Madam President: R.I. Senate picks Lawson to lead with Ciccone as her No. 2

On Monday morning, Sen Valarie Lawson’s eyes brimmed with tears as she hugged fellow lawmakers walking out of the funeral Mass honoring the late Senate President Dominick Ruggerio. 

Less than 36 hours later, Lawson embraced colleagues again after she was elected as the chamber’s new president. Lawson, 58, an East Providence Democrat, will be the chamber’s fifth president and its second female leader, filling the vacancy left after Ruggerio died on April 21.

Lawson secured nearly two-thirds of support among the 36 other state senators during Tuesday’s leadership elections at the Rhode Island State House, with 24 votes in a three-way contest against Sen. Ryan Pearson, a Cumberland Democrat, and Senate Minority Leader Jessica de la Cruz, a North Smithfield Republican. Pearson secured eight votes, all Democrats, while de la Cruz claimed all four Senate Republican votes.

Sen. Leonidas Raptakis, a Coventry Democrat, abstained.

Yet tensions linger in the State House’s upper chamber amid concerns over potential conflicts of interest with Lawson’s day job as head of the state teachers union and her surprising alliance with conservative Democratic Sen. Frank Ciccone.

Ciccone, a Providence Democrat, was elected as Senate majority leader during the party caucus, having teamed up with Lawson on a slate ticket confirmed last week. Both Lawson and Ciccone faced challenges from within their own party; Pearson, a Cumberland Democrat, also sought the president role, while Sen. Alana DiMario, a Narragansett Democrat, was put up as an alternative to Ciccone for the majority leader role.

Nearly one-third of Democrats backed Pearson and an even higher share — 10 — threw their support behind DiMario during the party caucus Tuesday.

Addressing the chamber following the election, Lawson pledged to “work tirelessly” and with “utmost respect” for her fellow senators.

“Thank you, thank you, your trust in me means more than I can ever express,” Lawson said. “Serving as president of the Rhode Island Senate will truly be the honor of a lifetime.”

First elected in 2018, Lawson is a former high school history teacher. She has served as president of the National Education Association of Rhode Island since 2023 — the same year she became Senate majority whip following the death of former whip Maryellen Goodwin. Lawson ascended within the chamber again last year, when Ruggerio picked her as his second-in-command, replacing Pearson after a falling out between the two allies.

Conflicting interests 

Speaking to reporters after the votes, Lawson dismissed concerns about potential conflicts between her union job and the Senate leadership role. She noted she has sought advisory opinions from the state ethics panel previously regarding potential overlap, though none specific to her new role as Senate president.

As the chamber’s leader, Lawson now has outsized power to negotiate across the rotunda with the House and decide which bills advance to the Senate floor, setting the stage for conflicts on a host of education-related issues, said John Marion, executive director for Common Cause Rhode Island.

Senate rank-and-file members can recuse themselves by not voting or leaving the dais or even the room when their jobs or personal relationships conflict with legislative business, Marion said in an interview Monday.

“The Senate president, the buck stops there,” Marion said. “It makes recusal an insufficient tool for dealing with potential conflicts of interest.”

Similarly, as president of the 12,000-member state teachers union, Lawson holds key decision-making power over its legislative agenda and policy priorities. Ruggerio, who worked as an administrator for a branch of the Laborers’ International Union of North America, stepped down from his union job when he was elected as Senate president in 2017. 

Sen. Ana Quezada, a Providence Democrat, questioned Lawson’s ability to fairly consider bills related to the state takeover of Providence Public Schools. Quezada backed Pearson for Senate president for this reason.

“My organization doesn’t represent Providence,” Lawson said, speaking to reporters after the vote. Providence teachers are represented instead by the Providence Teachers Union, a local of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals and the American Federation of Teachers.

Lawson pledged to continue her “due diligence” regarding potential conflicts of interest, which may include seeking a new advisory opinion from the Rhode Island Ethics Commission, though she did not commit either way.

With less than two months until the Rhode Island General Assembly concludes its 2025 session, Lawson’s immediate focus turns to the chamber’s legislative priorities. She stressed a variety of health care bills, including increasing reimbursement rates for primary care providers and a study panel considering a state medical school as two examples. She was noncommittal when asked about a state ban on assault-style weapons, despite being a co-sponsor on the Senate legislation.

