Raffi Williams

Raffi Williams spent a lot of his youth playing on his Nintendo Game Boy in television green rooms, unfazed by the likes of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) or Karl Rove sitting nearby.

“For me, it was just like, Oh whatever, this is just my dad’s job,” said the Republican National Committee deputy press secretary.

{mosads}These days, Williams, who’s the son of Fox News Channel commentator and The Hill columnist Juan Williams, has traded the Game Boy for what Washington does best. Politics, he said, is his new “hobby.”

Prior to his current gig, Williams worked as a spokesman for Rep. Dan Benishek’s (R-Mich.) successful 2012 reelection campaign and as the deputy communications director for the Republican Study Committee. 

Williams says he digs the club scene and cultivated a love of electronic music during his time interning with China Daily in Beijing as a teenager and studying abroad in Berlin during college. But he also enjoys 1940s big band music, and most often finds himself at home reading the news or spending time with the fam (his older brother, Antonio, also made the cut on this year’s 50 Most Beautiful list).

“Occasionally I go out at night, but most of the time I go home and hang with my family,” he said.

And though he dresses in a classic, preppy style, Williams likes to get wild with his socks — which feature animals, art or wild colors on any given day — and chronicles them on his Instagram account.

“I like dressing well, and I think that men’s fashion is best when it’s done simply, and so that has limited ability to be flashy with it. But socks are definitely a place where you can infuse your personality into your wardrobe,” he said.

Williams is adventurous with more than just his sartorial choices — he’ll gladly tell you about the time he laughed off a group of tween ex-pats looking to pick a fight with him during his summer abroad in China, or the time he taught a Berlin bar full of tipsy Germans a complicated drinking game with a barely proficient grasp of the language.

The spokesman says he’s currently single but looking for the right gal. And although he makes a living off of being a professional talker, ladies will have to get this public relations pro comfortable before he’s willing to open up about himself.

“The most nervous I get is talking about myself,” Williams said with a smile.

— Alexandra Jaffe