Though the 2025 General Assembly session is over in Rhode Island, all eyes remain on House Speaker Joe Shekarchi. The Warwick Democrat is a potential candidate for governor, potentially setting the stage for a three-way primary with incumbent Dan McKee and former CVS executive Helena Foulkes. Back and forth between McKee and Shekarchi over the state budget this week may be a preview of more clashes to come. This week on Political Roundtable, I’m going in-depth with Rhode Island House Speaker Joe...
Jun 27, 2025•4 min
The rise of Val Lawson as president of the Rhode Island Senate put questions of conflict of interest front and center at the Statehouse this year. That’s because Lawson also serves as president of one of the state’s largest teachers’ unions. Lawson says she’s capable of policing her own potential conflicts, and the Rhode Island Ethics Commission offered an ok for her dual roles as president. But Lawson’s number two is a longtime former labor official and labor remains an influential special inte...
Jun 20, 2025•4 min
Republicans run the show in Washington, D.C., these days, but the GOP remains on the margins in Rhode Island. The state hasn’t elected a Republican governor since 2006 and the party holds just 14 of 113 seats in the General Assembly. Back in 2022, Ashley Kalus got almost 39 percent of the vote as the GOP alternative to Democrat Dan McKee. But Kalus faced a handicap since she was a recent transplant to Rhode Island, and her share of the vote was similar to what a generic candidate might receive. ...
Jun 13, 2025•4 min
For people who want to ban new sales of so-called assault weapons in Rhode Island, this is the best of times AND the most uncertain of times. For years, supporters called on lawmakers to take a vote. This week, the House of Representatives put its support behind the bill. The legislation to ban new sales of guns defined as assault weapons is seen as having the support to make it through a vote by the full state Senate. But therein lies the rub. To get to the Senate floor, the bill first has to w...
Jun 06, 2025•4 min
Rhode Island Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos is expected to face competition from fellow Democrats when she seeks re-election next year. That is due to how a signature-gathering controversy dragged down her First Congressional District campaign in 2023. She finished fourth in the 12-way Democratic primary, with just 8% of the vote. But Matos is already staking out the ground to defend her job as lieutenant governor and perhaps one day climb higher in local politics. She’s speaking out about imm...
May 30, 2025•4 min
Rhode Island’s capital city of Providence has experienced dramatic ups and downs over time. These days, the city is still trying to bounce back from the loss of office workers and shrinking foot traffic caused by the pandemic. Providence has a lot of assets, including a strong sense of place, a great restaurant scene and […] The post Providence Foundation Executive Director David Salvatore on city finances, downtown’s future, and more appeared first on TPR: The Public's Radio ....
May 23, 2025•4 min
Pawtucket got a recent lift when the city’s newish soccer team, Rhode Island FC, played to a sold-out crowd during the home opener at the new stadium there. There are plans for new housing to be built near the Centerville Bank Stadium and boosters of the stadium hope it will catalyze more growth. But Pawtucket has also wrestled with challenges in recent years, including the loss of the PawSox and the closing of Memorial Hospital. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is causing uncertainty for the...
May 16, 2025•4 min
Standing up for civil liberties tends to be a busy job. That’s even more true with President Trump pushing the bounds of executive power on a variety of fronts. Trump has raised the focus on deportations, cut funding for elite universities and targeted his opponents. A series of court battles will decide the outcome of some of these conflicts. For now, it’s unclear how Trump’s second tenure in the White House will change America and if the president and his allies can succeed in moving the count...
May 09, 2025•4 min
About 47 percent of registered voters ages 18 to 29 cast ballots in the U.S. presidential election last year. That’s less than the overall voting participation of 64 percent, but it shows how young people are playing a bigger role in national elections. At the same time, a recent Harvard Youth Poll found that more than 4 in 10 Americans under age 30 say they’re barely getting by financially, and just 15 percent believe the country is headed in the right direction. Fewer than one-third of these y...
May 02, 2025•4 min
The median price of a home in Rhode Island is now the once unimaginable sum of almost $500,000. State leaders have tried for a few years to address the housing crisis, and tens of millions of dollars have been directed against the problem. But progress has been slow. The housing crisis began a long time ago, so it’s understandable that moving forward takes time. But that offers little solace for people hurt by the high cost and lack of housing they can afford, and the situation restricts efforts...
