Priorities
Kathleen Williams has served Montanans for over 30 years.
Kathleen Williams has over 30 years’ experience working on issues that continue to shape Montana. She took on health insurance companies and won to lower costs for Montanans. She tirelessly fought for fair tax policy, and won relief for Montana’s small businesses and working families. She passed legislation to diversify Montana’s economy and has been a dedicated advocate for Montana’s farmers and ranchers. She is a determined and creative force in protecting and enhancing our most valuable natural resource: our water. And she has always listened to Montanans’ interests and put them first. She’s ready to return to the Montana Legislature to continue that record and focus on the challenges ahead.
Here’s what Montanans in Senate District 31 want her to work on:
Prioritizing Montanans’ Basic Needs
Food, shelter, safety, and economic opportunity are fundamental to families and communities. Kathleen will work to expand affordable housing, reduce food and energy costs, ensure public safety, and support small businesses and local food producers. Her Montana Cottage Food Act created hundreds of new businesses in just two years.
Advancing a Fair Tax Code
Kathleen previously served as Vice Chair of the House Taxation Committee. She will advance tax policies that address affordability for working families, seniors, and small businesses while considering the long-term stability of state budgets and public services.
Ensuring Access to Quality, Affordable Health Care
Kathleen has fought this battle before, and won. Her work for cancer patients is saving lives today. At USDA she led a team dedicated to rural and Tribal health care. She knows these issues deeply, having been a caregiver to her mother for eight years, and from providing leadership to secure mental health resources for her community. She looks forward to bringing her health care knowledge, compassion, and commitment back to the Legislature.
Crafting an Energy Future That Prioritizes Montanans
Whether it’s data centers and their high energy and water needs wanting to locate in Montana, or ensuring a reliable, affordable energy supply for current Montana customers, now is the time to ensure rate-payers are protected and the groundwork laid for the coming decades of energy supply and demand solutions. Kathleen has worked on energy diversification and affordability initiatives for over 15 years, and we need her passion and intellect on these issues now.
Protecting and Enhancing Our Outdoor Heritage
Kathleen has spent much of her career in water policy, finding creative tools to balance the varied demands for this precious resource while protecting our rivers and streams. With increasing growth in and around Bozeman, water will continue to be a challenging topic. We need her expertise and knowledge to ensure our outdoor heritage continues to be healthy and accessible.
Supporting Agriculture and Local Food
Having worked with farmers and ranchers for much of her career, and Vice-chairing the House Agriculture Committee, Kathleen has proven herself a champion of Montana’s small and mid-size farms. With many producers suffering from repeated drought and challenging trade policy, we need Kathleen back in the Legislature as our rural champion.
Childcare and Education
Affordable child care is a necessity for families to stay afloat in today’s economy. And a strong public education system is a foundation for community cohesion and success in life for current and future generations. Kathleen will work to strengthen these opportunities for all Montanans. SD 31 is the home of Montana State University, its student housing and that of many MSU faculty and staff. She has represented this area before and will continue that work to protect and advance higher education.
Cutting Through Hyper-Partisanship and Supporting Fair Elections
Kathleen has a strong reputation of working with people of all political stripes to advance Montanans’ interests and opportunities. She supports low campaign finance limits, prioritizes constituent service, and abhors the scale of money in politics. Voters and citizens need good information, access to government deliberations, and elections that focus on the candidates over special interests. It’s not just right, it’s in our state Constitution.
Protecting Montanans’ Privacy
Montana’s Constitution confers an inalienable right to privacy. It’s one of the strongest protections in the nation, and it should stay that way. The Montana Kathleen knows is a “live and let live” state where citizens should be able to pursue their dreams without undue interference from government.
Montana’s Constitutional Promise
We the people of Montana grateful to God for the quiet beauty of our state, the grandeur of our mountains, the vastness of our rolling plains, and desiring to improve the quality of life, equality of opportunity and to secure the blessings of liberty for this and future generations do ordain and establish this constitution... - Preamble, Montana Constitution, 1972
