A new piece in The Post-Standard exposes MAGA extremist Brandon Williams for being an absent representative and failing to deliver on any substantive legislative priorities for Central New York and the Mohawk Valley during his first year in Congress.
Over the last year, Williams has failed to make any progress on key issues impacting New York’s 22nd Congressional District, including finding bipartisan solutions to fix our border, protecting reproductive freedom, and bringing back manufacturing jobs.
Read more on Williams’ absent representation below.
In Williams’ first year in office, he has been mostly absent when it comes to addressing local issues.
When asked about local issues, Williams has struggled to offer specifics about his priorities. He has talked in broad terms about focusing on energy, manufacturing and infrastructure.
Since taking office in January 2023, Williams has not passed any legislation of consequence for his district, which spans all of Onondaga, Madison and Oneida counties and part of Oswego County.
“I just don’t know that Williams is engaged anywhere locally,” Picente told syracuse.com. “There hasn’t been a lot of presence.”
Picente said he hasn’t received any explanation from Williams or his staff about their lack of engagement in local issues.
Williams’ office did not respond to a request for an interview. His spokesman, Taylor Weyeneth, has not responded to any questions from syracuse.com | The Post-Standard since October.
Williams said in the WRVO interview that he made missteps in his first year in office and that it had taken him a while to get his footing in Congress. Almost every one of the original staffers in his Washington office either quit or were fired during the year.
At one point, his office had the third-highest turnover rate in the House of Representatives. He’s now on his third legislative director, one of the most senior positions in a House office.
“He never really reached out,” Joseph said. “As one of the leaders of the same party, I have to question whether we’ve lost our representation. It’s very disappointing. It takes a long time to get acquainted with people, but he’s already had more than a year to do it.”
