Cody Williams (Tennessee)

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Cody Williams

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Independent

Education

Bachelor's

Carson-Newman University, 2017

Personal

Birthplace

Elizabethton, Tenn.

Profession

Sales Representative

Contact

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

Cody Williams (Republican Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Tennessee's 1st Congressional District. Williams was disqualified from the Republican primary scheduled on August 6, 2020.

Williams completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

As of August 2024, Williams' partisan affiliation was independent.

Biography

Cody Williams was born in Elizabethton, Tennessee. He earned a bachelor's degree from Carson-Newman University in 2017. Williams' career experience includes working as a special education teacher, author, and sales representative.

Elections

2020

See also: Tennessee's 1st Congressional District election, 2020

Tennessee's 1st Congressional District election, 2020 (August 6 Republican primary)

Tennessee's 1st Congressional District election, 2020 (August 6 Democratic primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House Tennessee District 1

Diana Harshbarger defeated Blair Walsingham, Steve Holder, and Josh Berger in the general election for U.S. House Tennessee District 1 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Diana Harshbarger (R)	74.7	228,181
		Blair Walsingham (D)	22.5	68,617
		Steve Holder (Independent)	2.8	8,621
	Submit photo	Josh Berger (Independent) (Write-in)	0.0	4

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 305,423
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Tennessee District 1

Blair Walsingham defeated Chris Rowe (Unofficially withdrew) and Larry Smith (Unofficially withdrew) in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Tennessee District 1 on August 6, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Blair Walsingham	52.7	6,076
		Chris Rowe (Unofficially withdrew)	33.6	3,869
	Submit photo	Larry Smith (Unofficially withdrew)	13.6	1,572
		Other/Write-in votes	0.0	3

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 11,520
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Tennessee District 1

The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for U.S. House Tennessee District 1 on August 6, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Diana Harshbarger	19.2	18,074
		Timothy Hill	16.7	15,731
		Rusty Crowe	16.1	15,179
		Josh Gapp	14.2	13,379
	Submit photo	Steve Darden	12.4	11,647
		John Clark	9.4	8,826
		David Hawk	5.0	4,717
		Nichole Williams	3.0	2,803
		Jay Adkins	1.7	1,635
	Submit photo	Carter Quillen	0.9	853
	Submit photo	Richard Baker	0.3	298
		Chad Fleenor (Unofficially withdrew)	0.3	282
		Phil Arlinghaus	0.3	274
	Submit photo	Robert Franklin	0.2	229
	Submit photo	Chuck Miller	0.2	189
		Chance Cansler	0.2	147

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 94,263
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Cody Williams (R)
• Dan Street (R)
• J. S. Moore (R)
• Todd McKinley (R)
• Dustin Decal (R)

Campaign themes

2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Cody Williams completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Williams' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

My name is Cody Williams. I am a graduate of Elizabethton High School and Carson-Newman University. Since my collage days, I have been an activist and even dipped my toes in journalism, briefly holding a position as a writer at Syracuse's Odyssey chapter where I provided political commentary throughout the 2016 election cycle. I was also briefly a member of Carson-Newman Democrats before leaving the group during the last election cycle. Since leaving collage, I have entered the work force in retail and am currently the assistant manager at a convenience store. I am running in 2020 because it is my belief that every political issue can be tied back to one issue in particular - money in politics. This is a bipartisan issue that is unfortunately not spoken about enough because both political establishments as well as the media have taken money from large donors and corporations.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Priority #1 is getting money out of politics because that is the issue that ties into all other issues.
• Priority #2 is getting the American people what everybody else in the world has - a single-payer healthcare system. I want to abolish the Mafia-like for-profit health insurance companies that make money by denying care.
• Priority #3 is ending the disastrous trade deals like the TPP and NAFTA that outsource American jobs and ships them overseas.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I care mostly about getting the American people what is entitled to them and making sure all Americans have an equal shot to live the American Dream. As I said before, my first priority is getting money out of politics because it ties together all issues. A large majority of this country (Republican or Democrat) support a single-payer-style healthcare system, a la Medicare for All. Yet, Republican and Democratic politicians alike are against this because they accept bribes from big pharma and the health industry. On top of that, a Koch Brother study which already has a conservative bias showed us that a single-payer system will save average Americans money by cutting out the unnecessary for-profit Mafia companies who make money by denying care. This is the fiscally conservative position because it saves money by completely eliminating the private taxes disguised as premiums. But that's only one example. According to polling, the Iraq War is less popular now than the Vietnam War was at its least popular moment. Yet, President Trump has deployed more troops to Iraq and Congress has said nothing? Why? Because defense contractors make money off of endless war...and those defense contractors have bought the government. The same is true for the fossil fuel industry when it pertains to climate change. It all ties back to money in politics.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I think what matters most is passion and having something to believe in. I also think it is vital for a candidate to take no bribes including corporate PACs and large donations.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

The first major historical event in my life that I was aware of was the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. This led to one of the biggest foreign policy blunder in modern American history. I'm sympathetic to those who voted to go to war after Osama bin Laden. But he was captured and killed in 2011. The Bush Administration and the mainstream media lied us into wars with Iraq and Afghanistan and I we are still involved almost two decades later. Whether they lean left or right, the American people do not want to be there any longer. It is my view that every politician in Congress must be forced to define victory in terms of these wars. In the case of Iraq, it was to overthrow Saddam Hussein because he "had weapons of mass destruction". When that was proven false, the goal was still to overthrow him because he's a bad guy. He was killed in December 2006 and overthrown. We are still in Iraq. Why? I think the politicians should have to answer this question to the public. Meanwhile, we need to bring our men and women home and reinvest that money on the American people for a change instead of senseless, winless war.

What do you perceive to be the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

The greatest challenge the United States is going to face over the next decade is combatting climate change. It doesn't take a scientist to see the climate is changing rapidly. Years are getting hotter on average to the point where it's hitting 70 degrees in New York at the beginning of January. We have eleven years, studies show, to do something about this deadly crisis. If we do not, it will have dire consequences for not only my generation but the generations to come. And if we don't do something soon, we are going to have a refugee crisis like you've never seen. I'm not taking money from the fossil fuel companies. Most other politicians are.

Do you believe that two years is the right term length for representatives?

Yes.

Is there a particular representative, past or present, whom you want to model yourself after?

A few: Bernard Sanders (I-Vermont), Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), Richard Ojeda (D-West Virginia), and Ron Paul (R-Texas).

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

See also

2020 Elections

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Government

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External links

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Footnotes

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Tennessee's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Marsha Blackburn (R)

Bill Hagerty (R)

Representatives

District 1

Diana Harshbarger (R)

District 2

Tim Burchett (R)

District 3

Charles Fleischmann (R)

District 4

Scott DesJarlais (R)

District 5

Andy Ogles (R)

District 6

John Rose (R)

District 7

Vacant

District 8

David Kustoff (R)

District 9

Steve Cohen (D)

Republican Party (9)

Democratic Party (1)

Vacancies (1)