The Ayanna Williams Campaign Event

By: Keaton Drennan'26 & Ridhima Gandhi'28

Photo courtesy of Ayanna Williams for Williamsburg

Ayanna Williams hosted her campaign launch event on September 9th at the Williamsburg Community Building. Many students and local Williamsburg residents attended the event, where they heard directly from Williams and other speakers regarding the Williamsburg city election. Attendees could also register to vote and involve themselves in local politics—a bustling scene of local political collaboration and community outreach. Williams spoke on the significance of the campaign event, “It was fantastic. It was such a great time for the community to come together, to really celebrate the city and the university as well.”

Three city council seats are up for reelection this upcoming November. Anne-Christian McCrady, Ayanna Williams, Lindsay Barna, Fraser Hudgins, Vice Mayor Pat Dent, and Barbara Ramsey are participating in the election. Caleb Rogers has not registered for reelection. 

Randy Riffle, one of the speakers at the event, emphasized the need for a city council member who fully understands and represents the needs of Williamsburg residents. Riffle has given Williams his full support as she intends to serve the city and provide a voice to those who otherwise do not have access to enact change. 

Caleb Rogers also spoke at the campaign launch, where he discussed the history of younger people in Williamsburg’s city elections—specifically, college students at the College of William & Mary. Students comprise 15% or more of the city’s population and have constituted 15 years of local political representation. Rogers is looking forward to a renewal of younger representation within Williamsburg. 

Williams spoke on several points that her campaign focuses on. Firstly, she supports the funding of Early Childhood Education and an increase in teacher pay, as well as decreasing the ratio of students to teachers. She also hopes to work more to increase affordable housing, reduce Williamsburg property taxes, encourage the opening of small businesses, and modify the three-person rent rule through the Rent Ready Program. 

Many students appreciated the efforts of Williams and the Political Action Committee, Williamsburg for All, for encouraging student participation and representation within Williamsburg. “I think that the emphasis on representation of William and Mary students is extremely important, especially since Colonial Williamsburg and our commemoration of it is based on our founding members— the founding members of this country— emphasizing no taxation without representation, right? We need representation in city council just as the ideals of this city and community represent,” Maria Haddad’27 said. 

“I thought it was really exciting to see all of these different students, different people from around Williamsburg coming together. It was sweet that Ayanna brought her family and her pastor. I think it shows how much she cares for her community. This is a student-led, student-run project. When I reached out, I was really inspired by students coming together and working together to make this happen," said Ella Forlin-27.

Overall, students and other attendees at the campaign event expressed their excitement about the upcoming election and the possibility of having the first female William & Mary student representative on the Williamsburg City Council.

“I urge everyone to get out and vote and really just think about their own personal issues that matter to them and brainstorm- how can we as students represent ourselves well” said City Council Candidate Ayanna Williams.

*Note: the article was republished on September 23rd, 2024 due to style guide corrections. The original publication date is September 22nd, 2024.