Drew Williams on a “People First” Campaign in Kentucky’s 1st District

In this episode of The Blue Dot Podcast, hosts Natalie McDonald and Brian Koehl interview Drew Williams, a Democratic candidate for Kentucky’s 1st Congressional District. Williams shares how his “People First” campaign is shaped by his background in construction, small business, and community service.

He highlights his top priorities: tackling the cost of living, reforming Congress to increase accountability, and restoring trust through ethics reforms. Williams also discusses proposals like term limits, banning stock trading by lawmakers, and reducing the influence of money in politics.

Running in a conservative district, he emphasizes meeting voters where they are and focusing on shared concerns like affordability and opportunity. The episode closes with a fun lightning round, giving listeners a glimpse into his personality and life outside of politics.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Blue Dot Air, another Kentucky Premier Political Podcast, brought you by the Democratic Executive Candidate. Welcome back to the Blue Dot Podcast, where we're continuing our candidate interviews beyond the primaries. Kentucky's first congressional district has been under the same representation for a decade, but there's a new voice looking to change the conversation and put people first. Thanks so much for joining. I'm Natalie McDonald.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

And I'm Brian Cale, and today we're joined by Democratic candidate Drew Williams, who is running for U.S. House District 1 in the 2026 election. We'll be talking to him about uh his background, ideas, how he plans to connect with voters across a largely conservative region, currently represented by Republican James Comer, the current chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Drew, thanks so much for being here.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Yeah, thanks so much, Drew. Uh you've emphasized a community-focused people-first campaign. And you're coming from a background in construction and business, not traditional politics. Um, but I'm gonna hand it over to you to tell us a little bit more about you and what motivated you to step into the congressional race.

SPEAKER_03 1:09

Um, so I have just been a lifelong community servant. My community has always done its best to uplift me and give me an opportunity. And I don't know what clicked early on, but I definitely noticed it, I feel like, that I had kind of this trifecta of of um of community support and you know, family support and systems like that. And so uh I've always been a part of almost every community service activity I could I could get my hands on. Um and that's why I really enjoy doing the work that I do because we subcontract our work. I've been doing the same job building boat docks here in Kentucky, Lake and Lake Barkley for 18 years with a family business. Um and that's always given me the opportunity to go to a training or to go do advocacy or do my community service work. I was just like see ya, right? I gotta go do this uh when I was younger because I worked for my family, and now me and my brother we choose our hours and we we bid our jobs, and so that's kind of transitioned really well into uh running for office in terms of I can work really hard for three or four days, and then I can go do all the activities in the evenings and the spaces that I need to be in. Um, and so when I got to college, I was actually trying to be a chiropractor, um, and I was doing really, really poorly in my organic chemistry class. I was getting straight A's in like my history and English classes, and uh I actually read a a meme on Facebook or a post and it said, Whatever you're doing in your free time is probably what you should be doing for your career. And all I was doing was community service work, advocacy. I was in a whole bunch of clubs, and I was always talking about politics, and I was just like, Well, what like what am I doing? Right. I really enjoy my job that I do currently because there's a lot of freedom, there's not a whole lot of pay. I I make a fairly standard wage, but the amount of freedom and nobody's on my back out there. I've never seen an OSHA member out on the lake. Nobody cares. Your two-person job, you know, so far away from from reality with no electric and no water, and you can't you can't damage the lines out of the ground because you're in the you're on the lake. So when COVID happened, I job didn't change at all. Everybody's like, go to the lake, you're safe, right? I'm already there. And so what's kind of pulled me in this direction is I've noticed through community service that I started thinking about the local level and like what policies you know would help make this system work better for both the volunteer, but also what solves the root causes of why those kinds of advocacy and community service needs are there in the first place. And then slowly learning that at the local level they're being stopped or or shoehorned into certain conversations by the state government, and that's why we should be interested in state government stuff because in order to change the policies at the local level, we need we need backing. And I I I've ran for State House in 2018, of course, I was 26 years old, and that was the last time we actually had a Democratic primary in my county, and I I lost that Democratic primary, so I didn't get a chance to run into general. Um and I've ran for city council. Um, I was campaign manager for this position in 2020. Uh and I've watched the campaigns go through, I've watched the level of energy that's required. But we had we've had previous candidates who've had needs either in their job or in home that have stopped them from like just being able to go. Like my district is like seven hours from one side to the other.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

Wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:06

Thankfully, I live about an hour and a half into the western side. So I got an hour, about an hour and 15 minutes to Fulton, but then I got about four hours to Frankfurt and it's through the set the whole second district. Um so I got about two hours of that drive that I'm not even in my own district. But you gotta be able to go. I'm like, oh hey, look, there's a volunteer fire department dinner in Allen County. That's three hours away. I gotta go to it. You know what I mean? If I got the time and I'm not busy, I gotta be there in front of people. It's a lot easier um nowadays to be in front of their space in in a public setting than to be door knocking or phone banking because a lot of people are nervous about those kinds of situations. You don't answer your scammers, people don't answer their phone. And I've had so many people, even people on the left, that were like, if you answer, if you knock on my door and I am home, I will watch you knock on the door and I will not answer it. And so, like, we do we do no knock literature drops, right? I'm just trying to get you a card at this point. We'll we'll start targeting stuff in in September.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Yeah, it's hard to break through. You know, it's really hard to break through and and make sure you're visible. So that's yeah, it's tough.

SPEAKER_03 5:09

So uh I've just been motivated really much to be here for my community.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

Yeah, that energy obviously this year for these midterms is huge. We're seeing it everywhere. And like we were talking before we started the interview, capitalizing on energy has been huge for you. You have a lot of broad interests and broad experience, hands-on, helping out your community. So let's talk a little bit more about your platform. Um, you know, your website's really impressive. It's robust and comprehensive. You got a lot on there, which is great. You touch on healthcare, housing, government reform, and and a lot more. So, what are the three issues that rise to the top for you that you would really want to focus on and let everybody know about it?

SPEAKER_03 5:48

I think it's cost of living crisis, it's congressional reform to make sure government feels like it's working for you again, because I feel like we can have the best health care policy in the entire world argument. And if somebody's paid off to not accept the bill regardless, well then like it doesn't matter what your argument is. Point to a point, and then the obviously we're seeing the entire stock trading stuff, but that's point two. And then just really re-establishing um, you know, our con our constitutional rights in in good doctrine and good faith. I feel like we had to have a good a good conversation there, talk about ethics for Supreme Court uh in lower courts, rebalance the the shift in con in Congress. And so those are broad strokes issues. I think that people need to feel that they can afford to live in the space in the communities that they exist in by their choice, not by being forced out of their communities because of property valuation or you know, the the lack of job opportunities that keep up with the wage scale that make it available to you, or you know, uh over in Danville, like we're having like $1,200 a month electric bills, right? When you bought your you know 2,000 square foot house, you didn't expect that to be your electric bill. You know what I mean? It doesn't matter how well you budgeted, you they're gonna be like, oh well, just stop having your kid's birthday. You'll be fine. We'll make it you'll make ends meet, you'll get ahead. So yeah, those making sure that the system works for us is is my three kind of core philosophies around things. I consider myself a liberty-styled economocrat. So if it's more liberty of your life or money in your pocket, those are policy positions that we should be really focusing on. Um I think that too often everybody has biases on issues in which they're like, oh, I want to control how that somebody behaves. Um, and if we can we can all start to respect that about everybody and work on solutions around it, uh, I think we'll be more successful than we are right now, which definitely seems I mean we last last Congress was the least productive Congress in US history. They were they worked like 87 days, um, which is wild.

SPEAKER_02 7:45

One major one major act of l legislation, which that you know screwed over uh you know, a vast majority of the population with its policy. So, you know, one one big bad piece of legislation, that's all they have to show for the session. It's pretty bad.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

I mean you you spoke a little bit about congressional reforms, supreme court ethics, things like that. It reminded me of the platform I think you're involved in the Take Back Congress, which is balance and accountability candidates. And you're one of those candidates who've who've aligned with them. And I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about what that is. And I know that some of your platform obviously is based in that what they stand for.

