With a message emphasizing the high cost of living in Rhode Island’s capital city, state Rep. David Morales announced a challenge on Monday to Providence Mayor Brett Smiley in next year’s primary election.
“It’s time City Hall worked for us,” Morales said in a video announcing his campaign.
“For too long, politicians like Brett Smiley have asked us to trust their experience while working families are struggling to get by,” Morales continued. “The cost of living is crushing us.”
Citing a ranking by real estate company Redfin, he said Providence this year became the least affordable city in America for renters.
Morales said he supports capping annual rent increases at 4% and charging a lower rate of property tax for less valuable homes.
With $1 million in his campaign account, Smiley has a more than 10-to-1 fundraising advantage over Morales, and the state lawmaker is considered an underdog in his challenge to the incumbent.
Smiley lives on the East Side, a key voting area in mayoral elections. Formerly a top official in city and state government, Smiley became mayor after winning 42% of the vote in a three-way primary in 2022.
Josh Block, a spokesman for Smiley’s campaign, said in a statement, “The election is still a year away, and Mayor Smiley is focused on governing here in Providence and protecting residents from the harmful policies of the Trump administration. There are serious challenges ahead, and we need someone with Mayor Smiley’s decades of experience in finance, management, and government to continue navigating Providence through this critical time in our city’s and our country’s history.”
Morales, a Democratic Socialist, is serving his third term as a state representative, representing the Mount Pleasant, Elmhurst and Valley sections of Providence. He will turn 27 on Tuesday, with plans to make the occasion with a fundraiser at the Narragansett Brewery in Fox Point.
Like Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic socialist who has emerged as a force in New York City politics, Morales said he believes affordability is the defining issue of the moment.
Mamdani’s win in a primary “demonstrated to us that the idea that there’s division within the Democratic Party is not so much one of ideology, but one around how we message and how we fight for the issues we care most about, specifically issues that matter the most to working people and families,” Morales said in a recent lengthy interview with The Public’s Radio and Rhode Island PBS.
Morales grew up as the son of a single mother who emigrated to an agricultural community in California from Mexico. Morales began taking college classes while in high school and he settled in Providence after graduate school at Brown University.
Morales vowed to not take contributions from special interests. He said he will fight for a better public transit system in Providence and support the construction of more housing.