Apr 25, 2025•4 min
The latest showdown involving President Trump centers on whether the White House violated a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. The court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the release of a Maryland man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, after he was mistakenly deported to a prison in El Salvador. A federal judge criticized Trump officials earlier this week for not following up on the order. Democrats say the standoff raises vital questions of due process, while the Trump administration accuses ...
Apr 18, 2025•4 min
For now, it's unclear if Trump will be able to deliver on his promise to increase prosperity by bringing more manufacturing back to the US. Rodin was a hub of industry 100 years ago, and state leaders have struggled for decades to bolster the state's economy. So is Trump on the right track by trying to wind back globalization or is his approach a recipe for chaos and uncertainty? Does voter discontent with the status quo offer an opening for Rhode Island Republicans, and is Trump's overall appro...
Apr 11, 2025•4 min
The amount of money used to operate state government in Rhode Island has grown by 5 and a half billion dollars over the last 10 years, to $14.2 billion. Now, President Trump has put a spotlight on efforts to cut government agencies and reduce federal spending. Critics say Trump is dismantling vital services, while his supporters mostly tout this as a way to cut waste and fraud. The chainsaw approach embraced by Elon Musk is being felt here in Rhode Island, since almost $100 million in federal fu...
Apr 04, 2025•4 min
It was almost three years ago when Rhode Island became the 19th state to legalize adult-use recreational marijuana. Supporters praised the move as a way to generate state revenue, keep money from migrating to Massachusetts and ensure a safe product for users. Rhode Island’’s approach was touted for including so-called social equity elements to help people hurt by the war on drugs. Three years later, though, the state has yet to move ahead with issuing licenses for 24 new pot shops. There are als...
Mar 28, 2025•4 min
Advocating for low- and moderate-income Rhode Islanders can be an uphill battle during the best of times. Now, with the Trump administration cutting various federal programs, the challenge is steeper. When it comes to promoting economic fairness, progressives have argued for years that the richest Rhode Islanders should pay a little more in taxes. They say their latest proposal would deliver much-needed revenue as Rhode Island once again confronts annual budget deficits far into the future. Exec...
Mar 14, 2025•4 min
State Senator Alana DiMario of Narragansett is a mental health counselor who first won election in 2020. She’s one of a number of progressive policy-oriented Democratic women lawmakers who have moved the General Assembly a bit to the left over the last decade. But Rhode Island still faces familiar challenges, including an uneven economy, a tough fiscal outlook and underperforming public schools. In the Rhode Island Senate, change will come at some point since the chamber’s president, Dominick Ru...
Mar 07, 2025•4 min
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha is among a number of Democratic attorneys general suing the Trump administration. The litigation covers a range of issues: Elon Musk and his leading role in wielding a chainsaw against the federal government; Trump’s attempt to freeze billions in federal funding for the states; and the ability of transgender people to serve in the military. While Neronha is a Democratic elected official, he says these lawsuits are responding to violations of the law. B...
Feb 28, 2025•4 min
Republicans are riding high in Washington, with control of the White House, the U.S. Senate and the House. Back here in Rhode Island, the GOP faces a very different situation. The party holds just 14 of 113 legislative seats -- a number that remained unchanged after November’s elections. One bright spot for the local GOP: the Republican leader in the Rhode Island Senate, Jessica de la Cruz. She’s among the most visible members of her party in the state and she offered a sharp response to Democra...
Feb 21, 2025•4 min
Rhode Island’s capital city, Providence, is overwhelmingly Democratic. But that doesn’t mean the city is beyond reach of the sweeping changes in government being promoted by President Donald Trump and his supporters. Even under the best of circumstances, Providence struggles to generate enough revenue to pay for city government. And despite decades of talk about the need to improve Providence schools, that goal remains elusive. The man responsible for taking on these challenges is Providence May...
Feb 14, 2025•4 min
Rhode Island’s largest hospital group, Lifespan, changed its name last June to Brown University Health. The name change and related agreements were billed as a way to improve patient care, medical education and biomedical research in the state. But making headway against Rhode Island’s healthcare challenges is more difficult than changing a name. The state suffers from a lack of primary care doctors. Reimbursement rates for Medicaid and Medicare are lower than in neighboring states, putting Rhod...