SPEAKER_03 8:24

Yeah, so um so I I've been running since May of last year. And mul a few times early on, uh there were some efforts to coalesce the candidate energy and the needs for grassroots building in like a third space for us. And so I was in a few of those things and and they kind of fizzled out. And then Andrew Sneed, who's running for uh US House, formed this it's a pack, but there's like I mean, there's no there's no money directed to candidates or any kind of engagement like that. But it is a five-point pledge that candidates can take, and then they get uh access to like a signal channel, and you know, we get to boost it on their page a little bit, you know, and stuff like that. But it's good to talk about the fact that we can have a large coalition of people already agreeing to very strong install reforms that like are are pretty common sense, and the larger that group is, if you like to all of them, then that thing gets done. So that helps build energy across state lines and situations like that. So it's uh it's term limits, three terms on house, two terms on Senate. It's a individual stock trading ban, it is ending citizens united, it is uh judicial supreme court ethics reform and politicians becoming lobbyists after they leave office. I I already had all of those platforms like in my plan from like way back last year. And so it was just really nice when they were like, hey, you want to come take this place? Why not? Um and they it's it's really taken off, and they do they've done such amazing work on trying to push that part of the agenda and getting Congress to work for you. It's getting all the money out of politics. Some people might want to take it a little further than that. I think that we should have federal financing of all elections from city council to president because we spent like $24 billion of known money uh in the 2024 elections. You could say, hey, there's a $10 billion you know expenditure that we're gonna put in. Everybody gets a debit card. It says you can spend $20 across your city council races, you can spend you know $30 on judge executive, you can spend $40 on your U.S. House, you can't spend money anywhere, you're not gonna vote. If you if they're not on your ballot, you can't donate to them. And then every single voter, either homeless or they're they're a billionaire, they have the same amount of input power, piggybacking a lot off of the Montana plan, which has said that corporations can't donate money to candidates. And if they do it, they lose all of their status as a corporation inside of their state. Um, I think that we could do the same thing talking about federal financing of elections and how the country feels about that in terms of citizens united. Corporations don't have the power. Um we can take away that power in that system. Yeah. If they were people, I'd be talking about their liberty, but they're not people. So I don't care about taking things from them. If you want to have a bunch of workers, you know, like a union, you know, like a union engages in a lot of good collective bargaining. If you wanted to do that, that seems fine. You know what I mean? But there's a pack just for like Amazon, you know, interest of Amazon. It's not interest of the workers of Amazon, obviously. Um, they're burning down their warehouses. Not for them, it's for the company. How is that even like a thing that people can benefit from? I I'm over here running a campaign on about like $85,000. I've felt really good about that. That feels like a good amount of money for a campaign when I'm getting my message out. And if the systems were more equitable for candidates to get to their people, you know, some some states have like a brochure that comes out from the government and has all your primary candidates, and then you get one with all your general candidates with a little page and the QR code. That'd be great. Let's all do that.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

You know what I mean? Yeah, I mean the money in politics and uh everything you talked about, citizens united and ethics reform, all uh the the stock trading, insider stock trading, circ it all circulates around the influence of money in politics. I went through some of the reforms that you would be up there fighting for, you think would make sense. Is there anything else besides you know what you just mentioned specifically on that topic that is something that you think would be a heavy hitter?

SPEAKER_03 12:13

Well, uh did you see Mike Johnson the uh what was it yesterday or the day before? And he posted he he was on Capitol Hill talking about how uh you know the the pay for congressional officers hasn't risen in since like 2008 or something like that. And if they can't trade stocks, then they're gonna have to be having a hard conversation with their families about whether or not the sacrifice of running for a $175,000 job is gonna be worth it. And I get it, like you're paying for rent or whatever it is. Yeah, I'm I'm happy to go into the the federal coffers and build a bunker for every single person to stay in. You know what I mean? Like you get we can have a bunkhouse, you know, you can stay on you can stay on campus, right? Won't cost us nearly as much money as you know forty-five, fifty thousand dollars a year in rent that we're that we're arguing people are losing. Maybe maybe we get again, like, you know, hey, free free plane tickets back to your district, that'd be great. You know what I mean? Like I need to get back to my district every Friday afternoon. Every Friday afternoon, I gotta be gone. What am I in Congress for up there on the weekends? They're not in session. Who am I talking to that's important? It should be you. You know what I mean? It's it should be the constituent.

