Dallas Morning News: "Michael Williams has DeMint nod for U.S. Senate"
Texas Railroad Commission member Michael Williams is "probably one of the brightest stars in the country" among conservatives and deserves to be Texas' next U.S. senator, South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint said this morning in a conference call.
"Michael Williams is the Democrat Party's worst nightmare," DeMint said in a statement, because he'll oppose "massive spending, bailouts and takeovers." Speaking to reporters, DeMint said Williams "has just been very clear and winsome with what he stands for...That's what we desperately need."
Williams, who said he wants to join DeMint in "cutting the slouch towards European-style socialism," hailed the endorsement. Getting the nod of DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund will build momentum and let the 11-year railroad commissioner enter "a wider conversation with Americans," said Williams, who surely has his eye on conservative donors who might be swayed by DeMint's recommendation.
As DeMint noted, "They can give directly to him on my [web] site." DeMint said the fund, his PAC, would give Williams the maximum permitted, $10,000. But he suggested his endorsement's bigger value is introducing Williams to a wider audience, after which "he sells himself."
Williams, of course, is just one of several statewide officeholders in the GOP who've been considering or actively exploring bids for the Senate seat of gubernatorial candidate Kay Bailey Hutchison -- if it comes open. (Stay tuned.) Others include Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and fellow Railroad Commission member Elizabeth Ames Jones.
Although the Washington Post calls DeMint the "de facto leader -- within Congress -- of the tea party wing of the party," he downplayed this morning any tensions with Texas Sen. John Cornyn. Cornyn, who heads the National Republican Senatorial Committee and has stayed neutral in the potential Texas special election, "is doing a great job all over the country," DeMint said.
Sure, sure, he acknowledged, they're betting on different horses in next year's Florida Senate GOP primary. DeMint's for conservative former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio; Cornyn, for moderate Gov. Charlie Crist.
"A lot of times, I'm getting behind an underdog who is maybe less known but is maybe more in line with what we see as those core principles that make this country great," DeMint said. "I'm not bashful about it. I'm trying to pull the Republican Party back to mainstream conservative ideas. And we've got some great candidates around the country but none better than Michael Williams."
