WRVO’s Ellen Abbott sat down with central New York Rep. Brandon Williams (R-Sennett) at Williams' district office in Syracuse on Wednesday, December 20, 2023. In their nearly 35-minute discussion, they talk about his first year in office, what’s to come in 2024, as well as a number of other issues.
The following transcript was lightly edited for clarity.
WRVO
Year one, tough time to jump into Congress. I mean, safe to say it was a dysfunctional body of government. Highs, lows. How did, have you settled in? Where are you now? And where are you compared to the beginning?
BRANDON WILLIAMS
You know, I have no background in politics, so it is a great honor to be able to serve. I mean, the sense of being on the House floor or walking into the House, you know, or to the Capitol building. It is really all inspiring. So that's the biggest impression, is that it's an honor to be there.
In terms of dysfunction, the things that I always say is that if these were normal times or easy times, it never would have occurred to me to have run for office. I'm absolutely convinced we have to have better leaders in this country, and that cuts across all parties. And so the only reason I was inspired to run for this office, to seek this office is because of my concern for the direction of the country and the quality of our leaders.
So, you know, people always say, you know, are you having fun? And I always tell them fun is not in the top ten words that I would use to describe what it's like to serve in Congress. But I don't have anything to compare it to, so I can't complain.
WRVO
What would you say are your top achievements?
BRANDON WILLIAMS
Well, the things that we focus on, the things that I have focused on in this office have been manufacturing, energy and infrastructure. And obviously, those are things that resonate here. And just creating engagement, be able to lead on those topics. I'm the only nuclear engineer in Congress. I come out of the tech industry and by some strange coincidence, I know a lot about cementitious materials and concrete chemistry.
So I just have a background where these are issues that are important to this area and they’re areas of expertise for me. So I'm happy to dive into any of those in any depth that you like.
WRVO
We will do that when we get to the issue part of the conversation, because I know that you've got some special things that you're interested in. Anyway, missteps. It just seemed to have taken you a while to get your footing. Would that be kind of accurate? I mean, with the changes in the staff and things along those lines.
BRANDON WILLIAMS
I think that is accurate. You know, I come out of the business world and out of the military and not out of politics. And so there is a, I think you see this, there is a pattern of people that come to Washington and there are interest groups that want to pack your office with so-called experts or people with experience from the Hill.
And I was frankly bound and determined not to do that. I don't want somebody else setting my agenda. I don't want to pick up some other interest groups, you know, pick up their agenda. And so, you know, I went in with my campaign team until I could get oriented. And once we did that, then I had a much better sense of what to do and what I needed to be successful in the role.
So other than that, I wouldn't comment on personnel matters. But that's what actually happened.
WRVO
Have you changed your perspective, I guess, politically, how would you know, describing yourself ideologically changed with the different staff coming in? I know there was a Syracuse.com article about you've gone way right, since you hired certain people. Is that accurate? And if you could just describe how you would describe yourself politically?
BRANDON WILLIAMS
Sure. I would definitely not say that I shifted my ideology or perspective. The way that I would describe myself is a practical conservative and a conservative in the classical sense that I believe in individual freedom. I believe in a strong military. I believe in, you know, less government intervention in our lives. And I still believe those things.
But you have to take it in a very practical way. I'm an engineer by nature. You know, one of the people I admire is Elon Musk and how he's been able to build successful companies in very different disciplines right? Electric vehicles, rockets and payments, where he was one of the founders of PayPal, I guess. But if you look at him, he pulls from first principles in engineering and science, and then he takes a very practical approach to implementing them in a business setting.
And I think that same engineering mindset is how I approach the office. I take the, you know, the foundational principles of our country and of the Republican Party. And I think how can we practically implement them? Most of the rest of the country is caught up in grievance wars and name-calling. And honestly, I wouldn't be very good at that if I tried. And I don't find it very interesting or helpful to the public dialogue. So the things that the people in central New York want and need are practical leadership on the issues that matter, and that's energy, manufacturing and infrastructure. These are the key things that are driving our area.
WRVO
Is that hard to do, to have that aspect with the political rhetoric that's out there? And I'm talking about members of Congress, I'm talking about presidential candidates. Is it hard to do that with all the, you know, crazy talk that you hear and comparisons to Hitler and whatnot?
