NYC’s Ties to a Big Socialist Win in Providence, Rhode Island

Last night voters in Providence, Rhode Island elected a 27-year-old democratic socialist David Morales to be their next mayor. Providence is a city of 200,000 people embedded at the center of a metropolitan region of 1.7 million people. 

Morales, a three-term state representative, won because he ran an energetic grassroots campaign that spoke to the concerns of local residents enduring an affordability crisis that includes some of the highest rents in the country. His victory also demonstrates the growing power of Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York City DSA. 

Mamdani didn’t endorse in the race. But, by governing effectively in his first year at the helm of the nation’s largest and most influential city, he has demonstrated the value of being represented by someone who is committed to energetically serving the people, not wealthy campaign donors. At the same time, he is helping to dispel the trope that the left is too naive and impractical to lead. For many in Providence, the prospect of having their own young, dynamic democratic socialist mayor was too good to pass up.  

In the fall of 2025, Morales traveled to New York to canvas for then candidate Mamdani. He studied the NYC-DSA model for building campaigns that mobilize thousands of volunteers and then applied it in Providence. He also hired experienced NYC-DSA operatives to fill some of his key campaign staff positions. Prominent members of New York City DSA also helped raise funds for his campaign including throwing a fundraising party for him in July at a packed bar in Crown Heights that featured Morales, socialist podcaster Daniel Denvir, State Senator Julia Salazar and Assemblymember Emily Gallagher. 

“City by city, state by state, community by community, we are showing the ideals of democratic socialism are the future in this country,” Morales said when his turn to speak came.  

Morales was heavily outspent by incumbent mayor Brett Smiley, a corporate Democrat with close ties to the real estate industry. However, Morales had enough money to be competitive. From there, the combination of a charismatic candidate, the largest field operation in Providence history and a compelling message did the rest of the work. Morales prevailed by five points over Smiley, an aloof technocrat with no major scandals to his name who would have cruised to re-election in the past. Morales’s leftist allies also won City Council races across Providence and will have a majority on the next City Council. 

Democratic socialists have won upwards of 250 elective offices in the past decade — most of them city council and state legislative seats. Winning executive office opens whole new possibilities for wielding power, as we have seen here in New York with Mayor Mamdani. It also is fraught with contradictions as is always the case when the left has to govern in a capitalist state. Like Mamdani, Morales will have to deal with a skittish business class, a police department that is used to being a law unto itself, a state government controlled by corporate Democrats and a federal government that could engage in all kinds of fuckery including swarming the city with ICE agents. 

It won’t be easy! And it never will be for the left especially in this era of late capitalist polycrisis. However, Mamdani’s first eight months in power offer a template for Morales and others who will follow in his footsteps: Deliver small wins early on to build public confidence (See pothole politics), be seen interacting with the people wherever they are, communicate relentlessly across new and old media, project joy in doing the work, pick fights you can win, keep your approval ratings high so other powerful Democrats want to be seen working with you and not against you. 

Morales’s victory was a product of years of movement organizing in Providence. He was backed by Reclaim Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Working Families Party, several powerful local unions and by Senator Bernie Sanders who carried Rhode Island in both his presidential campaigns, an early sign a traditional machine state was ripe for change. 

One group that stood aside in this race was Rhode Island DSA whose stated goal is building a mass socialist party that’s rooted in the multiracial working class to build power. Morales has been a card-carrying DSA member since 2017 and was first elected to the Rhode Island state legislature in 2020 as a DSA-backed candidate. After the pandemic, ultra-leftists won control of Rhode Island DSA and rescinded their support for Morales over his continued association with the Democratic Party. This would-be vanguard is now on the sidelines as Morales and other left movements shift Providence toward a pro-working class politics. It’s a fumbled opportunity for DSA that brings to mind a classic Monty Python skit. 

if Alexandria Ocasio Cortez enters the 2028 presidential race, national DSA will face the same dilemma on a much larger scale: back an imperfect leftist candidate who will disappoint at times? Or sit it out while the parade marches on without you?

Meanwhile, David Morales will soon have his hands full. Following decades of all levels of government being rigged to serve wealthy special interests, he will face the same challenge that confronted Mamdani when he took office: demonstrating to the public through his actions that government can be an instrument for the common good and it can be wielded to make their lives better. If he can gain that trust, much else is possible.  

PAST INDY COVERAGE

From the Wrestling Ring to City Hall, Young Democratic Socialist Surges in Providence, RI Mayoral Race By Theodore Hamm

“We Are Showing That the Ideals of Democratic Socialism Are the Future in This Country” via Indy Instagram

Interview with Rhode Island Journalist Keating Zelenke about David Morales and the Providence Mayoral Race via The Indypendent News Hour

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