SPEAKER_02 13:22

Let me get home. His logic was kind of ridiculous. Stock trading is the only way that you can augment your income. The point of it being, you know, and I've seen this a lot of other people have talked about this, like AOC has mentioned the same thing. You know, it's like, hey, it's 175 a year to a lot of people, that's that's a really fantastic salary. But when you talk about you have to maintain two living spaces and all the travel, and they're pretty strict, you know, expenditures that they can claim and be reimbursed for. I I I agree with you. There probably are some reforms there that make that more realistic. But I think if you look at the everyone in Congress, the House and the Senate, which is what, 535 people or whatever it is, I remember looking at the average financial worth of those people. Yeah, the net worth, exactly. And uh it's pretty high.

SPEAKER_03 14:14

Well, and it's weird because it's all in these ranges. It's like they could have this amount or this amount. Why can't they just put the adop the dollar amount in? We had to do our our disclosure form, and my wife has four different loans for school, but the the amount is like, is your loan five thousand or fifty thousand? With that's the bracket, right? Well, there are ten, but if you put all of them in there, now it's two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It's like big ranges of like, how much is your home worth? Is it two hundred and fifty thousand dollars or is it a million five? That's the that's the bracket. It's like just put in the actual amount. It got a property evaluation probably last year. Go just just give them the number. Like you know, it's all good. And they're and they're creating the rules for themselves. Of course they're doing that. Like, don't know how much money they've made. They may have lost some money. You know, um one thing about making Congress work for people is I think that we should have more of a constituent engagement like regulation in terms of how many public town halls we have, um, and those round tables, listening forums, those kinds of things. We need almost a um wing or uh an independent commission of engagement that could bring people together and kind of coordinate that so that like it was people that not that I'm curating, right? Because I don't want to curate those people. I want them to be people that are brought in because either they're experts or they have an issue, or or the obviously the town hall is open to the public. But like these other spaces could be really well moderated so that we could record them and show to the people how farmers feel in our district about these issues. And we we make that commonplace so people come to these spaces and are able to interact with yeah, much more structured than it is right now. Right now, it's very obviously like Comer's not had a town hall in my district uh since like 2019, I think.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

I would totally agree that these the Congress people that have never had town halls or they haven't been home or haven't seen their constituents in, you know, a year or a year and a half or three years or five years, I believe then that person does not deserve that job. I mean, they're getting voted in, so why are they getting voted in?

SPEAKER_03 16:09

I mean, well, they see people up in Congress, you know. I mean, and sometimes they see them privately and you get pictures and they're like, we saw people from Loney Counties. Yeah, that's cool. But it's people that like you're pretty much accepting to come up and speak with you, or accepting to like in these spaces, like already supporter people and not people who are trying to be advocates for specific issues or people who are people. Yeah, the softball.

SPEAKER_02 16:28

Not going out and putting yourself up on stage in front of somebody and saying, Okay, I start asking questions and I'll answer them all. Yeah, now you're putting yourself out there.

SPEAKER_03 16:35

Yeah, well, um a lot of times I hear from our community about advocacy groups that want that go to Congress for those lobby days and they try to get in in front of their congressperson and they can't get in front of them at all.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:48

Yeah. And when they do, they have to schmooze them. You know what I mean? They have to talk about how like cool they are and what policies they agree with, and like should they're not really using any buzzwords. You should just be able to come up here and say your thing. Like, what are we what are we doing here gatekeeping your opinion? I thought we were supposed to be free speech absolutists. You you come tell me what your thing is. You made the you made the trip. And for and secondly, why do they have to make the trip to Congress to DC and the expenses that go about that when I can just be one person who Zoom calls in, I mean I'm gonna do all the work, or I go home. They're like, oh, well, we're getting a whole bus and we're like having a bus up there and staying three nights. It seems like a waste of everybody's time, unless you're like just trying to see the office and like trying to go on vacation and it's a cool thing. Like, that's great. Come on, we'll do the tour. You know what I mean? But if you're coming up here to prove a point or lobby about an advocacy issue, like I should be jumping over walls to get back, get to you. Like, I'm begging you, please. Let me help. That's that's the that should be the goal.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

I think that goes that goes all to the the uh the term limits, right? Like your opponent, James Kumer, has been pretty comfortable in a seat, he's been in public service for 20 years, 10 of which is has been in the current seats. And so I think that kind of speaks to why we need those term limits because he's just too comfortable. So other than being kind of that working class voice like you know, everyday Kentucky life, what else sets you apart from him? And why is your vision better right now for Kentucky?