“We’ll go through the process and see what happens,” she said.

Much like Ruggerio, who has long opposed state-level restrictions on guns, Ciccone said he would oppose the assault weapons ban as currently drafted. Ciccone is a licensed federal firearms dealer who sells guns out of the basement of his Silver Lake home; he also voted against the safe storage mandate signed into law in 2024.

‘Strong enough for two strong women’

Ciccone’s voting record on guns, along with reproductive rights and protections for the LGBTQ+ community, rankled progressive lawmakers and advocacy groups. Sen. Pamela Lauria, a Barrington Democrat, nominated DiMario as an alternative to Ciccone for majority leader during the party caucus Tuesday.

“We all deserve to vote for someone we believe in,” Lauria said, insisting the Senate was “strong enough for two strong women.”

DiMario, a Narragansett Democrat, lost the bid for second-in-command to Ciccone by 12 votes, with one abstention from Sen. Lammis Vargas, a Cranston Democrat. Most of DiMario’s supporters also backed Pearson for president, though some split their support between the competing sides.

Quezada backed Pearson for president but Ciccone for majority leader. In an interview, she cited Ciccone’s support for licenses for undocumented immigrants and labor protections as reasons why he secured her vote.

Sen. Jonathon Acosta, a Central Falls Democrat, also backed DiMario but abstained from choosing between Pearson and Lawson for president during the caucus. (He voted for Pearson during the floor vote, though). 

“I would much rather be spending time with my kids right now, grilling some food, smoking a joint and having a drink,” Acosta said. “On the days this job has felt like we’re doing something, it’s worth it. For the last year and a half, this job has felt like political theater.”

Drama descended upon the Senate early last year, after a private falling out between Ruggerio and Pearson became public. The conflict between the two occurred after Pearson visited Ruggerio at his home to discuss Ruggerio’s health and his ability to lead.

At the same time, Ruggerio confirmed his third diagnosis with cancer; his health struggles forced him to miss long stretches of the 2024 session and nearly all of the 2025 legislative session, as well as much of the door-to-door campaigning leading up to his reelection in November. 

Pearson unsuccessfully attempted to oust Ruggerio from the president seat during a caucus after the November election, airing tensions brewing for months between opposing factions of Senate Democrats. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Pearson said he felt vindicated in his prior insistence that Ruggerio’s illnesses had compromised his leadership, and in turn, the chamber’s function.

Vindicated

“My worst nightmare, what I was trying to prevent for this chamber, has played out exactly as I had a nightmare about it,” Pearson said.

He relayed a very different series of events than Ruggerio regarding the aftermath of their closed-door conversation last year. As Pearson tells it, when he went to the then-president with concerns about Ruggerio’s health, Ruggerio hugged him, and thanked him for his honesty. It was only after other senators got in Ruggerio’s ear, convincing him that Pearson’s concern was actually a power grab, that Ruggerio turned on Pearson, Pearson said.

Sen. Dawn Euer, a Newport Democrat, admitted during the floor session Tuesday that she believed the “rumors” spread about Pearson last year, but changed her mind after seeing Ruggerio’s health firsthand as former chair of the Senate Committee on Judiciary.

Euer alleged Pearson was “bullied” by other senators to advance their own interests.

“We need leadership that is going to tell the truth to members of this chamber, even when it’s hard,” Euer said.

While the battle between Pearson and Lawson for president was not a close vote, it could have been. Pearson alleged he had verbal support from nearly half of the chamber’s Senate Democrats even a day prior, including from Ciccone, who agreed to back Pearson as president if he was made majority leader.

Ciccone could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday night. 

In the frenzy of phone calls leading up to Tuesday’s leadership elections, one conversation never happened: between Pearson and Lawson. Pearson said his calls to Lawson went unanswered, noting that she has not responded to his calls or texts for a year.

Lawson walked away when asked by reporters about discussions with Pearson for a potential leadership slate.

The Senate will reconvene at 4 p.m. Wednesday; the only item on its agenda is a tribute to Ruggerio. 

A special election will be held later this year to fill the Senate District 4 seat spanning sections of Providence and North Providence held by Ruggerio since 1985; a date has not been determined.