Brian Williams doesn’t want to talk about Sam Page. The Missouri state senator, who represents University City, announced last month that he’s challenging the St. Louis County executive in the 2026 Democratic primary. But he doesn’t want to make the race about Page—despite the criminal charges Page now faces, despite the infighting that has plagued Page’s six years as county executive. Says Williams, “I don’t watch the other team practice, and I think the only person who does is Bill Belichick.”
But Williams acknowledges that he’d do some things differently, were voters to pick him for the county’s top executive job. You wouldn’t launch an intra-party challenge if you didn’t. And as Williams explains in a new episode of The 314 Podcast, he believes what St. Louis needs is “a leader who can tell our story better.”
Get a fresh take on the day’s top news
Subscribe to the St. Louis Daily newsletter for a smart, succinct guide to local news from award-winning journalists Sarah Fenske and Ryan Krull.
“This is a place I’ve lived my entire life, and I’m always perplexed that people don’t realize that it’s the greatest place to live,” says Williams. “And we have so many people that leave, so many friends I’m sure that both of us have, that thrive in other cities, yet they never think to come back to their hometown.
“And to have leadership that can not only ensure that government is working efficiently, but also to tell our story,” he continues, “and make people really want to live here, and smart folks who may not have went to high school here feel this is a place that they want to be.”
Born in Ferguson to a single mother who was just 19, Williams credits both his mother and his grandparents for helping to raise him. (His grandmother, he says, was the first Black woman to get her “international appointment” as an auto worker, and retired from Chrysler after 30 years on the job.) His large family includes an uncle who served 27 years as a St. Louis city police officer—which Williams says gave him valuable perspective when pushing a major criminal justice reform bill through the Missouri legislature.
“If you notice, that’s a very odd number in comparison to 25 or 30,” he says of his uncle’s time with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. “And the reason he never did 30 was because my family was deeply concerned about his safety. So I understood immediately that it’s a high-stress, very dangerous job. Having the perspective of someone who has been profiled by police, [along with] having the perspective of a loved one potentially being injured or even killed in a very dangerous job, it allowed me to bring people together.”
Williams believes he can bring those same skills to bear in the famously fractious St. Louis County government, which has seen Page at odds with all of the county council but one member, even though his party has a 4–3 majority.
“I’ve navigated the legislature—two chambers, 33 other senators, 163 members of the house,” he says. “We have to get it through that process before you even talk about the governor’s desk. To work with people from the same region, that should care about the same county, that should care about the same issues, and in a nonpartisan government?” It sounds a lot easier, he says.
Asked about the now moribund idea to merge St. Louis city and county, Williams neither endorsed it nor rejected it, offering some praise for the idea of more regional collaboration. But he suggested that he would work more closely with the city than Page has done, specifically referencing the tornado that ripped through the city (and a small portion of the county on May 16).
“Not one time did I see any St. Louis County leadership stand next to Cara Spencer during that crisis,” he said. “Not one time.” Would he have done so? “Oh, 100 percent,” Williams replied. “You have to, and I’m sure Buzz Westfall would’ve been there.”
He also suggests St. Louis County could have gotten more aggressive when the Kansas City Chiefs got serious about potentially leaving Arrowhead Stadium. “ I would have gotten on the phone and talked to Clark Hunt, the owner of the Chiefs, and said, ‘Before you go to Kansas, consider coming to St. Louis County,’” he says. ”And regardless of if it was a shot in the dark or not, it’s for the world to see that we know that St. Louis deserves the best football team in sports…
He adds, “I feel like we should always be telling our story better. We should always be collaborating, and we should always demand that our region have access to the best. Whether that’s the top companies, whether that’s the top sports teams, whether that’s the top people, some of the brightest people in the world should want to live here.”
Hear more from Williams on The 314 Podcast.