SPEAKER_03 18:11

I think that i I definitely relate more, obviously, to people being in in the the thick of it, both in terms of seeing people through the community service aspects of things who are who are doing much worse than I am, but then also like dealing with with just the cost of living and the system of income that we're we're dealing with. I've also been working on this conversation with people intentionally since like 2010, right? And so when when I I deal with a lot of how people feel about stuff in our space, I've I'm well versed in how to like navigate um both the analogies and the rationales, um, and how we talk about things that because a lot of times uh unfortunately conservatism is very fear and reactionary based. And so a lot of those things you have to prove that you're not the outsider in the conversation in terms of meeting people where they're at. And so uh I'm really good at that. I like I have things that I think are the correct answer for moving us forward, but I'm not married to any policy position or system. I I I would like to move forward if you can prove to me that something is a better idea or it helps improve it, the money in your pocket or the liberty in your life. I'm gonna be receptive to that, um, which I think I don't think Comer is. I think that Comer's definitely got his own opinions of how things are supposed to be done, as well as he thinks that it's his opinion that is going up there to vote. Where I think as your representative, as your statesperson, I hate politicians, right? I want to be your statesperson, I want to be your your representative. Um, and in doing that, there's gonna be a lot of times when like district does not believe what I believe, which me which is why we go out and we do town halls and we survey and we engage in this like data collection, which I'm very interested in. Um, I mean, Comer's got an ag degree, and I don't think he's done very well for farmers, but I have a history degree, and I think that I do really well in researching the topics and caring about the nuance of like the data and the anecdotal data and the and the systems that like kind of build and perpetuate those those things. And I think that we'll like you can reach a more nuanced conclusion. The the current argument about like uh let's say the gas tax, right, is either like abolish the gas tax or keep it or or or improve it like with scale. But like, why is it not when it's at an average market price, oil or whatever, we pay the 18 cents or whatever. Let's say it's 20 cents, it's 18 cents right now. But like, let's say it's 20 cents. And as the price goes up because of some issue that's not in my control, I didn't do it, right? It's not my fault that it like gas prices rise ever for any reason whatsoever. The gas tax should slowly decrease until it's zero because it's a certain percentage over the average market value at the time, and it should probably go up to a certain quotient, right? So that we put a little more money in the bank and we build up that infrastructure money when we have it. We create a rainy day fund. And that's a good nuanced system that doesn't build good levers and doesn't put pressure on everyday people when government or the environment or systems out of our control change. I I think that we would be able to find spaces to move forward, and I think that's what separates us is I'm looking for those answers. Last week was the first time I went to uh Mr. Comer's website. And if you haven't done that, I advise you to do that. Please go to jamescomer.com or comer.house.gov. I am definitely plugging his websites because I have like 70 or 80 policy proposals, right? So, like, really just trying to get information out there about what's available to our country and space. He's got like eight issues on a list that haven't been updated since like twenty twenty one, and they're like a paragraph, how he feels about it. You know what I mean? And I'm just like, Yeah, that's wild when you don't have to run on anything.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

Yeah, like you don't have to run on anything.

SPEAKER_03 21:55

Like he's like, Second amendment. Yeah, yeah, I support second amendment too. Man, that's great. Like, can we can we work on mental health services? Maybe some anonymous mental health services. Kentucky doesn't require gun permitting or concealed carry permits, so like we reduce the cost of that till it's free. So everybody would go for a free PPU class. People who would normally not get it would be like, yeah, hey, I got my certificate, and they gave me a free thumbprint scan lockbox when I finish that concealed carry course. Oh, and the concealed carry course is as difficult as needed to be for a national right to carry because we're paying for it. I'll pay for that. Like I've never shot a gun in my entire life. I will pay for you to go get as much safety trainings as you want to do. Like that sounds like a great use of my tax dollars, right? That's a good way forward. But his is just, I'm gonna protect it. And I'm like, that's great. Like, good for good for you. I want to protect it too. I don't think you know, once they started 3D printing guns, Pandora's box was opened. You could do whatever you want. You're gonna at least get one shot off before it, you know, it explodes in your hand. And so um, it's just you know, it's just wild to see like these positions that don't have any backing, and you're like, It's just the hot button.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

It's just a hot button.