BRANDON WILLIAMS
It's not hard for me. I'm very focused. I have a very focused approach to my day and to my thinking. And so I really believe that it's important to push out and push away all of the inflammatory and overwrought and sort of overexcited rhetoric because it clouds your ability to see what the real issues are. And I think it clouds your judgment.
And, you know, all of us are prone to that at some you know, at some level. We all get passionate about certain things. I'm very passionate about the rise of antisemitism. And I will speak passionately on that and some other topics. But for the most part, you have to spend some time on a nuclear submarine to understand what it's like to shut out all the extraneous noise that surrounds you in a very crowded space on a submarine and be able to really focus and get your work done and whatever that training was or that experience, that 500 days in that environment, I think have prepared me to shut out a lot of the noise that you see in our in the media and in social media in particular, and also in just in the rhetoric in our politics.
WRVO
Has it made it harder for you to get across perhaps things, achievements that you wanted to because of all the stuff that's going on out there? And what would you consider your biggest achievement after one year?
BRANDON WILLIAMS
Good question. The environment in Washington, D.C. has been very difficult. With a narrow majority, it's very hard to get anything done with essentially what's been a Republican civil war. It's been very hard to, you know, get everybody on the Republican side lined up behind any one person, as you have seen or any one idea. And so, yes, that's you know, it's been a very difficult environment. You asked what's my best-
WRVO
Your best moment in the last year?
BRANDON WILLIAMS
You know, I'm the only nuclear engineer in Congress. And as the only freshman that attended a bipartisan, they call it a CODEL, but a congressional delegation to the U.N. Climate Conference, COP 28 in Dubai last weekend. You know, that was a great moment for me to use my expertise to advocate for common sense energy policy, to participate in a panel that, for example, the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency invited me to participate or the Atlantic Council invited me to participate on what is the future of energy look like in America?
And the COP 28 is referred to as the nuclear cop. And it really is evidence that there's a renaissance in nuclear power necessary for a responsible energy future in America. And so I just feel very fortunate to be the right person with the right expertise at the right time and to be a part of that conversation. So that's been very satisfying for me personally.
WRVO
The 22nd is going to change, I guess, we'll see on the 28th of February. How does that, still on a political bent here, how does that, how do you campaign when you don't even know who you're going to be representing, essentially?
BRANDON WILLIAMS
Well, this may not be very funny, but one of my favorite political jokes is that I've never been in politics before, but I find myself in my fifth congressional race in the last two years. So the lines have changed since I started, since we got in and changed once or twice, you know, on that path and now are changing again.
I personally, I think it's a great disservice to the people of New York State that their representation in Congress is going through these gyrations and that they don't know who is representing them. You know, remember, our number one priority is to provide constituent services. It's to help people in the district and be that interface with the federal government.
And, you know, that requires time. We've had a lot of success working with veterans cases, with passport issues, with IRS refunds and all of these kinds of things. But, you know, after February 28th and after the November election, nobody's going to know who their representative is. And I think that's a great disservice. But we anticipated that this is what the Democrats were going to do and that this is what the courts were going to do with a packed court. And so we've been anticipating this. We'll just have to wait and see what the lines look like.
WRVO
Clearly, your path to reelection would be much worse if they go back to that original going down to Ithaca, up through Syracuse district that the Democrats originally proposed instead of, you know, Oneida County is much friendlier to some of your political nature. So are you worried about that, having to switch around?
BRANDON WILLIAMS
I don't worry about it because [pause] I never planned on having a career in politics. This is what politicians worry about. They worry about getting reelected. I really just want to represent the people and do the best job I can for what I see is this remarkable renewal and revival in this area. So we will take the new lines as they come. But I didn't start off to build a political career, and I'm not trying to hold on to a political career. We'll just take it as it comes. I actually don't spend that much time worrying about it.
WRVO
How would you describe yourself politically?
BRANDON WILLIAMS
Well, like I said, I, you know, I'm a practical classical conservative. I believe in the party of Ronald Reagan and the principles of conservatism that he brought at a critical time in the election of 1980 and implemented, frankly, to great success for our standing on the world stage through the 1980s, economically, where we got to through the 1980s. You know, I think it's time for that kind of morning in America again.
WRVO
Do you call yourself a Trump Republican?
