From collection Candidates
Ina Phillips Williams was born in 1876 in Missouri and moved to Washington State when she was ten. She began teaching school at the age of fifteen, marrying five years later. She had five children. In her mid-thirties Williams became increasingly involved in Washington State politics after women there, in 1910, won full suffrage. In 1914 she was an unsuccessful Progressive Party candidate for the state house of representatives although she received a respectable 4068 votes . Fifteen other women campaigned for seats in the state legislature in 1914, most on the Socialist or Progressive party ticket. Although women won legislative seats in 1912 and 1916, no female candidate won in 1914. Two years later, in 1916, Williams changed parties and ran as a Republican, again, for the state house of representatives, Winning 9421 votes, she defeated fellow Republican William P. Sawyer who had won 9108 votes. Williams was the only woman in the legislature during the 1917 session. In 1918 she chose to run as a Republican for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives but lost. In 1920, searching for a party through which she could adequately express her policy ideas, she campaigned as a Farm-Labor candidate for the the state senate. She lost. Williams was also an active club woman, serving as president of the Yakima Woman's Century Club.
