GOPAC.org

Each week GOPAC will spotlight a candidate running for election. This weeks Candidate in the spotlight is Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Michael L. Williams.

Williams is the Chairman of the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state’s oldest regulatory commission. In November 2000, the people of Texas elected him to complete an unexpired term. In November 2002, they re-elected him to a full six-year term expiring in 2008. He is the first African American in Texas history to hold an executive statewide elected post.

An advocate of alternative energy, Williams is championing the conversion of Texas public and private fleets, especially school buses from diesel and gasoline to environmentally cleaner, cheaper and domestically produced natural gas and propane through his “Breathe Easy” initiative.

In 1990, President George H. W. Bush appointed Williams to be Assistant Secretary of Education for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, a position previously held by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Former President Bush previously appointed Williams as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Law Enforcement at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He had policy oversight responsibility for the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Customs Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Williams also served in the Department of Justice as Special Assistant to Attorney General Richard Thornburgh.

Williams holds a bachelor’s, a master’s and a law degree from the University of Southern California. He is a member of Most Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church in Arlington, Texas. He is married to his best friend, Donna, for 23 years.

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