Why would a Republican candidate for Congress deliberately try to conceal their private sector experience from voters?

If there is one thing that unites virtually all Republicans, it is the strong belief that the private sector is the main driver of economic prosperity, not government regulations and spending.  Private sector experience is a huge asset in a Republican primary but apparently Dave Williams is too modest to brag about his.

Or maybe he was embarrassed by the rank hypocrisy of his campaign rhetoric not matching his professional background.

Williams, who is running for Congress in the strongly Republican 5th Congressional District that is largely centered in Colorado Springs and El Paso County, is campaigning as an “America First” candidate who sees the Chinese as a serious threat to America. Former President Donald Trump endorsed Williams for the Republican nomination and accused his opponent, Jeff Crank, of supporting the Chinese economy at the expense of Americans.

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This might explain why Williams has not mentioned he was a corporate officer for a company that imported large amounts of Chinese goods into the United States. There is nothing about this on his campaign website or on his social media accounts.

KCNC-TV/CBS Colorado reported last week that the self-proclaimed  “America First” candidate Williams was the registered agent and vice president of Logistics for MKW Global Sourcing, a company owned by his in-laws.  MKW contracted with a Chinese company to import 12 million pounds of plastic products from China in more than 1,000 imports between 2008 and 2020.

Williams refused to directly comment on these facts but his campaign issued a statement calling the report “fake news” even though the information came from the U.S. Customs Service as compiled by ImportGenius.com, which tracks shipping containers entering the United States.

Since this revelation, derisive monikers such as “China Dave” and “Wuhan Williams” have emerged in the campaign to mock the rank hypocrisy and obfuscation by Williams of his Chinese-import past. But no one should be surprised his professional background is at odds with his political rhetoric.

This is just the latest episode in a year-long nightmare of hypocrisy and abuse of power since he was narrowly elected state chairman by the 400-member Colorado Republican State Central Committee.

When U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn – who defeated Williams in the 2022 primary election – announced he would not seek reelection in 2024, Williams announced he would run for the seat while continuing to serve as state chairman, a clear conflict of interest. 

Despite pledges by Williams that the state party would remain neutral in the primary even if he was a candidate, Williams used state party resources to announce his congressional candidacy. Williams used Colorado Republican contributions to finance a mailing to district Republicans attacking Crank. 

Williams has led nothing short of a political war against unaffiliated voters who now comprise 48% of the Colorado electorate while Democrats are at 27% and Republicans have sunk to just 24%. 

Twice, he unsuccessfully tried to get the state central committee to vote to cancel the 2024 Republican primary election in order to prevent unaffiliated voters from potentially voting in the primary as allowed in election law.  He desperately attempted to forcibly cast the votes of absent committee members to cancel the primary.

Williams and the state party filed a lawsuit in federal district court to overturn Proposition 108, which was passed by voters in 2016 allowing unaffiliated voters to choose to vote in one of the two major party primaries. He hired John Eastman to be the party’s lawyer. Eastman tried to convince Trump Vice President Mike Pence could overturn the results of the Electoral College on Jan. 6, 2021, thereby denying duly elected Joe Biden from being president. A Denver federal district court judge soundly rejected the lawsuit.

Williams still promotes crackpot conspiracy theories that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump, and he has declared it is impossible to have a fair election in Colorado. After condemning Dominion Voting Systems as the main culprit in the conspiracy to steal the election from Trump, including here in Colorado, Williams asked the El Paso County clerk about the possibility of using their Dominion equipment at the Colorado Republican State Assembly in April.

After promising Republican activists that ballots at the state assembly will be counted by hand, he appointed stolen-election conspiracist Ron Hanks as the head of “election integrity” for the state party. Hanks recently announced the promised hand count of ballots will be augmented by “1970s technology.”  

So the fact that “America First” candidate Williams tried to conceal his professional past with a company that specialized in importing 12 million pounds of Chinese goods into the United States should come as no surprise.

Dick Wadhams is a former Colorado Republican state chairman who worked for U.S. Sen. Bill Armstrong for nine years before managing campaigns for U.S. Sens. Hank Brown and Wayne Allard, and Gov. Bill Owens.