Wisconsin U.S. Senate Candidate for the Democratic Nomination: Proven Experience
By Jonathan Gramling
Dr. Darrell Williams, candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, has experienced much of what has made America what it is, beginning with being born into abject poverty.
“I’m really just a country boy from Mississippi,” Williams said with a laugh. “I came here from Abbeville, Mississippi. I was born in the cotton fields by a midwife. At that time, Black folks couldn’t go to the hospital and be born. I was born by a midwife in the cotton fields of
Abbeville, Mississippi. I was raised in the cotton fields. I used to pick cotton for what we called two of a hundred. That’s $2 for every 100 pounds of cotton. That’s a lot of cotton. I grew up very poor. I didn’t have running water until I was 16-years-old. My mother raised six kids off of $3.35 per hour. And so I learned the value of hard work, but I also learned the value of good, union supporting jobs because we never had one.”
Like many young Black men in Mississippi who wanted to escape the poverty and racism, Williams joined the military when he was 16-years-old
Dr. Darrell Williams grew up in exttreme poverty in rural Mississippi and is now the emergency manager for the state of Wisconsin.
“I went on to serve this country and this state with many years in the Wisconsin National Guard, 29 years,” Williams said. “And I served in two combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan and was awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star for service in a combat zone. I was in a bomb blast from a suicide bomber.”
Williams used his military benefits to attend Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi and earned a master’s from Marian College and a Ph.D. from UW-Milwaukee..
“I was a teacher, principal, and turnaround principal for schools here in the Milwaukee Public Schools,” Williams said. “I think I was one of the youngest principals ever in the state of Wisconsin. And I went on to be selected as National Principal of the Year and the interim superintendent of schools in Beloit, Wisconsin. After I returned from Afghanistan, I was appointed by Governor Evers as the emergency manager for the state of Wisconsin. And that is the lead state agency that deals with our national and man-made disasters. We serve as the heartbeat of the COVID-19 response and also for civil unrest actions within the state of Wisconsin. I also worked at MATC as an adjunct instructor for a number of years. I really love working inside our CBOs, our community-based organizations and I worked at Genesis, which is a halfway house for people who are making the transition from prison back into society.”
And it is this diversity of lived experiences that Williams feels makes him uniquely qualified to be Wisconsin’s next U.S. Senator.
“This is about someone who can sit in that seat and articulate the issues that are really critical to us and know what they are talking about when those issues are being discussed at the highest levels of our government to get the best results for every Wisconsinite,” Williams said. “I know that I am the only candidate in this race who has that type of solid experience, knowledge and background.”
Williams is concerned about the treatment of veterans during and after they have served their country. For instance, National Guard and other part-time service people often take a dramatic economic hit when called up for service in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. And they may not be adequately treated for — and compensated — injuries received during combat. “It just disturbs me to my core when my service members have to fight tooth and nail to receive the benefits that they have earned by virtue of their service,” Williams said. “Many soldiers have told me how difficult it is for them to receive the benefits that they have earned. For example, after 20 years of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan — I’m sure you have heard of Agent Orange in Vietnam — we’re talking burn pits. Thousands of soldiers were denied benefits for claims whenever they put in for complications due to the burn pits. We all know even aside from the burn pits, Iraq and Afghanistan have air quality that is 25 times worse than anywhere in the world. People had to work in some of those burn pits on a rotational basis. So when those soldiers came back and put in those claims, they were denied. And up until recently, last August, Congress finally approved those soldiers for compensation for working in those burn pits. And so the other side of the coin that many people don’t realize is sinusitis. If I put in a claim for sinusitis 10 years ago, if I got approved for it now, they have to I originally put in the claim. Many people’s claims are being told something else. So instead of being approved for sinusitis, they might have approved you for bronchitis so they won’t have to go back and reimburse you for the sinusitis claim that you had put in for 10 years ago. And that is ridiculous.”
Williams is very concerned with the restrictions being placed on people’s right to vote.