SPEAKER_03 23:01

Well, it took him eight years to put a bill up for regulating pharmacy benefit managers. And I have to give him credit because I guess nobody else did it. That's one of his highlights that he proposed that bill, so nobody else was doing it, but it took you eight years. It took me 30 minutes of looking on social media, you know, on Google, and I was like, Oh, yeah, that's something we should probably have a hand in stopping. It's wild. Uh, you know, the like what you don't have to to do anything. But that yeah. Democrats have to come through on everything, and Republicans just have to like literally not sink the ship. Right.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

You'll be uh you'll be applying all those skills that you've developed to be able to meet people where they are and take things at face value. If you're fortunate enough to win to the Senate, then you'll be dealing with some of those Republicans in uh you know a highly polarized environment. Obviously, you feel like you'll be pretty successful in that, that you have the the tools required to to do that and keep moving things forward.

SPEAKER_03 23:55

Yeah. Comer's got a Facebook and a Twitter Twitter page, right? And a lot of that is just a copy and paste of the same thing. But I think that being a younger candidate and trying to utilize every social media avenue, all of his posts are like Congressman Comer met with these people. And mine's like, I went and did this, right? And so on top of doing everything else that we're doing, I think we're also gonna do social media outreach better and leading people where they are better. And so if we can if we can navigate that, you know how many times he's probably sitting in an airport and he's not on his he's not on a live stream or a Zoom call or something, be like you you I couldn't sleep. I wouldn't feel comfortable sleeping. Um, whereas for them, they're like, oh well, my assets are like seven million dollars and I run a million dollar a year business, and it's just like, well, yeah, it's a hard seventy-five thousand dollars then, I guess. You know what I mean? Like enough to not go to work. Like they always do this kind of stuff, but like accepting an invitation to a dinner at the White House. Like, what are you doing there? Like, who's who's help who's getting helped? Because you showed up to the White House, you know, uh of either party. I mean, I know it's it always happens and they do those kinds of events, but like what are we all self-aggrandizing for? What are we doing? You know, Mike Johnson saying that that that stuff, and then Trump's saying that like uh he doesn't care about the financial stability of the people because he's worried about it.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

Never think about it. Never think about it.

SPEAKER_03 25:09

Never think about it, but he but he's worried about because he's worried about Iran getting a nuclear weapon. You've you've made it apparently so much easier. Tulsa Gabbard said last year before you bombed them in June that they didn't have a nuclear weapon or capacity to create a nuclear weapon.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

That's like a whole nother rabbit hole, right?

SPEAKER_03 25:25

And then it's just like it's like so like they just don't care about like the things that we deal with. My kid's five years old, he just graduated his daycare, like you know, preschool or whatever. He's been going for four and a half years. I've paid eleven thousand dollars a year in daycare. The first year me and my brother subcontracted, I made fourteen thousand dollars. So almost all of my money went to the daycare, which I mean he needed because it was a good Montessori daycare, a lot of socialization, all those, all the needs, right? And you can see the benefit structure, and you can see why that's a good system of economic job upliftment and creation by allowing parents to have access to quality or daycare so they can go to work. Absolutely but they fight tooth and nail both in the state and federal legislature to help you have daycare, and then they're like, oh, but like all the fraud and the waste and the abuse. It's like, oh, this is wild, like what you all focus on. And then I'm gonna just go, we're just gonna go spend an extra 200 billion dollars on war. Like you're cutting off your nose to spite your face. So yeah, anyway.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

We we covered a ton of ground on like the uh apologize it. Seriously. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

But we also like to do a little lightning round just to get you know you a little bit better, just fun five quick questions if you're up for that.

SPEAKER_03 26:36

Sounds good.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

All right, tell me what was your very first job?

SPEAKER_03 26:40

I am still working my very first job.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

That's right, you said that.