BRANDON WILLIAMS
I have never referred to myself in that way. I've never met Donald Trump. I've never spoken to Donald Trump. I voted for him twice. I don't regret that. But I'm just not in that orbit.
WRVO
Looking at the issues, of course central New York’s looking at, and you mentioned Micron already and also 81. What is your job? What is your role as far as, making sure Micron is happening successfully? And I know the CHIP funds are in the next month, the CHIP funds are going to be issued. So that's important. And also the 81 project.
BRANDON WILLIAMS
That is a wonderful question. It’s exactly the right question, because what is, I mean, literally what is my job? If my job is not to make sure I get reelected, but actually to serve the people of central New York, then, you know, I am the chief marketing officer for the new Silicon Empire and that's what I've called this area as we're becoming this tech hub.
And so I advocate on that lesson. I've been out to visit Micron’s headquarters. I've met with the Army Corps of Engineers to make sure they understand how important this, you know, keeping this project moving is. I have been calling and working with Democratic senators trying to get permit reform for CHIPS Act projects, you know, particularly with Senator Mark Kelly in Arizona, we have a similar interest and been working on trying to get this through, so far unsuccessfully, but we're still working on it, just to make sure that this thing happens.
And I talk to Micron regularly. I think they're completely committed to this. But, you know, they're running a business. We have to make sure that we're executing on getting the permitting done so they can start construction. And critically, we actually have to keep investing in our workforce and workforce development to make sure that we have the people trained and ready when that factory comes online. So that is really been my focus on Micron. But I'll tell you, it's not only about Micron. You may have seen the expansion of TTM here. There's a lot of defense technology companies here that are thriving and succeeding. And so there is a much broader network of tech companies than you would imagine here.
With I-81, there are two main issues that I've focused on with I-81. One is the disposition of the land in the 15th Ward and speaking up to the Federal Department of Transportation on making sure that that land gets…if you're not familiar, there's a section of land that is going to get freed up right next to Martin Luther King Elementary School, and I just want to make sure that that's done in a very transparent manner so that particularly the stakeholders in the 15th Ward feel like they have a voice and in fact have a very strong voice in how that land gets used. And so I've taken that up with the Department of Transportation and I've spoken about it with stakeholders here locally.
The second part is a critical path for success of the 81 project. There’s actually is a bridge on 481 that crosses over the rail yard of CSX. And so I've met with the CEO and the COO of CSX and engaged with them so that we can have a good dialogue about how the folks that are building the, you know, and replacing that bridge and doing that work can actually can do that in a way that's not disruptive to CSX, but also makes it easy for them to stage and get that kind of, you know, make sure that that project goes through quickly because –
WRVO
That’s already started, hasn't it?
BRANDON WILLIAMS
They've started working on it, but they don't have – they haven't secured access to the CSX property. And there are some wetlands to the north of there that really have to be evaluated. It requires close coordination. And, you know, I'm using my office to make sure that that is a good conversation with CSX. So I've been able to meet with them and to advocate for these.
And I think they're going to show up and be a good partner. But it's critical that we all work together on this and this is what the engineers that are working on the I-81 that represent New York State Department of Transportation have told me is important to them. And so that's why I'm working so hard to make sure that relationship is in place.
WRVO
What about some of the other issues facing central New York? Poverty. And I mean, this is some of the softer issues of mental health breakdown for many, especially youth, here in central New York. Are you doing anything on those fronts?
BRANDON WILLIAMS
I met with the adult education program with the Syracuse School District that is helping students that, you know, that are adults get their GED, sort of to bring them back into the workforce and maybe to complete something that they were not able to complete when they were, you know, of school age. And in that facility is where a lot of these, you know, special needs students are, the ones that have, you know, mental and emotional issues, a lot of them caused by COVID.
And they are just doing a remarkable job of engaging with these students, with meeting with them, providing them the tools to hopefully transition through some of these these mental and emotional issues that they have, because a lot of them are transitory, a lot of them are for a period of time in a young person's life, and they're just doing remarkable work there.
Now, you know, honestly, they are stretched very thin because the demand has been so high coming out of COVID. And anyway, that's what I spent my morning yesterday doing, and it's really a heroic work.
WRVO
So do you feel that you are part of central New York now? I know you’re a transplant from Texas. You've been here for a while, but are you a central New Yorker and do you get us?
