William Powers is a New York Republican Party political activist. Before becoming the Republican state chairman, Powers was the chairman of the Rensselaer County Republican Committee.^[1]

Powers was an aide to Senator Al D'Amato. He was elected state chairman two months after the New York Republicans had suffered a crushing defeat in the 1990 gubernatorial election. At the time, the state committee was over $1 million in debt, and Republicans controlled only 19 of New York's 62 counties. Over the next four years, Powers led a rebirth of the party which saw the election of Rudy Giuliani as mayor of New York City in 1993 and the election of George Pataki as governor in 1994.^[2]