Matthew Williams (Mississippi)

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

Matthew Williams

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

March 12, 2024

Education

Associate

Northwest Mississippi Community College, 2019

Personal

Birthplace

Germantown, Tenn.

Religion

Christian

Profession

Educator

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

Personal LinkedIn

Matthew Williams (Democratic Party) (also known as Bronco) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Mississippi's 1st Congressional District. He lost in the Democratic primary on March 12, 2024.

Williams completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Matthew Williams was born in Germantown, Tennessee. He earned an associate degree from Northwest Mississippi Community College in 2019. His career experience includes working as an educator, actor, journalist, cybersecurity consultant, and software developer.

Elections

2024

See also: Mississippi's 1st Congressional District election, 2024

Mississippi's 1st Congressional District election, 2024 (March 12 Republican primary)

Mississippi's 1st Congressional District election, 2024 (March 12 Democratic primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House Mississippi District 1

Incumbent Trent Kelly defeated Dianne Black in the general election for U.S. House Mississippi District 1 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Trent Kelly (R)	69.8	223,589
		Dianne Black (D)	30.2	96,697

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 320,286
= 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 Mississippi District 1

Dianne Black defeated Matthew Williams in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Mississippi District 1 on March 12, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Dianne Black	85.0	12,147
		Matthew Williams	15.0	2,138

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 14,285
= 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 Mississippi District 1

Incumbent Trent Kelly advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Mississippi District 1 on March 12, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Trent Kelly	100.0	68,842

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 68,842
= 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.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Williams in this election.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Matthew Williams completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. 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.

Howdy. My name is Matthew Williams, but some people call me Bronco, and I'm running for Congress this year in my home state of Mississippi.

I grew up around Hernando, and I graduated from Lewisburg High School. I've lived here almost my whole life, and I'm very passionate about the place I'm from. I received my associate's degree in theatre from Northwest Mississippi Community College, then went on to study creative writing and journalism on a pre-law track at Arkansas State University.

As an educator, I'm deeply passionate about education. I started my teaching career as a substitute teacher for DeSoto County Schools, the largest public school district in Mississippi, and I've since worked with students of all ages in public, private, and homeschool settings. I currently teach Spanish and direct theatre at two different private schools in north Mississippi.

I, like many other regular Americans, am tired of the current system we have, where our representatives only represent the elites and the wealthy while little to no change actually gets done. That's why I'm running this year as an anti-corruption and anti-establishment candidate for U.S. House. I'm running because I believe I can be Something Different.

If you're lookin' for a representative that'll actually represent you, then you're lookin' for Bronco.

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?

• What we have doesn't work anymore -- We need Something Different
• Our representatives don't represent US -- We need a hard-working regular person in office that will actually represent the hard-working regular people of our state
• We can't solve our nation's problems by ourselves -- We have to work together if we want to get things done

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Human Rights, Education, and Environmentalism, to name a few

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

Heavenly Father, and the example of my Savior Jesus Christ.

Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?

The Holy Bible, King James Version
(specifically John 13:34, Matthew 6:24, and 1st Corinthians 16:14)

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Honesty, morality, and transparency are all vital characteristics of elected officials, because they're necessary to ensure representatives do their jobs without corruption and stay true to their constituents

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

I'm an honest and caring person with a passion for helping others, and I'm willing to fight fights and stand up for the hard-working people of my home state.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

Members of Congress have many responsibilities, but I would argue that none are more important than representing and looking out for the people of their district

What legacy would you like to leave?

A positive and long-lasting one

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

Either 9/11 (when I was 3) or the Indian Ocean Tsunami, which happened when I was like 6

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I bussed tables one summer in a Mexican restaurant, and I started working my way up to preparing and serving appetizers

What is your favorite book? Why?

"Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

"I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by The Proclaimers

What qualities does the U.S. House of Representatives possess that makes it unique as an institution?

Powers unique to the House would include revenue legislation, impeachment, veto overrides, declaring war, and (if the situation calls for it) choosing the President.

Do you believe that it's beneficial for representatives to have previous experience in government or politics?

I think the knowledge that comes with it might help, but I don't think it should be absolutely necessary. As long as a Member of Congress can learn the rules and perform the functions of the job, it shouldn't matter if they held office for 12 years or if they used to be a teacher, doctor, or an electrician. I like to think that's what our Founding Fathers had in mind with founding our country: a government full of regular people representing other regular people in office and looking out for everyone, not just a select few.

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

Looking at how things have changed in the last few years and seeing how they are now, going forward I would say inflation, climate change, and democratic backsliding, among other things

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

I think it's a perfect term length for representatives. It's not as long as the terms for Senate, and its elections are timed to fit with the Presidential elections, and also to fit in between them, midterm, to give parties a chance to gain back any ground they lost in the regular election year

What are your thoughts on term limits?

I think a truly democratic society doesn't need term limits; when a representative stops following the will of the People, then the People should theoretically have the power to vote them out of office. But that's the thing, we don't live in a society like that

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

There are definitely representatives, past and present, that I admire and like, but ultimately I think I'd rather do my own thing.