BRANDON WILLIAMS
Well, I would say that, you know, do you know what's special about central New York? Having lived other places it's actually I can maybe bring a fresh perspective in or compare central New York to other places. What's unique and special about Central New York is the fabric of families here.
And if you go to other places around the country that have had either very high growth like Seattle, for example, or have had economic collapse like Detroit, you've actually found that those family ties have broken. Either families have gotten priced out, you know, children have gotten priced out of the neighborhoods that they grew up in because of all the growth or the services that just stopped and no one's living in those neighborhoods anymore.
That's not happened to central New York. So we've had economic hardship over 60 years. I think a lot of disappointment with companies that moved away and the jobs that moved away and the opportunities that moved away for our children.
But the fabric of our community and families have held together. It is remarkable. And if you've only lived here, you may not know how remarkable that is. What I'm telling people is that when you have family visiting for the holidays, tell them what's happening here. Tell them of the revival and renewal, the opportunities that are coming here.
It's not just Micron, but Micron is a good lead story. I-81 is going to be a construction project for ten years. There are great jobs and careers that we need workers for here. So if your children have moved away because of the, you know, construction opportunities, tell them to move back. If they've moved away to be engineers because there weren't engineering jobs here, those jobs are growing like crazy here, and it's the best place to raise a family. So when you're breaking bread over the holidays, remind people of the amazing things that are happening here and tell them to move back home.
WRVO
If we could just quickly go through some of the national and international issues. Thoughts on aid to Israel and Ukraine. Where do you stand on that? And are you disappointed with all the stalemates that are going on?
BRANDON WILLIAMS
Well, we passed aid to Israel and it's now stuck in the Senate and there seem to be a lot of things that aren't moving very well through the Senate. The White House wants to put a big omnibus bill through with a lot of extra spending. And I think that is a disservice to our partners in Israel, and I think it's a disservice to our partners in Ukraine as well. That those two important issues have gotten tied up in our politics, I think is really sad.
The third issue that is absolutely critical that we address is the southern border and there is broad bipartisan recognition now to say that the southern border is a disaster. I've been there. It is anarchy. That's the only word I can come up with that describes the southern border. If you're standing there, it's anarchy and it has to stop. You see what's happening in New York City that they no longer can handle the influx of asylum seekers there. And that's happening all over America. And so this is no longer a red state, blue state issue. It's no longer a Republican-Democrat issue. The southern border has to be closed and we have to get back to an ordered immigration system. It's just been a disaster.
So all three of these things are critical. I think, you know, we can't let Putin win in Ukraine, and yet we have to have clear objectives in terms of what does victory look like. We've put $110 billion into Ukraine. Some reports say that we've destroyed as much as 90% of Putin's pre-war army in terms of a threat to Western Europe. I think that's a good thing. I think 60% of his armor has been destroyed. But we just can't turn over Ukraine to Putin. We can't let that kind of aggression stand. We saw what happened when we just let him roll into the Crimean Peninsula and did nothing. And it invited this aggression into the Donbas region and elsewhere along that front, the eastern front of Ukraine.
And so there will be aid to Ukraine. But it's got to have some –
WRVO
Parameters?
BRANDON WILLIAMS
Parameters, that's a good word, of what victory looks like. And what success looks like.
WRVO
With one year under your belt, what are you going to take into 2024 as far as maybe changing your leadership style, doing anything different? Are you going to maybe have more media availabilities, things along those lines? I know there's been some concern over that from certain corners. Are you going to do anything different or just keep going on the way you are. And is there anything you've learned so far that is like, ‘Oh okay, I should really be doing this the other way?’
BRANDON WILLIAMS
Well, in 2023, I think we had a record number of days in session in Washington, D.C. and that takes you out of the district. I tell my staff all the time, is that there's nobody in D.C. that can vote for me, right? Everybody is back in central New York and in the Mohawk Valley. And so spending more time in the district is what I would like to do and I think that speaks to availability in terms of the media.
