Democrat to run for John Duncan's congressional seat

Tyler Whetstone | Knoxville

Show Caption Hide Caption Knoxville's Joshua Williams is running for Congress Knoxville's Joshua Williams is running for Congress as a Democrat. A Republican has held the 2nd Congressional District seat since before the Civil War.

There are still some 18 months before voters in Knoxville will cast their ballots to determine their congressman in the 2nd District in 2018, but there is already an entry in Knoxville: Democrat Joshua Williams.

Williams, 64, is a clinical psychologist and sees patients at a number of facilities across the city. Wednesday he met a reporter in an empty room inside Tennova-Physicians Regional Medical Center.

He said he specializes in psychotherapy and behavioral medicine, not politics. He hasn’t been involved in any sort of organized politics since he ran former Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols’ failed Democratic campaign for governor in 2002.

Williams is running to work toward comprehensive health and mental health care, “fair and just” taxation and tax reform and to work to end the opioid and heroin epidemic that’s striking the country, particularly Appalachia.

“It’s one of the places I’m uniquely qualified to comment on because I’ve been in healthcare for over 30 years and I see the end result – I see the bodily damage and death caused by these drugs,” he said.

Red district

The state’s 2nd Congressional District hasn’t been held by a Democrat since before the Civil War in 1855, so it’s been a while.

“What you’ll hear me say repeatedly is that Mr. Duncan and his father (Rep. John Duncan Sr.) will have represented the second district for 52 years out of the 200 that the state has had representation,” Williams said. “And you’ll hear me say that we appreciate their service. That’s about all I’d say about it.”

Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. hasn’t said publicly whether he will run for office again next year. However, Duncan has handily won every last one of his 15 elections since defeating Dudley Taylor by 12 points in 1988. He hasn’t received less than 70 percent of the vote since his first run.

‘Better direction’

Williams said he has no grandiose ideas about changing D.C. all at once, but as a psychologist he’s been trained to listen to people and help them communicate better.

“You’ll be one of 435 people, don’t think you’re going in there to save the world,” he said. “You go there (Washington, D.C.) to hopefully ease it to a better direction, and bring some of it back to where you live and to the people that matter in your life.”

Williams has been a board member of Leadership Knoxville, the Tennessee Voices for Children and the Knox County Community Health Improvement Council. He and his wife, Laurie, also a clinical psychologist, live in Knoxville. They have three grown children.