Phil Williams (Alabama State Senator)

Phillip W. "Phil" Williams
Alabama State Senator for District 10 (Cherokee, DeKalb, Etowah, and St. Clair counties)
Incumbent
Assumed office  November 3, 2010
Preceded by	Larry Means
Born	March 20, 1965 Fort Monmouth, New Jersey
Citizenship	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Charlene M. Williams
Children	Joshua and Caitlin Williams
Residence	Rainbow City Etowah County Alabama
Alma mater	University of South Alabama Birmingham School of Law
Occupation	Lawyer Lieutenant colonel in the United States Army Reserve
Religion	Southern Baptist

Not to be confused with Phil Williams (Alabama state representative)

Phillip W. Williams, known as Phil Williams (born March 20, 1965), is a lawyer from Rainbow City near Gadsden, Alabama, who has represented District 10 in the Alabama State Senate since 2010. The district encompasses Cherokee, DeKalb, Etowah, and St. Clair counties in the northeastern portion of the state.

Born in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey,^[1] Williams graduated from the University of South Alabama in Mobile and received a law degree from the private Birmingham School of Law in Birmingham, Alabama. He also graduated from two military institutions while in the United States Army: the Combined Arms and Service Staff School and then the Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He is a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve. Williams is in private practice with the Gadsden firm of Williams  and Associates. He is a board member of Mercy's Hope^[1] in Rainbow City, a non-profit organization established in 2009 to assist orphans and underprivileged children in the Ukraine, physically, educationally, and spiritually.^[2] Williams is a Southern Baptist. Before he became a lawyer, he was in full-time ministry for the youth outreach organization, Younglife.^[3] He and his wife, Charlene, have two children, Joshua and Caitlin Williams, who attended Auburn University.^[1]

In the 2010 Republican primary, Williams defeated intra-party rival, Paul J. Peloquin, Sr., by a margin of nearly 8-1. Then in the November 2 general election, he unseated incumbent Democratic Senator Larry Means, 20,249 to 17,459. In 2014, Means fell short in a rematch against Williams, who prevailed, 17,967 (52 percent) to 16,530 (47.9 percent).^[4]

Williams is the chairman of the Senate Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Development Committee, the vice chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and a member of these other committees: (1) Constitution, Ethics, and Elections, (2) Governmental Affairs, (3) Rules, and (4) Veterans and Military Affairs.^[1]

In 2011, Williams sponsored the Alabama Jobs Creation and Retention Act, which provides tax incentives to new or existing businesses that engage in industrial projects.^[3]

In 2013 and again in 2014, Senator Williams co-sponsored the establishment of drug testing for certain recipients of the public welfare in Alabama. He voted in 2013 to establish medical requirements for abortuaries in his state. In 2014, he voted against the measure to forbid smoking in public places, which passed the Senate 21-8. The next year he opposed an increase in the cigarette tax, which passed the Senate, 21-13. In 2015, he voted to establish public charter schools in Alabama and co-sponsored the establishment of a panel of trustees for the Alabama Community College System. He voted to require couples who marry to sign a marriage contract, rather than to obtain a marriage license. He co-sponsored a measure to stop the expansion of Medicaid in his state. In 2016, he voted for the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, which prohibits the removal of Confederate monuments from public property, a measure that passed the Senate, 22-9. He supported the bill to prohibit abortion providers in the state from locating their facilities near schools, and he sponsored the measure to ban dilation abortions in his state. He voted to permit concealed handguns to be carried in vehicles without a permit. He co-sponsored a measure to provide greater funding for prisons in the state. He voted to establish a state lottery, a measure which passed the Senate 21-12. He supported issuance of the permit for Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham to establish its own police force. In 2017, he did not vote on the bill which prohibits employers in Alabama from inquiring about past criminal histories of job applicants, a measure which passed the Senate, 17-9. He voted for the use of nitrogen in carrying out death penalty executions.^[5]

Williams is not seeking reelection in 2018. Republican state Representative Mack Butler, the author of the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, has announced his candidacy for the Senate seat.^[6]

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