Tell us your favorite joke.

Lmao okay so a guy walks into a bar, right? He orders a beer, and happens to look down at the other end of the bar and he sees this man sitting down there with a giant orange head. Like massive. So when the bartender brings his beer, he asks him, "What's up with that guy's head?"

The bartender laughs. "That's a hell of a story. Why don't you go buy him a drink? Maybe he'll tell you about it, it's crazy."

So the man walks over there, says hello, and he offers to buy him a drink. The guy with the orange head says, "Let me guess, you wanna know about the head."

"Well yeah, actually, if you don't mind me asking."

The man with the orange head laughs and says, "Alright, sure. Lord knows I've thought over it so many times. So, what happened was: One day I was walking along a beach, when out of nowhere I stubbed my toe on something. I looked down, and there, buried in the sand, was an antique lamp. I picked it up and tried to dust it off, but suddenly a big cloud of smoke appeared, and when it cleared, a genie was standing there. And the genie said to me, 'Thank you for freeing me from the lamp. For doing this, I will grant you two wishes.'

"So, I think, wow, okay. And I did what many people would do in that situation. For my first wish, I wished to be incredibly wealthy. The genie snaps his fingers, and suddenly I'm covered head to toe in gold and jewels, holding more cash in my hands than I've ever seen in my life."

By this point the first guy's just in awe of this, he can't believe what he's hearing. So he's like, "Wow, that's incredible. What was your second wish?"

The man with the orange head takes a sip of his beer, and puts it down, and says, "You know... That might be where I went wrong... For my second wish I wished for a big orange head."

How should the U.S. House use its investigative powers?

Constitutionally

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

They're... necessary? Lol I'm not really sure what this question's supposed to be asking me. Our government's full of people dealing in lies, deceit, and corruption, and that's not opinion it's repeatedly been shown to be fact. Are candidates actually answering this with "yeah no that's none of our business"? lol

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.

Campaign website

Williams’s campaign website stated the following:

“	It seems like there’s a lot of stuff going wrong in the world today, but it seems like there’s no one in office willing to take steps to fix the problem. That’s why we need Something Different. There’s a lot that needs to be done, both here in Mississippi and across our great nation, to solve our current problems, and to create a brighter future for many generations to come. But we can’t do that by only helping a few people, we need to help everyone. We need real solutions to the real problems that real people are dealing with every day. If you’re looking for a representative who will actually represent you, then you’re looking for Bronco. The Economy With inflation rapidly driving up the cost of living in our country, it’s important now more than ever to do more to keep our citizens’ heads above water, like raising wages and stopping inflation. It’s also important that we stop increasing the amount of taxes we have to pay, and that we redirect what we’re spending so that they’re put to better use. Taxes aren’t inherently a bad thing, as long as they’re being put toward something that benefits everyone. We need to change how our money’s being spent, so that it goes to things that we can use, and not to funding personal salaries. We also need to do more to support agriculture and small businesses, as these are vital parts of our state’s economy, and should be protected as such. Education We need to increase teacher salaries and secure our schools so that they’re safer and more efficient learning environments for our children. We should also do more to ensure students are being taught to their full potentials, with their talents encouraged, and taught about real-world survival skills, not just forced to adhere to curriculums that only teach to standardized tests. Foreign Policy As tensions continue to rise around the world, it’s crucial that we do whatever we can to protect all of our citizens, both here and abroad, and that we promote peace and solve problems diplomatically to prevent conflicts from escalating. The Environment We need to do more to protect the environment and prevent climate change. We need to invest more in alternative energy sources that are safer, more cost-effective, and less harmful to the environment. Further, we need to stop pollution and introduce more legislation to ensure big corporations do the same. We should also do more to protect endangered species and their habitats from extinction. Our Democracy According to the U.S. Census, this last year, less than 80% of the eligible population of our state was registered to vote, and less than 70% actually voted in elections. As the supposed leader of the Free World, we should be doing more to encourage our citizens to participate in our democracy, and to be educated about politics and the workings of our government. We should also loosen restrictions to make it easier for our citizens to registered. Further, we should give easier ballot access to third parties and independent candidates to discourage the two-party state system. And More Protecting press freedom, free speech, and other 1st Amendment rights Enacting gun safety laws that help prevent gun violence without violating constitutional rights Reforming the criminal justice system Improving transportation and infrastructure Increasing access to healthcare Supporting veterans and military personnel And more	”
—Matthew Williams’s campaign website (2024)

Campaign finance summary

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Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.

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Matthew Williams campaign contribution history

Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	U.S. House Mississippi District 1	Lost primary	$0	N/A**
Grand total			$0	N/A**
Sources: OpenSecrets,  Federal Elections Commission ***This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only available data.

See also

2024 Elections

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External links

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Candidate

U.S. House Mississippi District 1

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Footnotes

[show]

Mississippi's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Cindy Hyde-Smith (R)

Roger Wicker (R)

Representatives

District 1

Trent Kelly (R)

District 2

Bennie Thompson (D)

District 3

Michael Guest (R)

District 4

Mike Ezell (R)

Republican Party (5)

Democratic Party (1)