RI Working Families Party: Working-class champions win across Rhode Island
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| Megan won by 20 points. Other South County Democratic women were endorsed by RIWFP and won: Rep. Teresa Tanzi, Sen. Victoria Gu and Sen. Alana DiMario |
The Rhode Island Working
Families Party (RIWFP) is celebrating massive general election
victories that mark growing power for working people in Rhode Island state
politics. Two first-time candidates – Veronicka Vega and Dr. Nelly
Burdette – unseated conservative, corporate-backed Republican and
independent incumbents, joining working-class voters nationwide in delivering a
clear message: enough is enough.
Dr. Nelly Burdette, a clinical psychologist and Lincoln mom, unseated Senate Deputy Minority Leader Thomas Paolino in Senate District 17. She will be the first woman to represent the district and the first psychologist in the Rhode Island Senate. [See: Nelly Burdette is running for State Senate District 17]
In Woonsocket, Veronicka Vega defeated Representative
Jon Brien, Rhode Island State Chair of the corporate lobby ALEC, and will be the first person of color to
represent House District 49 – or any Woonsocket seat. [See: Veronicka
Vega wants to represent Rhode Island House District 49, Woonsocket and North
Smithfield]
RIWFP and our partners built and powered both campaigns, without significant help from the Democratic Party establishment. For the past six weeks, volunteers have been hitting doors, holding phonebanks, and texting voters to get out the vote for these two working-family champions. These wins enable both the WFP-aligned Senators and Representatives and the Democratic caucus to pick up a seat in each chamber.
The Party also defended most seats in the WFP caucus, including Representative Megan Cotter (Democrat, District 39, Exeter/Hopkinton/Richmond), a seat Republicans have targeted for years. You can view the full list of endorsed candidates here.
In Providence, David Morales and a WFP-backed City
Council majority head to City Hall with a mandate to deliver rent stabilization
in their first 100 days. [See: Introducing
Providence Mayor-elect David Morales]
State Senator-elect Nelly Burdette (Democrat, District 17,
Lincoln/North Providence/North Smithfield)
“Rhode Island is at an inflection point, and tonight voters
chose leaders who will step into the breach instead of defending the status
quo,” said Anusha Venkataraman, Rhode Island State Director for the Working
Families Party. “Nelly and Veronicka won because working people organized
for them door by door, without waiting for the party establishment to show up.
Voters are hungry for candidates who are rooted in their communities and the
issues they live with every day, not in the party machine.
“Put that next to what just happened in Providence, and the
picture is clear,” continued Venkataraman. “We’ve spent ten years
building this power, election by election and seat by seat, until working
people have the numbers to set the agenda, not just fight to get on it. Now we
have a governing majority in City Hall and a growing bloc in the State House. In
the next 100 days, Providence will move to pass rent stabilization, fund our
schools fairly as they return to local control, and build a City Hall that
answers to residents instead of donors.”
The victories were powered by the largest coalition of
working-class organizations Rhode Island has seen in years: RIWFP, Reclaim
RI, SEIU 1199 New England and the RI SEIU State Council, AFT
6516, the Providence Teachers Union, and tenant organizations, all
running on a shared slate and governing agenda.
