Providence mayoral race’s first forum brings Democratic party fault lines into focus

Rhode Island’s capital of Providence often serves as shorthand for the state itself. A four-candidate forum for the city’s mayoral race held Wednesday night at Brown University gestured toward even larger forces, ones comparable to those reshaping Democratic politics elsewhere. 

Three of the candidates — incumbent Mayor Brett Smiley, state Rep. David Morales, and Michael English — will vie Sept. 9 in the Democratic primary. The lone independent candidate, Allen Waters, will face the victor of that race in November’s election. So far, no Republicans have declared their candidacy. 

The race so far for the city’s highest political post has a clear path of orbit around Smiley and Morales. The places where the two men do their respective lawmaking are, like the distance between almost any two points in Rhode Island, not far apart — Providence City Hall is about a half-mile from the State House. 

Before more than 200 people in a nearly two-hour forum run and hosted by the civics initiative Brown Votes, Smiley and Morales sat next to each other but maintained their ideological distance on issues like school funding, public works, and ICE.  

“Providence police are not immigration officers,” Smiley said on stage. “They will not be immigration officers.”

Morales’ response: “As the son of an immigrant mom, I am terrified by what is happening in our community, because across our city, we are watching fascist ICE agents show up in front of our hospitals, in front of the courthouse and even our schools. Yet there is silence that comes from City Hall, with the exception of performative press conferences.”

But in a city that was awarded last year the dubious distinction of being the least affordable metro area to reside in nationwide, the widest rift remains housing — especially since Smiley on April 17 vetoed the Providence City Council’s rent stabilization ordinance, a measure whose fate now depends on a supermajority voting to override the mayor.

Rent stabilization clash heats up after Smiley follows through with the veto he warned would come

“I proudly support the city council’s proposal to cap rent hikes at 4% a year,” Morales said Wednesday. “I find it absolutely shameful that during this time of need, we have a mayor that would veto such a measure.”

Smiley, during his turn to speak, offered instead, “The underlying root cause is a housing shortage.”

Supplementing the frontrunners’ battle were Democratic candidate Michael English and Independent candidate Allen Waters, who were situated on their own ideological planes that at times intersected with those of Morales and Smiley.

The event’s student moderators explained before the event that within their one-minute time limit to answer questions, each candidate was to answer based on their own policy ideas. Candidates were not to use their allotted time to sling arrows at one another.    

All four men adhered to this principle, but the restraint also opened the path to less explicit critique. Morales would occasionally smirk or smile as Smiley answered a question. Smiley’s face remained equable throughout, and he did not smile much. 

In the mood for Mamdani?

Smiley and Morales have both embodied platforms consistent enough that they have come to represent two modes of Democratic policymaking that also seem increasingly incompatible in the Democratic field. 

The establishment-friendly Smiley has rallied against the party’s obligatory enemies, including President Donald Trump, in speeches and public appearances, and he has pursued a deficit-phobic approach in his management of the city’s finances. Conversely, this austerity has influenced anti-Smiley sentiment in the city, and it is not uncommon to see stickers on bus stops or telephone poles in Providence that declare Smiley an enemy of fun.  

Morales, meanwhile, is known for a brand of Democratic socialist-flavored, progressive populism that has made him alluring to the city’s younger voters. That has also made him a target for his Republican and Independent House colleagues, one of whom recently labeled Morales a “Temu Mamdani” on X, referring to the Chinese retailer of ultra-discounted, often low-quality goods. 

Morales’ campaign has seized the chance to portray the 27-year-old lawmaker as a candidate in the Zohran Mamdani mold, and has boasted endorsements from a variety of left-leaning politicos near and far, including, most recently on Thursday morning, fellow state lawmakers and left Democrats Sen. Sam Bell and Rep. Enrique Sanchez, who both represent different parts of Providence. 

Wednesday’s forum was split into two parts, with moderator questions in the first half and anonymously submitted audience questions in the second half. 

The Morales camp was visibly excited by the crowd-submitted question: “What is the principal lesson you’ve learned from the election of Zohran Mamdani in New York? Do you think his success is indicative of a wider and deeper trend in American municipal politics?

It was Waters’ turn to answer first. “America’s in trouble!” he began, and some of the crowd laughed, but Waters proceeded unfazed, and decried Communism as an ideology that “ultimately enslaves people,” suggesting those in the audience who pooh-poohed him “have been indoctrinated because you haven’t been educated in the proper way.”

Smiley praised Mamdani for being “a candidate that can connect with their community, that can inspire people to vote,” and Morales followed a similar line, saying that the New York mayor had engaged people who “traditionally did not engage in the political process” and voted for the first time because they felt Mamdani was listening.

“I agree with David,” said English. “I agree that people just wanted a conversation instead of fear.”

‘The largest casino in the world’

Smiley, who is set to officially kick off his reelection campaign on Monday, had a balance of nearly $1.3 million in the most recent campaign finance report from the end of 2025. Morales had $89,088. First quarter finance reports are due at the end of this month.

Both Waters and English are less moneyed than the sparring Smiley and Morales. Heading into 2026, Waters had a little over $100 in his campaign account, while English had a negative balance of $21.99.

But apropos of a city founded by a radical thinker, Wednesday night’s forum also entertained the viewpoints of both Waters and English, the latter of whom had the more unpredictable answers.

English said he decided to run because his brother was killed on North Main Street in 2023, and he wants to make the city safer. 

The Providence Journal reported in October 2025 that English spent a total of 34 months in prison across two sentences on a child molestation conviction because of his having relations with a 13 year-old girl when he was 26.  

English cited his jail time on stage briefly, using it as an example of what everyone experienced while being snowed in during February’s historic blizzard and movement around the city was briefly arrested.  

English stuck to a somewhat folksy Democratic perspective for most of the forum, but used his closing statement to pitch his big — very big — idea.

Instead of running for Congress, Allen Waters launches Providence mayoral bid as an independent

“None of us have really talked about what we were going to try to bring into the city,” English said. “I’d like to see the city of Providence bring in a casino, the largest casino in the world, at 1.1 million square feet.”

Waters, who has run for multiple offices over the years, staged himself as the only candidate who was “not at war with Donald Trump.” 

“You got two more years,” Waters said.  “Who knows who’s going to be the president after that, but we better work with what we have.”

While Waters did not really stray from the directive to avoid critiquing his rivals on stage, he did embrace more negative rhetoric, at one point calling Brown “one of the most anti-American institutions in the United States.”

Still, the Providence native often waxed lyrical about his life and love for the city and its people, and identified “Marxism, socialism, collectivism, communism” as means of suppressing people’s potential. At the conclusion of the event’s first half, in response to a question about candidates’ hopes for the future, Waters’ volume lowered to a reflective tone.

“There’s so much hope here in Providence, Rhode Island,” he said. “We just need leadership to help lift more people up, so that they can live the vision that I hope that they have in their heads.”