Name: Craig Williams, Republican
Office/District: State Senate District 6
Hometown: Manning
Profession: Independent consultant in agriculture
Why running for office: “I’ve been involved in politics for an awfully long time. I’m 56 and I started getting involved when I was 12 actually. I’ve been chair of the Carroll County Republican Central Committee. I organized the district convention back then. I got on the state central committee. I’ve been Treasurer for King for Congress since 2010. I’ve been involved with door-knocking and various candidate programs for quite a while. It’s all been volunteer. Everything I’ve done my whole life has been a volunteer. Essentially I had a day job, a wife and two kids, and that was my priority was taking care of them. I’ve been asked for years to run for office and the timing was never right for me personally or family-wise. Well, the kids are gone, my youngest is 30, and I’ve got three grandkids under 2, but live in Omaha. So it’s just my wife and I. The opportunity came up when Sen. (Mark) Segebart said he is not going to run again. I stepped up to the plate and finally am doing what I’ve been asked to do for quite some time.
“As it stands today, it wasn’t one of my reasons for running, but with Coronavirus and the craziness going on in the world, when the dust settles, we’re going to need to have some people with some good leadership skills in the House and Senate to help restore the government and get our affairs back in order. I’m an independent consultant in agriculture, but I was General Manager for several companies — a division of Dow Chemical Company and also director of operations for Channel Bio, which is now part of Bayer Crop Science. I have held leadership roles in business for many years. I have some pretty good business background — running businesses, employing people, doing budgeting — things I think will come in very handy.”
Sen. Mark Segebart is not running for another term. Williams is one of two Republicans running for the nomination. There is one Democrat running for the seat.
