{"id":22798,"date":"2018-06-06T16:38:27","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T22:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=22798"},"modified":"2018-06-06T16:38:27","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T22:38:27","slug":"williams-says-experience-is-her-key-asset-in-house-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2018\/06\/williams-says-experience-is-her-key-asset-in-house-run\/","title":{"rendered":"Williams says experience is her key asset in House run"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Williams\"<\/a>

Missoula Current<\/p>

Kathleen Williams emerged as the top vote-getting Democrat in Montana\u2019s primary election on Tuesday and will now challenge freshman Rep. Greg Gianforte for the state\u2019s only seat in the U.S. House.<\/p><\/div>\n

It was shortly after\u00a01:30 a.m.\u00a0on Wednesday\u00a0when Kathleen Williams felt the election returns were stacking up in her favor.<\/p>\n

The Bozeman Democrat had emerged from a field of five other candidates as the victor, narrowly defeating Billings attorney John Heenan for the right to challenge freshman Rep. Greg Gianforte for the state\u2019s only seat in the U.S. House this November.<\/p>\n

By daylight\u00a0Wednesday, her phone began to ring and her inbox filled with accolades.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a long night, but I\u2019m feeling great and we\u2019re ramping up and will continue the good work that we\u2019re doing,\u201d Williams said. \u201cI don\u2019t count my chickens. We were ahead most of the time except for a few moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview\u00a0back in March<\/a>\u00a0with the Missoula Current, Williams spoke about the success of Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to hold federal office in the United States.<\/p>\n

Montana voters sent Rankin to Congress in 1917, and Williams is vying to become the second Montana woman to make her way to Washington, D.C., as an elected official.<\/p>\n

Williams isn\u2019t alone, as a record number of women across the country are running for House seats this election cycle. Women\u00a0on Tuesday\u00a0won 16 of the 19 open House Democratic primaries, according to the Washington Post.<\/p>\n

Now, they\u2019re placing their focus on November.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel that\u2019s a big responsibly on my shoulders, to be successful,\u201d Williams said. \u201cBut I keep going back to the fact that in the primary, I was the most qualified candidate, both in life and career experience and policy experience, and I just happen to be a woman. It will add a little contrast to the race, but it\u2019s not my number one thing.\u201d

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n

Of the three Democratic front-runners in\u00a0Tuesday\u2019s\u00a0primary, Williams was the only candidate who had been elected to office. She served three terms in the state Legislature, and served as the vice chair of the Agriculture and Taxation committees. She also served on the Governor\u2019s Drought Committee and the Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission.<\/p>\n

While she advocates strongly for health care, equality and education, she\u2019s also connected to the state\u2019s agricultural sector and the Chamber of Commerce. It\u2019s an eclectic mix that Williams believes represents her ability to work across political divisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the only candidate with policy-making experience, and when I was talking to people, I think they really appreciated that,\u201d Williams said. \u201cCongress is so broken. We have to send someone with experience who can hit the ground running.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Montana remains a purple state, it has trended toward red in recent years, and Democrats running for the state\u2019s lone seat in the House haven\u2019t been able to break through.<\/p>\n

Montanan voters last sent a Democrat to the House in 1995 by reelecting Pat Williams to his ninth term. Republicans have held that seat for the past 11 elections, a run that has included Rick Hill, Dennis Rehberg, Steve Daines, Ryan Zinke and now Gianforte.<\/p>\n

But Williams believes the right Democrat \u2014 or what she calls a \u201cqualified Democrat\u201d \u2014 can take the seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had progressives, independents and moderate Republicans behind me in the primary,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly what we need to win. I don\u2019t know how many Republicans I talked to who are tired of the dysfunction and tone in Congress and the lack of service and results, and they\u2019re ready to make a change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams, who lost her husband two years ago and has two adult stepchildren, gained an interest in politics early in college. While her father \u2014 a World War II veteran \u2014 steered her toward business, she diverted to resource economics after taking a forestry class.<\/p>\n

Years later, she continues to serve in the field, both in her political function as well as her \u201cday job\u201d as associate director of the Western Landowners Alliance, where she works on water and policy issues. Her work in the field has help her build diverse alliances, adding fuel to her campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people ask if I\u2019m progressive or moderate, I always say \u2018yes,\u2019\u201d Williams said. \u201cMy background spans a broad and deep scope. With connection to the ag community and my work with business, it\u2019s a unique background that will resonate well in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n

This article originally appeared on\u00a0Missoula Current<\/a>, an independent online newspaper, of which\u00a0Martin Kidston is the founding editor.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was shortly after\u00a01:30 a.m.\u00a0on Wednesday\u00a0when Kathleen Williams felt the election returns were stacking up in her favor. The Bozeman Democrat had emerged from a field of five other candidates as the victor, narrowly defeating Billings attorney John Heenan for the right to challenge freshman Rep. Greg Gianforte for the state\u2019s only seat in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":22799,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[335,6743],"class_list":["post-22798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","category-news","tag-greg-gianforte","tag-kathleen-williams","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22800,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22798\/revisions\/22800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}