Discussing the progressive election night wins with the Working Families Party’s Anusha Venkataraman
| The WFP’s Anusha Venkataraman addresses the crowd at Riffraff |
The day after David Morales’ historic Democratic Primary win in the Providence Mayoral race, I sat down with Anusha Venkataraman, the Rhode Island State Director of the Working Families Party (RIWFP). The RIWFP is celebrating a wave of primary victories that “mark a generational shift in Rhode Island politics, as working-class champions won across the ballot.”
Alongside Morales, the RIWFP helped House District 7
candidate Amy Santiago sail to victory, as well as Providence City
Council candidates Miguel Martinez Youngs (Ward 1), Yulyana Torres
(Ward 3), Jackie Goldman (Ward 5), AnnaJane Yolkien (Ward 13), Justin
Roias (Ward 4), and Miguel Sanchez (Ward 6). Every RIWFP-endorsed
candidate in Providence won their primary.
The following has been edited for clarity:
Anusha Venkataraman: We’re so excited to sweep our
Providence races, and some races we thought would be close didn’t end up close.
The closest ones were incumbents. Overall, incumbents didn’t do well statewide,
and the incumbents who did win had the Progressive Coalition’s backing. We saw
that in Providence, and we saw it with our other incumbents statewide who also
faced challenges from the business lobby.
Steve Ahlquist: The League
of RI Businesses didn’t win any races. That’s a lot of money they
flushed down the toilet. That makes me feel pretty good; you shouldn’t be able
to game the system and win races.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, Steve is right to point out how badly LORIB was beaten in their attempt to game the Democratic Primary, but they're not quite done. They have a number of candidates they are backing in the November 3 General Election, especially in South County. These include incumbent MAGA Senator Elaine Morgan, and MAGA challengers to state Reps. Carol McEntee, Kathy Fogarty and Megan Cotter. Sen. Victoria Gu, who represents the southern half of Charlestown, faces a LORIB-backed MAGA guy she's already beaten twice.
We need to help Sam Wilcox unseat Elaine Morgan and we must defeat the remaining LORIB acolytes. - Will Collette

























