William Ely Villafañe Ramos is a member at-large of the

Puerto Rico Senate The Senate of Puerto Rico () is the upper house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the territorial legislature of Puerto Rico. The Senate, together with the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico, control the legislative branch of ...

. He is also the Chief of Staff of Puerto Rico from 2017 to 2018. Villafañe was a candidate for

Resident Commissioner Resident commissioner was or is an official title of several different types of commissioners, who were or are representatives of any level of government. Historically, they were appointed by the British Crown in overseas protectorates (such a ...

in the November 2024 election.

Early life and education

Villafañe Ramos was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico on June 16, 1977. The son of Ada Irma Ramos Medina, a public school teacher and William Villafañe Andújar, a former baseball player, is the father of two sons. Villafañe Ramos is married to a scholar psychologist. Before becoming a lawyer, Villafañe Ramos studied at Bernardo González Colón Elementary School, Francisco Ramos Junior High School and Luis Muñoz Rivera High School in Utuado, Puerto Rico. An alumnus of the

University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez The University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus (UPRM) or Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez (RUM) in Spanish (also referred to as Colegio and CAAM in allusion to its former name), is a Public university, public land-grant university in Mayagüez ...

, in which he obtained a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, majoring in accounting, he later attended the

Interamerican University of Puerto Rico School of Law The Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, Faculty of Law () is the school of law of the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico, a private co-educational corporation accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (Commissi ...

, from which he obtained a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

Career

In the political arena, in 1995 he served as President of the New Progressive Party's Youth in Utuado. He was the President and founder of the Pro-Statehood University Students in Action movement at the Mayagüez Campus of the University of Puerto Rico. In 2002, he was elected President of the State Youth. During 2004 he was a member of the Platform Committee of the New Progressive Party. Later on, he acted as Operations Director for "Plan for Puerto Rico". In 2016 he was designated Secretary General of the New Progressive Party. Villafañe Andújar was Legislative Assistant at the Treasury Committee of the House of Representatives (1999), Administrator of the Commission of Public Service (2000), Director of the Legislative Committees on Housing and Urban Development, Comptroller's Reports and Families and Communities (2005), Advisor to agencies and government departments such as the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, Office of the Commissioner of Municipal Αffairs and the Authority for Housing Financing (2010) and Chief Executive of the Commission for Public Service (2013). Also, in 2017, he was appointed Chief of Staff by Governor Ricardo Rosselló Nevares. Villafañe Ramos was elected Senator at-large in 2019 as a candidate of the New Progressive Party. He was sworn in and appointed President of the Committee on Energy as well as of the Public-Private Alliances Committee. In 2020, he was re-elected and appointed member of the Committee on Designations. Treasury Committee, Federal Affairs and Oversight Board Committee, Committee on Compliance and Restructuring, Committee on Economic Development, Essential Services and Consumer Affairs and the Committee on the Development of the Southern Central Region. Villafañe is well known as a pro-statehood leader in Puerto Rico. He is a former

Secretary-General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, Power (social and political), power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the org ...

(2016) of the New Progressive Party (PNP in Spanish), the only pro-statehood party in Puerto Rico. On the 2020 plebiscite, he coordinated the efforts to achieve the victory of the statehood option (53%). Villafañe won his chair as senator at-large on November 16, 2019. In November 2020, he was re-elected, with the most votes of his party fellows, as senator at-large for a new four-year-term. Villafañe identifies as a member of the Republican Party. He was the Puerto Rico campaign manager for the

Ben Carson 2016 presidential campaign The 2016 presidential campaign of Ben Carson, a Neurosurgery, pediatric neurosurgeon and The New York Times Best Seller list, bestselling author, was announced May 3, 2015, in an interview with a local television station in Cincinnati, Ohio. He ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Villafane, William 1977 births Chiefs of staff of Puerto Rico Interamerican University of Puerto Rico alumni Republican Party (Puerto Rico) politicians Living people New Progressive Party members of the Senate of Puerto Rico People from Utuado, Puerto Rico University of Puerto Rico alumni Candidates in the 2024 United States House of Representatives elections 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico