,” she said. 

Now she hopes to help Christian women network together, creating a web of support for spiritual development and mentoring. Professional networking is common in Washington, D.C., but Ministry to State can create something different: a place for Christian women to offer each other guidance in navigating the Capitol culture and a safe space for asking hard questions about the faith.

McKay also wants to support women as they wrestle with their sense of call to public service, perhaps the biggest challenge facing Christian women on the Hill, more so than the discrimination and pay inequity they also face. She believes a strong Christian community can help women discern the difference between their own ambition and God’s calling for their lives. “They have unique needs; we must think through how to support them.”