The dysfunction, I have stood up in the Republican conference and spoken to my colleagues, my Republican colleagues over and over again that this kind of dysfunction is a disservice to the American people and a disservice, frankly, to the Republican brand. But it just takes a tiny handful of people to partner with the Democrats to upset the apple cart. And that's exactly what happened with the ouster of Kevin McCarthy. So I would advocate to my Republican colleagues that we give Speaker Mike Johnson some room to maneuver, that we let him put in place the efforts to return to regular order and to getting 12 appropriation bills through Congress and in a timely way. That's really, I think, was at the heart of the blow-up of the Republican conference. And, you know, we just need to give Mike Johnson a chance to prove himself and to accomplish what the American people want us to accomplish, which is to rein in spending and return to regular order.
So I hope that we give him the room to do that. I think he deserves it. And more chaos is not going to serve the American people. And frankly, it's not going to serve the Republican Party very well.
WRVO
Is it too much of an echo chamber in politics now? And what do you do to avoid that, where you're only listening to the people you agree with?
BRANDON WILLIAMS
There definitely is an echo chamber in politics and frankly, it's hard to escape. I've been on a few panels with Rep. Ritchie Torres, that represents the Bronx, and I've been surprised to learn that there are things that he and I agree on. And he's a remarkable person in so many ways.
Same thing for Rep. Scott Peters, Democrat out of California. We were on this CODEL together in Dubai for the U.N. Climate conference. And he asked a lot of really good questions. And even though it's an area of expertise for me, I felt like I learned a lot from his questions. I have pages of notes, just of his questions. And so I think the more time that you get, sort of off script, or off the House floor to to engage on things like education or on energy, those have been very insightful to me to kind of hear another side.
But if we're talking about the grievances issues, I think the echo chamber is pretty loud.
WRVO
And it's hard to get away from.
BRANDON WILLIAMS
It is. it's very hard to get away from.
WRVO
And where your support comes from, too. I mean, you know, the people with the money are in the echo chamber, too, So I would assume does that make a difference as far as that goes?
BRANDON WILLIAMS
[Pause] I honestly would disagree that the people with the money are in the echo chamber. I think there's a lot of at least on the Republican side, I think the same is true on the Democrat side – I think there's a lot of the people that invest in these races, congressional races, Senate races, whatever, would really like to see us be brought out of the echo chamber and into the actual issues that affect our economy.
The funding that feeds the echo chamber is social media. And a lot of these very incendiary things that drive small dollar donors and that get amplified. And there's a lot of money tied to that and that happens on both sides. And so that's how I would describe kind of the money issue in terms of politics. But I'm not really I'm not capable of catering to the angry mob. I just, I'm not wired to be able to do that.
WRVO
How much time do you spend raising money? It seems like that's like the problem with…you started running for reelection four months ago.
BRANDON WILLIAMS
I will be in one of the most expensive races in America, even though this is not one of the most expensive media markets. So the Democratic congressional committees have committed to spend at least $10 million attacking me, so you should expect all of that. I would anticipate that Republican groups will do the same to my eventual opponent.
But what that does is kind of saturates the market, you know, this regional media market. And I honestly think people tend to start tuning that out. That just means that if you have to get out and go talk to people and meet them where they are and, you know, engage in that kind of, you know, grassroots door-to-door type politicking.
And that's hard across 760,000 people in the district. I was outspent 3 to 1 by my Democratic opponent in this last election and I still won. So I tell people that, number one, money isn’t everything. And number two, I'm the cheapest congressman you'll ever get.
WRVO
Cheapest in that we don't have to pay for your salary? I don't want to go there (laughs)...
BRANDON WILLIAMS
Don't get me started. But cheapest in terms of, you know, the amount of fundraising that I had to do to get a victory for this seat.
WRVO
Do you think they're going to shut down? I'm sorry, I'm just riffing now, shutting down the government. You think when we get back in January?
BRANDON WILLIAMS
I certainly hope not. I think it's a disastrous strategy. I think that there's so much evidence that points to it's a bad strategy politically, it's bad economically and it actually works against you. You actually get less of what you're trying to get by implementing that strategy. But there's a small handful of folks that somehow don't quite understand that reality and advocate for a shutdown.
I couldn't predict what will happen. But we've managed to avoid shutdowns. I voted in every case to avoid a shutdown because I don't think it's a good strategy. But January will be a new year and, you know, a new set of challenges.
WRVO
Well, we look forward to seeing you again in 2024
BRANDON WILLIAMS
Okay, thank you. Thanks for a very straightforward conversation. I appreciate it.
