Haley Russell
Assistant News Editor
Senate President and Kentucky Republican gubernatorial candidate David Williams led the Murray State College Republicans in the annual Homecoming parade Saturday.
Williams said participating in community events such as the parade shows Kentuckians his commitment to the region and the state.
“I think it’s important for candidates and public officials to be involved, especially in our universities,” he said.
Williams said he attended the parade in order to pay respects to the University and the community.
Meeting new people with views differently from his is one of the reasons why Williams enjoys participating in community events, he said.
“I think that you always get to meet new people – you get ideas,” Williams said. “Everywhere I go, I have an opportunity to listen to people.”
While he has been traveling, Williams said he met with an employee at the Ford Motor Co. plant in Louisville, Ky., about the corporation’s existing two-tiered payment system by which employees that work for the company for a long time will get paid more money than the employees that do the same job, but for lower wages.
The Ford employee suggested Williams work with incentives for large corporations to give financial advantages to create more jobs in Kentucky.
“It brought that to my attention, that people are really focused upon, what is it for the worker? What’s in it for the ranking file person, what’s in it for the entrepreneur?” Williams said.
Between two job offers, one in Tennessee and one in Kentucky, Williams said there will be an 8 percent pay increase if you choose to work in Tennessee, because the personal income tax is not implemented there.
“Those sort of things are the things people talk to me about,” he said. “I think one of the mistakes that Gov. Beshear has made in the campaign, whether he wins or whether he doesn’t win, is not having an agenda and not talking about his agenda.”
Williams’ agenda is available at williamsfarmer.com.
Williams, who presented his agenda at a campus meeting several weeks ago, said it is detailed, describing job growth and retention.
“I’m very focused on transparency of agenda and allowing people to make comments, and that sort of thing,” Williams said.
Kate Watson, senior from Henderson, Ky., and president of the College Republicans, said the organization invited Williams, John Kimper and Bill Johnson to walk in the parade in order to encourage Kentuckians to vote Republican.
“Kentucky is traditionally very Democratic and it is changing,” she said.
Watson said she wants to see Republican voters elect a conservative governor in the upcoming election.
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