But Rhode Island still faces familiar challenges, including an uneven economy, a tough fiscal outlook and underperforming public schools. In the Rhode Island Senate, change will come at some point since the chamber’s president, Dominick Ruggerio, is 76 and recovering from pneumonia. And there’s a lot of uncertainty on the national scene, with the Trump administration promoting tariffs, threatening traditional U.S. alliances and remaking the federal government. So how can Rhode Island make progress on crucial issues amid this instability? And what does the future hold for the Rhode Island Senate? This week on Political Roundtable, I’m going in-depth with state Senator Alana DiMario.
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Ian Donnis: Welcome back to the Public’s Radio.
Sen. Alana DiMario: Thank you so much for having me.
Donnis: Let’s start with President Trump. Democrats are sharply critical of how he’s rolling out tariffs, disrupting the NATO alliance, and trying to remake the federal government with what they call indiscriminate cuts. But President Biden was slow to respond to higher inflation during the pandemic. He presided over a big increase in crossings at the border with Mexico and Democratic power brokers had to talk him out of what would probably have been a disastrous reelection campaign. So I wonder, does Democratic fecklessness, did that set the stage for the return of Donald Trump?
DiMario: Well, we’re just jumping right in here, aren’t we? You know, I think that there is a lot in the question that you just asked, but I think that one of the issues that it boils down to is that simple lies are a lot easier to message than complex truths. And when we’re talking about complex issues, whether it’s immigration, whether it’s the economy, health care, these are complex discussions to be had and complex things to try to message to the American people about what is actually going to positively impact their lives. And that complex messaging is very difficult to get through in the face of a lot of simple lies about people being told that the reason why their lives aren’t going well is because of factor X, Y, and Z. And I think that the election results were a lot of that impact of people not understanding how more complex and nuanced issues directly impact their lives over that messaging of those simple lies that they were being told. Donnis: Given what you say about how simpler, simple lies are easier to convey than complex truths, how do you think Democrats need to respond to be more effective in winning elections?
DiMario: Well, I think it’s a balance. I’m certainly not advocating for, the Democrats to start being dishonest in their messaging to the American people. But I do think that there is an opportunity to really take a step back and stop playing small ball with our policies and really start swinging for the fences. The American people need to understand the ways in which Democratic policies win economic arguments all day long. We need to start making that argument to the American people. We need to start showing that what we want to do for people will have a material positive impact on their freedom to live their lives the way that they should be able to day to day.
Donnis: Speaking of economic arguments, when you first won election to the State Senate in 2020, you ran with the support of a progressive group called the Working Families Party, which has had a lot of success in helping to win legislative elections in Rhode Island. Do you think the Working Families Party understands something that the Democratic Party as a whole does not fully grasp?
DiMario: I absolutely think that they can be very effective in their messaging with getting at the heart of what the issues that working people care about are and I think that can be a really effective messaging vehicle to be an entry point into those more complex conversations about finding policies that will work.
Donnis: You are one of a number of progressive policy oriented women who have won election to the General Assembly over the last 10 years, moving the legislature a little bit to the left. At the same time, we see how the state still wrestles with challenges like an uneven economy, a tough fiscal outlook, and underperforming public schools. What do you think the state needs to do differently to make more progress?
DiMario: I consider myself what I call a pragmatic progressive. I think that when we’re talking about state level policies, we need to be looking again at what those everyday things are to remove barriers to help people improve their lives, right? So, I mean, you mentioned a number of different policies there. One is around public education. We have a lot of unevenness in our public school systems across Rhode Island. And I think that there have been a number of efforts at looking at the school funding formula, how we’re resourcing our schools, the ways that we’re supporting our schools. And I think that that is an avenue that we need to continue to make sure that no matter where your child is going to school in Rhode Island, they’re getting a first class education. And that is, to tie it back to something I was saying before, also an economic argument because when we’re talking about trying to grow new industries like the Rhode Island Life Sciences Hub, trying to grow our different manufacturing industries. That means that we’re trying to attract human capital here to Rhode Island. We’re trying to attract a workforce. And that workforce is going to bring with them families that need childcare, that want to have a good education for their children. And for those companies to be successful, we need to be making sure that we’re providing that across the board, high quality experience to be able to attract and retain those workers.