“Here we are in 2022 and I can’t even believe this is on the table where people we have actually put in office who are trying to take away people’s right to vote,” Williams emphasized. “And I think that if we want to change the way the government is, we have to make sure that we put people in there who really reflect our values. I’m one who believes in people’s right to vote. And I’m going to tell you another area where people’s voices have really been hushed. We talk about people who are living day-to-day having the right to vote. But we have forgotten about our prison population. If there are people in prison who have not been convicted of a felony, they have the right to vote. And I know that many of those voices are being hushed and some of them are being denied their actual right to vote. And so I think this is critically important because we are talking about thousands of people who are in our prison system who are being denied their right to vote. And this is key. We have to make sure that they have every access. And being part of the criminal justice system isn’t a death sentence. And we have to make sure that we preserve their right to democracy as well as protect their right to vote.”
Williams believes people have a right to decent healthcare and feels that the present healthcare system disrupts many other aspects of American life.
“I believe in universal health care,” Williams emphasized. “I believe that people should have that. What good is anything that we have going on — I don’t care if it is your job —the most important thing we are dealing with is our health within this day and time. You could have all of the money in the world, but not have good health or good health care and you are still struggling. We have got to make
sure that we have that for everyone. One of the things that really bothers me was when I was a teacher and was offered a job in Mississippi for $15,000 per year and then I had to pay my own health insurance, which was expensive. What got me to Wisconsin was I believe I was making $21,300, but they paid for the insurance. That was huge. Now with the onset of Act 10, many teachers who were once promised the insurance at the time of retirement, they no longer have that. As interim superintendent of schools in Beloit, it bothered me to my heart to see teachers who had taught for 35-40 years come back and say, ‘Dr. Williams, is there any way that the district could put the insurance back in play so that people would have insurance once they retire? And that was a struggle. Just imagine what that looks like for all businesses who are in that particular situation and the people who are struggling. Can you imagine now working 30-40 years and the insurance and the benefits that you thought you were going to have, now all of a sudden that is taken away.”
While Williams is a firm believer in gun rights and ownership, he knows that those rights are not unlimited.
“Another area that I just want to mention because it is critically important is the whole issue around gun control and the right to bear arms,” Williams said. “You’re looking at a person who believes in the right to bear arms. But I believe there are too many guns getting into the hands of people who do not need guns. One person said to me, ‘I just think we should just get away from the right to bear arms all together.’ I said, ‘If you get rid of the right to bear arms, in this state, the only people who would be bearing arms are people who shouldn’t have them, the criminals.’ I said the key is to make sure that we support more gun safety. I do not support guns in schools. I do not support teachers having guns in schools. And the reality of it,having spent time in two war zones, your best trained and most equipped soldier who has never fired a gun at somebody or in a situation, even a wartime situation, freeze and drop their weapon on the floor. Can you imagine a teacher in a situation confronting a shooter and drops that weapon and there is an accidental discharge and that bullet ricochets across the room and hits a couple of students? And the only thing you can say is, ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.’ Try to explain that to some parents. It’s not going to fly. And so that’s not the answer for us at this point.”
Williams feels that it is his vast personal experience that sets him apart from the other Democratic candidates.
“My question to Wisconsinites is this,” Williams said. “If we know that education is one of the most critical things that we need to deal with, when those discussions are taking place at the highest level of our government and when those bills are being created on the golf course or in the backroom, don’t you want someone with 26 years of experience, someone who has been a teacher and principal, turnaround principal, National Principal of the Year and interim superintendent of schools sitting at the table representing those issues to get the best for us within the state? If we know the war between Russia and Ukraine is key, don’t you want someone with 29 years of military experience who has worked with NATO allies across the spectrum, someone who is a Purple Heart recipient, someone who is a Bronze Star recipient, when those issues are being discussed about how we best deal with our veterans, homeless vets and mental health — all of those different issues — how we can better support our veterans, don’t you want somebody with that type of experience sitting at the table representing you? When we are talking about climate change, don’t you want someone sitting at the table who has been a part of the Governor’s Taskforce on Climate Change, the person whom the Governor appointed as emergency manager for the state of Wisconsin who deals with these issues on a daily basis?”
Dr. Darrell Williams feels he is ready to represent the state of Wisconsin.
