Darren Yancy for Texas Senate

Darren Yancy has always been a self starter and hard-working individual. He knows the value of a dollar and through diligent perseverance has achieved the American Dream. He was raised with the conservative principles of self reliance and responsibility and he has engaged those values each and every day throughout his life.

Darren’s sales and marketing career began in Texas at the young age of 16 when he began selling fire safety systems with MasterGuard Corporation. From the beginning, Darren pioneered new ways to reach prospective customers and within only a year he became the youngest National Sales Champion in the history of the company.

After moving to Arlington in 1984, Darren worked fulltime while also earning a degree in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Arlington in only three and a half years. Following college, Darren was recruited by a number of local businesses and he spent the next six years working for two area companies - The Freeman Auto Group and the Mortiz Group where he worked his way up through various sales, finance and leadership positions in the company.

In the early nineties, he was recruited by Brinks Home Security and became the first National Sales Trainer for the company. Darren revised the corporation’s sales and training programs and increased sales revenue by over 50% in less than 2 quarters. Following this impressive achievement, Darren was offered a promotion to Regional Manager to oversee operations in four states. However, Darren declined this position and accepted an offer from Nationwide Insurance in early 1994 to begin a new field operation in North Arlington Texas. After three years as an employee, Darren became an independent contractor representing Nationwide in the office he started from scratch.

Over the last 15 years, Darren has grown the operation and substantially expanded the products and services offered to include commercial insurance, pensions, and benefits. Several commercial products he developed became agency specialties and further distinguished Darren’s operation from his competitors’. Darren is licensed in over 15 states to accommodate clients with multi-state and regional needs. His continued commitment to provide the highest quality possible services for his clients led Darren to create a business brokerage and real estate division in his company in 2005.Today Darren’s operation boasts 1,500 clients and over $6 million in premiums each year. Year over year increases in his business volume have come from Darren’s smart, effective leadership and personable ways with his clients.

Prior to his professional achievements, Darren’s personal character was formed through conservative values passed down from his parents. His father was a native Texan from Brownwood and his family worked on many construction projects throughout Texas. Darren’s mother was a Dallas native coming from a broken home and stepped into the adult world at the age of 14. She was able to work in several Dallas retail stores to earn a living. It was while she worked in retail that she would meet Darren’s father. The two married very young and had Darren in the first year of marriage. Asthma problems with Darren led his father in taking a position with United States Gypsum and a move to Lubbock in the late 1960’s. Active in his community growing up, Darren’s father joined the YMCA Father-Child Program in Lubbock. This experience would later shape Darren’s involvement with his children and the YMCA Father-Child Program in Arlington, Texas.

Darren’s family moved back to Euless, Texas in 1977 due to his father’s job. Unfortunately, his parent’s marriage had issues and the two separated in 1978. The divorce would have a profound impact on Darren. He chose to stay with his father and go to school in Euless. The poor economy of the late 1970’s hit Darren’s father very hard and it was during this time that Darren began to seek out work to help shoulder the financial burden his father was under. This desire to improve his family’s situation would begin to shape his future professional career.

While living in Euless, Darren attended Trinity High School. He was in band and was a National Honor Society student. He would graduate there in 1984. That same year, Darren’s father moved them to Arlington for a change in their life. Darren was ready to continue work and forgo a college education, but his father refused to let him bypass college. The two battled over where Darren would attend and ended up agreeing on the University of Texas at Arlington. In addition to being close to home, it had one of the best business schools in the nation at the time. Darren made many mistakes in his first year of college and tried dropping out on several occasions. His father kept him on course and in school. By his second year, the importance of college finally took hold of Darren and he would end up finishing a 4 year degree in 3 and one half years. His degree is in Finance with a minor in Accounting.

Darren continued to reside in Arlington after college. Two years after he graduated college, he met the love of his life – Carol Gomez. They shared an apartment in Arlington near Ranger Stadium before Darren asked Carol to marry him. Darren and Carol’s first home was in North Arlington and was a “fixer upper”. The couple learned the hard way of maintaining and improving a home. They discovered redoing something for the lowest price was not always the best solution. When Darren began the insurance agency in 1994, Carol informed him that it was time to start a family. Never daunted by multi-tasking, Darren decided that it was time to make the house “right’ for his wife and new family to be and began planning a complete remodel. Working nights and weekends after working at the agency, Darren completely remodeled the home in 6 months. New floors, moving of walls, adding more bathroom square footage – the works. Carol would have been happy with new paint and wallpaper, as she was nesting. They made the most of the times and their first 3 children were born calling Arlington home.

As a young father, Darren followed his father’s lead and entered the Arlington YMCA Father-Child Program in 2000. The program centers on fathers spending time with their children (sorry – no mom’s allowed) learning the history of Native Americans and their culture, appreciation of nature, love of state and country, as well as teaching responsibility of being a Christian. Meetings, activities, and campouts keeping the father spending time with their children help foster memories that the children take well into adulthood. Darren has held several leadership positions in this program, aided in numerous canned food drives for the less fortunate, and has worked hard to expand the program in Arlington well past its borders.

Family is a very important part of Darren’s life. Darren is very close to his parents to this day and is grateful for the relationship he has with them. He is part of a very large immediate and extended family with 2 younger sisters and a younger brother, 3 aunts and 3 uncles, and more cousins than he can keep up with. When the time came to raise a family with his wife Carol, there was no question that it would be more than the typical 2 child family. Darren and Carol had their first 3 children in a 3 and a half year span. While the number was planned, the timing was not. Suddenly their young family had outgrown their home.

Be careful what you promise – you will have to make good on it one day. Carol’s father had been a professional jockey and has always been a fan of horses. She had told Darren that if they ever moved, she wanted a place where she could have a horse and Darren promised he would. Since their family was in need of more space, Darren and Carol began to look for a place where they could build a home and have land for animals. After a year of searching, Burleson, Texas was where they decided to call home. Burleson was reasonably close to Arlington for the business, had loads of land for building and animals, and had a stellar reputation for schools. They purchased 11 acres and built their new home. Once in their new home, Carol informed Darren that she wanted another child, but was not sure when. Darren put his foot down and insisted either they have one now to keep the child close in age to the other kids or have 2 later. The Yancy’s have 4 children. They purchased another 6 acres in 2006 from a neighbor, totally 17 acres. In addition to the kids, they have 3 horses, 4 cows, 2 dogs, and 2 cats.

Darren and Carol will celebrate 19 years of marriage this year. They live on their 17 acre ranchette in Burleson with their 4 children Dane, Zach, Brenna, and Gene.