Socialist Legislators Are Taking on Rhode Island’s Ultraconservative Democrats
They vote against party leaders, fight for Medicare for All, and invite Democratic Socialists of America to help draft legislation. Meet Rhode Island’s socialist state legislators, Sam Bell and David Morales.
Rhode Island State Representative David Morales and State Senator Sam Bell. (Courtesy of Daniel Crowell)
In 2018, Senator Sam Bell was the first member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) to be elected to the Rhode Island General Assembly. Representative David Morales followed in 2020, becoming the youngest Latino state legislator in the country at age twenty-two.
Daniel Crowell, cochair of DSA’s Providence chapter, sat down with Bell and Morales to discuss the dirty tricks of the Rhode Island political establishment, the relationship between their offices and DSA, how they’re standing up to an ultraconservative and corrupt state Democratic Party in order to win real gains for the working class, and the renewed prospects for socialist politics today.
Daniel Crowell
Why did you run for office?
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