Feb 07, 2025•4 min
Linda Ujifusa, a Portsmouth Democrat, first won election to the Rhode Island Senate in 2022. As a progressive woman, she exemplifies how the General Assembly has changed over the last 10 years. Ujifusa is a California native and Harvard-educated lawyer. She was among the senators who pushed unsuccessfully during a November caucus for different leadership in the chamber. The concern was that Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, now 76, was dealing with too many health issues to effectively lead th...
Jan 31, 2025•4 min
A new era in American politics started with the return of Donald Trump to the White House this week. The effect is already being felt across the country due to a volley of executive orders signed by Trump. Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee, a Democrat, was an early supporter of Joe Biden in 2020 and he now faces the task of leading the state’s response to the Trump administration. During his State of the State address last week, McKee offered a positive message about the future. While it’s true th...
Jan 24, 2025•4 min
Elected officials in Rhode Island have been trying to reinvent the state’s economy practically since the Great Depression -- and it remains a work in progress. During his State of the State speech on Tuesday, Governor Dan McKee cited an upbeat message. He says Rhode Island is flipping the script on outdated narratives about being an economic laggard. But polling shows Rhode Islanders do not share McKee’s optimism about the state being headed in the right direction. The state still lacks the kind...
Jan 17, 2025•4 min
Rhode Island House Speaker Joe Shekarchi starts 2025 in an enviable position. He has overwhelming support from the members who make up the House of Representatives -- and won re-election as speaker this week with 62 of 75 votes. Shekarchi has more than $3 million in his campaign account -- and that gives the Warwick Democrat a lot of flexibility if Governor Dan McKee decides against seeking re-election next year. But Rhode Island faces a tougher fiscal climate due to the end of federal COVID aid...
Jan 10, 2025•4 min
Ryan Pearson’s term as the second-ranking member of the Rhode Island Senate will formally end Tuesday. During a Democratic Senate caucus in November, Pearson lost a challenge to Senate President Dominick Ruggerio, and Senate Whip Val Lawson won the support to take over Pearson’s role in the legislative session starting next week. More fallout is expected. All this comes as legislators will wrestle with a big budget deficit and thorny issues including housing, healthcare and the economy. Pearson ...
Jan 03, 2025•4 min
Almost 66 percent of Rhode Island voters approved a November ballot question asking if they wanted to borrow $120 million to create more housing. But there are also signs around the state of a housing backlash, with some residents and local officials opposing the development needed to expand the housing stock. And the median price of a home in Rhode Island is now $480,000, about 12% higher than one year earlier. Here we are as the state tries to dig its way out of a housing crisis that developed...
Dec 20, 2024•4 min
Rhode Island’s two-member U.S. House delegation has turned over in the last few years. In the Second District, Congressman Jim Langevin dropped a surprise announcement in 2022 that he would not seek re-election after 22 years in office. Then First District Congressman David Cicilline, initially elected in 2010, made his unexpected departure last year. That latter move opened the door for Gabe Amo, a son of West African immigrants, to become the first person of color to represent Rhode Island in ...
Dec 13, 2024•4 min
The intense downpours causing more street flooding in the region in recent years reflect the impact of climate change. At the other end of the weather spectrum, Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee this week issued a statewide drought advisory. But there’s some good news when it comes to the health of Narragansett Bay. Water quality has improved so much that Crescent Park Beach in East Providence will be reopened as a swimmable beach in 2026, after more than a century of non-use. Jed Thorp is on the ...
Dec 06, 2024•3 min
Nirva LaFortune emerged on Rhode Island’s political scene in 2017. That’s when she won a special election to represent Ward 3 on the East Side on the Providence City Council. LaFortune brought a new perspective and she was the first Haitian-American to win political office in Rhode Island. Five years later, in 2022, LaFortune placed third while running for mayor of Providence. She now serves as executive director of City Year Providence, a nonprofit that recruits young adults for a year of servi...
Nov 22, 2024•4 min
Rhode Island voters recently approved $73 million in borrowing to enhance the Institute for Cybersecurity and Emerging Technologies at Rhode Island College. The 60% vote in favor of Question 2 underscores public confidence in the idea that education can help improve the local economy. Voters also approved $87 million for a life sciences center at URI. At Rhode Island College, the man leading the charge is Jack Warner. He is being inaugurated today as RIC’s permanent president after more than two...
Nov 15, 2024•4 min
