Williams a fresh face for GOP leadership
House GOP Caucus boss hopes ‘family’ stays happy
NASHVILLE - State Rep. Ryan Williams is full of analogies, and, in a manner of speaking, is approaching his leadership of Tennessee House Republicans like he would his collegiate soccer team.
Williams, the new 42-year-old chairman of the House Republican Caucus, played collegiate soccer at Carson-Newman College. One year, he and his team sat in a room, all very different young men, targeting their goals for the season.
One teammate, he said, was battling addiction, another couldn’t be away from home — and his girlfriend — more than a weekend, and another was focused on the Bible.
That team had to work together and make a few sacrifices to create a team dynamic, he said, similar to what he expects himself and his Republican colleagues in the legislature to face.
Even in a Republican majority, there are a variety of personalities that, at times, he will have to corral.
“The hard part is whether you’re (Rep.) Andy Holt in rural Tennessee or whether you’re (Rep.) Charles Sargent, who’s got the highest per capita in the state — and those might be two of the most difficult — try to get them to say that we have a lot more in common than we have different,” Williams said.
“It might be a lot more officiating than anything,” he said.
Williams says the current GOP delegation in Nashville has gotten away from a team-like relationship in recent years, and hopes — “myopically, maybe,” he says — to resurrect that dynamic.
“I think the fruit won’t come soon, but it’s being nurtured,” Williams said.
Why Williams is different
Williams considers himself as a humble family man. A native of Blountville — he says it more like “Bluntvull,” like locals might — he moved to Cookeville nearly 20 years ago when he married his wife, Abby, a Cookeville native.
He said he’s different than most in the legislature because he’s “just an employee” and not the owner or CEO at J&S Construction in Cookeville.
He’s also different because he’s clear about the different approach and style he has from some of the most powerful Republicans, like House Speaker Beth Harwell and House Majority Leader Glen Casada, two senior lawmakers he will work with very closely at times.
New stage, new responsibilities
Williams has vaulted himself onto the biggest political stage of his career after being a “rank-and-file Republican” for his first six years in the state legislature.
He will help orchestrate policy strategy, coordinate support or opposition to measures, and perhaps most importantly, raise money for the party to spend during campaigns.
Williams is the director of business development at J&S, essentially a salesman, where he assembles proposals and works with clients on building projects, which include some state and federal contracts to build anything from landscaping projects to airport hangars, personal homes and churches.
The company also has a handful of high-profile clients like country music artists (There is a plaque in his Cookeville office building from Taylor Swift personally thanking J&S for its work for her) and Fortune 500 CEO’s, Williams has a few connections that could be lucrative for GOP coffers.
But Williams knows that mathematically and politically, it will be difficult to grow their majority. Democrats, although small in numbers, still hold firm control of the state’s urban areas. Other challenges include an effort to raise the gas tax, potentially implementing a tax on internet sales and any potential ripple effects from a polarizing presidency of Donald Trump.
“People want to believe you believe in what you’re doing and where you’re going,” he said. “In some ways, the caucus is, quite frankly, blindly trusting me to re-establish things they were always familiar with that I only knew for a year or two.”