On Tuesday, October 10, Dee Williams placed fourth in the Asheville, North Carolina, City Council primary out of a field of twelve at-large candidates. Williams, a member of the Western North Carolina Green Party, is the first Green candidate to break through a city council primary, and is now one step closer to becoming in the first Western North Carolina Green Party member elected in the state. This historic grassroots campaign has been powered by a diverse cast of passionate volunteers. Williams, who received 1,179 votes in the 2015 primary, nearly tripled her votes this year, with 3,408 votes. 

Dee’s platform issues include: living wage jobs and the investment into and purchasing from local businesses, permanently affordable housing with Community Land Trusts, and development of effective regional land use planning to develop a multi-modal transportation system with a dedicated source of revenue which will reduce car use and reduce our carbon footprint in Western North Carolina.

Dee owns Dee Williams and Company, Inc., a professional services firm which provides business and nonprofit community economic development, commercial loan packaging to businesses, construction training / bid preparation and certifications to minority contractors, nonprofit technical assistance, and training.

In community activism, Dee organized and successfully negotiated with the largest employer in Western North Carolina, Mission Health, to pay a living wage and to remove the “ box” from its job applications, which mandated that applicants with an arrest record and/or felonies indicate such by “checking the box.” These successful negotiations affected over 10,000 jobs at Mission Health and potentially billions of dollars in hiring new employees at a living wage. Dee also negotiated the first contract ever extended to a black-owned firm by the City of Asheville, and while contracted and deployed as a subcontractor with the Atlanta National Office of the US Department of Commerce, she authored the City of Asheville / Buncombe County Minority/Women’s Business Plan.

Dee looks forward to the November 7, 2017, primary and continuing to spread the message of putting the needs of Asheville residents first. Williams has been endorsed by the Western North Carolina Green Party, the Asheville branch of the Democratic Socialists of America, the WNC Central Labor Union (AFL-CIO), and the Asheville branch of the International Socialist Organization.

Her website is at www.dee4avl.com.