SPEAKER_03 26:43

I've been I've been building boat docks on Kentucky Lake uh since I was 14. Through college. I I had other jobs where I worked at like the cafeteria at the college that I went to in Burr State, and I I've worked in restaurants, but that was on top of doing that. Yeah, it's uh uh I'm always working like two or three jobs, it seems like, but I've always worked this job.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

I'm always fascinated how people build things in water. It's very difficult.

SPEAKER_03 27:07

Yeah, every every drop tool is misery. I dropped I dropped a ratcheting wrench this morning from the roof, and I was just like, it's gonna be so cold still. And it's it it was it was very cold to go search for that wrench. Oh I had to have it though. We didn't we only had so many. So yeah, it is it is wild.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

But uh thank goodness for people like you who have talent like that.

SPEAKER_03 27:28

Yeah, I you know, I realize like, especially like doing videos for myself for social media, that like I'm like walking on the roof and I'm like 30 feet up in the air, and I I don't have a harness or any of that kind of stuff, and I'm like, I don't know if I should be making videos like this. Probably not.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

So while you're doing that job, are you are you listening to country music or rock music? What's your jam?

SPEAKER_03 27:51

I'd say out of the two, I like rock and roll music. Um I I don't particularly have a specific genre of music, but I consider what I listen to as like uh conscientious music. So it could be like really hard rap or something, or it could be really rhythmic like mantra kind of things. But if the song has positive message or intent, I could I can pretty much listen to any of them. Um so it's not so much about like the genre or the style, but about the message.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

So uh, and you do know a little bit about Greek and Latin literature, so which should I read first? The Iliad or the Odyssey?

SPEAKER_03 28:24

Uh I mean you should read the Iliad because it it is the the book of the Trojan War and and what happens going up to it. It's not nearly as interesting um as as the Odyssey. There's a lot more mythology and and long history in it. It is like a 10-year war, but those stories are more um like rooted in a probably a a conversation of reality. Whereas um, you know, Poseidon coming out of the ocean and and like giant tornadoes existing inside of a bag are probably a little bit more fun. I think that's why a lot more people have seen Odyssey. Oh, nice wow.

SPEAKER_00 28:58

And and that may have answered the next question. You're stranded on the island. Would you rather have unlimited books or unlimited podcasts to listen to?

SPEAKER_03 29:06

I'd rather have unlimited books. If I could if I could show you my house, I d I definitely qualify as a library. A library is a thousand books or more. And there's probably just a thousand books in this room, but I got I got books under my bed and books and dressers. It's embarrassing. I have books everywhere. So it's like it would probably be unlimited books.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

That makes sense.

unknown 29:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:30

And then this may be the most controversial of them all pancakes or waffles?

SPEAKER_03 29:34

Waffles.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

Waffles. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

I'm with you on waffles, man. I like the I like the texture. I like the way all those little, you know, dents hold the syrup in the butter. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

It's all about the syrup. Well, thanks for playing along with you. Drew.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

Yeah. Yeah, we we really appreciate you spending time with us and sharing your story and your vision, and you've got some really fantastic ideas. So, where can listeners learn more about your campaign and get involved?

SPEAKER_03 29:59

Uh obviously I have uh Facebook, uh, I'm never gonna say X, Twitter, yeah, right, uh TikTok, Instagram, Blue Sky, all that's uh Williams for KY or Williams for KY1. And then um my website is Williams for KY or Williams for Kentucky. I I bought all four don domain names with the with the number and with the four because that explain that's always been terrible. So Williams for Kentucky will get you to my website. Uh there's multiple application forms there to get different forms of information or to volunteer however you'd like. Obviously, like, share, subscribe, comment on any of the posts and things. It really helps drive algorithmic traffic and try to run a grassroots campaign is really all about motivating people to take action themselves. Um, and that's definitely what we've been doing across the district is re-galvanizing a lot of these forgotten counties. Um I only have three state house candidates in my whole district. I have 35 counties. Wow, wow, yeah, wow. Yeah, it's wild.

SPEAKER_00 30:55

So awesome. Well, we will uh be watching that race. Yeah. Thank you so much. All right, take care. And that's it for this candidate interview. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don't miss any of our upcoming podcasts or exclusive material. And don't forget you can join the conversation at our Facebook and Instagram pages or at blue dot podcast.com. Until next time, stay curious. Never stop fighting for what matters.