The Rhode Island Working Families Party has endorsed a slate of seven Democratic candidates running for mayor and City Council in Providence this year, calling the move its “first major intervention” in the city’s politics.
In a statement published July 1, the party said the endorsements are a response to what it deems an affordability crisis in the city, pointing specifically to an ongoing fight over a rent stabilization ordinance that would have capped annual rent increases at 4 percent. The Providence City Council initially passed the measure in a 9-6 vote in April, but Mayor Brett Smiley vetoed it soon after.
The City Council later met in a special meeting to consider an override of Smiley’s veto, but that effort failed by a single vote. Local media reported that 10 votes were required to override the veto, with five of the six members who initially opposed the cap absent from the meeting.
“Reporting has since shown that at least one councilor who voted against the override raised the bulk of her campaign funds from landlords, property managers, and real estate investors in the weeks before the vote,” the party claims in its statement.
The endorsed slate includes State Rep. David Morales, who is challenging Smiley for mayor, Miguel Martinez Youngs in Ward 1, Yulyana Torres in Ward 3, Jackie Goldman in Ward 5, and AnnaJane “AJ” Yolken in Ward 13. The party is also backing incumbent councilors Justin Roias in Ward 4 and Miguel Sanchez in Ward 6 for reelection.
All seven are running as Democrats, with the Rhode Island Working Families Party offering organizational support. Each candidate faces at least one primary opponent in Providence’s September 9 party primaries.
“Every candidate on this slate has shown they will be bold and fight for an affordable, accountable, and people-driven city,” Anusha Venkataraman, state director for the Rhode Island Working Families Party, said in the statement. “This endorsement is RIWFP’s clearest signal yet that we are building power up and down the ballot, fortifying progressive leadership at every level of government, from City Hall to the State House.”
The party said the slate is meant to establish a governing bloc built around housing affordability, rent stabilization, and local control as Providence schools return to city oversight after several years under state control. It also said its endorsements are part of a larger coalescence of the left around the same vision, adding that Reclaim RI and SEIU, the Service Employees International Union, have already backed Morales, with Reclaim RI also supporting the rest of the council slate.
“For years, the vision of a City Hall and City Council truly run for and by the people has remained out of focus, blocked by an entrenched political establishment beholden to landlords and developers,” the statement reads. “This slate is RIWFP’s opportunity to bring that vision into focus: a slate of candidates who not only share that vision but are committed to working together, as a governing bloc and alongside allies in the General Assembly, to actually deliver it.”
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