In 2018 and 2020, Williams ran, unsuccessfully, as the Democratic nominee for Montana's at-large seat in the United States House of Representatives.

[2] Her father was a U.S. Army soldier who served in World War II;[3][4] much of her childhood was spent as a "military brat".

[1][10] After holding a series of jobs,[9] Williams enrolled at Colorado State University where she received a master's degree in recreation resources.

[11] Williams worked for a time for the United States Forest Service[12] as well as several private conservation and recreation organizations in the west.

[11] As an EQC staffer, she also served as a member of the staff of the Montana House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources,[15] where she took the lead on water policy issues.

[16] Williams left the Environmental Quality Council after four years and took a job in 1999 as a Water Program Manager with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

[b] Williams also founded and managed Jetway Geographer, which published natural history guides and distributed them on airplanes.

[11] Three-term incumbent Brady Wiseman (D) was retiring from office,[22] and Williams faced Bethan Letiecq in the Democratic primary election.

Letiecq emphasized her experience lobbying the state legislature on grandparental rights and immigration, as well as her work for the General Accountability Office, a federal agency.

She said her work in the legislature would focus on improving Montana's economy by promoting sustainable industries and on developing a state energy policy.

615) which required health insurance companies to provide routine cancer treatment to patients in clinical trials.

Mahan focused his campaign on improving the economy, opposing expansion in the size of government, lowering taxes, and "keeping MSU thriving".

Williams said she was open to a tuition freeze at MSU, but also wanted to improve pay for faculty and staff at the school.

[3] Williams helped write a bill which ordered a study of whether water wells and septic systems should be exempt from environmental regulation.

The tribes had threatened to sue to enforce their rights in the Montana Water Court, litigation that might have taken years to resolve and cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars.

[49] Williams again agreed to shepherd the Compact and Ordinance for the Flathead Reservation Water Rights Settlement during the 2015 legislative session.

[16] [52] She later said she decided not to seek a fourth term in the Montana House of Representatives in order to run for federal office.

[53] In 2014, Williams took a position as an associate director for water policy issues at the Western Landowners Alliance,[9] a nonprofit group of private landowners that formed in 2011 to serve as a clearinghouse on science and strategies to create economically viable, sustainable ranches and other working lands while also protecting watersheds and wildlife.

[53] She believed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, promoted and signed into law by President Donald Trump, was fiscally irresponsible.

A proponent of legal immigration, Williams said she supported ideas put forth by border-state legislators to use modern technology to strengthen the border with Mexico.

[41] Williams began her campaign emphasizing her experience and success as a Democratic lawmaker in a Republican-controlled legislature,[6][4][10] her ability to appeal to both parties while serving as nonpartisan legislative staff,[10] and her work for private farmers and ranchers in promoting conservation.

[56] Lacking the funds to run television advertisements statewide, Williams's ad buys focused on geographic areas where she believed she could boost her vote totals (such as Missoula County).

[55] Ads on her healthcare ideas featured her work helping constituents and her own mother's battle with Alzheimer's disease, which political observers felt were highly effective.

[6] After the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Williams came out with several gun control proposals.

[8] A gun owner,[41] hunter, and sport shooter, Williams advocated for universal background checks and a ban on bump stocks.

[56] Robert Saldin, a professor of political science at the University of Montana, observed that where Williams didn't win, she came in second.

Moreover, although other candidates showed large vote totals only in pockets across the state, Williams ran strongly statewide.

For example, she would pursue an irrigation project for sugar beet farmers in Sidney, build a levee to protect Miles City from flooding, and address the 20-year asbestos health crisis in Libby.

[66] Williams married Tom Pick,[1] an agricultural development contractor during the Iraq War,[4] in the rotunda of the Montana State Capitol building in 2001.