Donnis: Let’s switch gears to talk about the Rhode Island Senate. There are questions about the future of the Senate considering how President Dominick Ruggerio has been wrestling with pneumonia and is expected to be in the hospital through at least part of next week. At what point do you think we will see a transition in the leadership of the Senate?
DiMario: So, you know, this is a difficult question to answer. One of the things about me, people have commented about this, that in my Instagram bio, one of the first things that is listed there is “human.” I say I’m a human, I’m a mother, I’m a therapist, and I’m also a state senator. And to me, engaging in this question hits on that idea of humanity. The Senate president is a person first. He is a person with kids and grandkids and friends who love him dearly. I have greatly respected working with him over the past couple of years and so at this time, I just, I’d like to decline to add to the public discourse about his health or about the future of the Senate.
Donnis: You supported Ryan Pearson in a caucus last year when he challenged Ruggierio in part due to concerns about Ruggierio’s health. How do you see the outlook for Pearson? Do you think he will one day be able to win the presidency or do you think he’ll be outpaced by people who are more part of Ruggierio’s camp right now?
DiMario: I think that whenever that time does come that my colleagues and I will come together and do what is right for the entirety of the Senate. I will say that leadership team that, values communication, inclusion of all members, respect of all members and respect for the diverse communities that we represent will always be the leadership team that gets my vote.
Donnis: And you were stripped of your chairmanship as the head of the Environment and Agriculture Committee after supporting Pearson. I wonder how, did that change your view of the Senate? Or did you just kind of accept that as one of the rules of the road? If you take a choice against leadership, you sometimes face consequences for it.
DiMario: Yeah, you know, I think that there’s an important component there of choice, right? I mean, I fully understood what the outcome of my choice might be, and I had to evaluate whether upholding a system that I didn’t believe was in the best interest of the Senate was the right thing to do.
To be able to, to keep that position or whether I was okay with staying true to what I believed was the best course of action for the Senate and potentially risk that consequence and that is what I chose. I still am up there working as hard as I can. I have some new committee assignments, which are a great new challenge for me. I am still representing my constituents to the best of my ability and vigorously pursuing all the policies that I have before. I will always choose to do what I think is right for the people that I represent and for the institution of the Senate over something that is a personal advantage for me.
Donnis: We’re talking here with State Senator Alana DiMario, and you are co-chair of a Legislative Commission on Child Care. I wonder what you think needs to be done to address the situation where child care is an extreme cost for many working families, unaffordable, and at the same time, many child care workers are not particularly well compensated.
DiMario: Yes, it is absolutely a complex issue that impacts a number of Rhode Islanders, and also again, this is a situation where we can also make the economic argument that investment in early childhood education pays off in a number of ways. So, there is the simple statistic that for every dollar we invest in early childhood education, whether that is just shoring up the system with subsidies, making sure that wages increase so that we have a stable system, for every one dollar we invest, ten dollars comes back to us. And, having a robust childcare system also means that our companies can get more workers. When you look at the gap between where childcare subsidies end in terms of income levels and where families can actually start to afford the sticker price of childcare, that gap is gigantic. And in that gap lives our healthcare workforce, our education workforce, our retail workforce, our manufacturing workforce. All of those salaries fall into that range of ‘we make too much to qualify for a subsidy, but we don’t make enough to actually afford child care.’ And it is essential that we look at childcare as a core piece of our infrastructure, just as much as we look at the Washington Bridge as a piece of our infrastructure. If we don’t have a robust system that allows working people to go to work, that allows children to be cared for in a way that is developmentally appropriate and supports their development and learning we will continue to see the economic consequences of that.
And I think that this is one of those examples where. You know, simple lies are easier to engage in than complex truth. So when we look at, for example, the federal tax cuts that are being proposed, part of what is potentially on the chopping block is temporary assistance for needy families, TANF funds. We receive over $100 million in Rhode Island. About $20 million of that goes toward child care subsidies and shores up our child care system. If that is lost, even if each individual Rhode Islander were to see a small tax return because of that savings. We won’t. But even if we were, a family having an extra 100 in their pocket is not going to create a sustained and accessible child care system. And so these are the types of conversations that we need to be having around the amount of needed investments in that essential infrastructure.
Donnis: We’re a little short on time here, but I want to ask you about the upcoming race for governor next year. Governor McKee announced his reelection this week. He’s certain to face Helena Foulkes. If he stays in the race, who do you like in the race?
DiMario: So I think honestly, I’m not in a position to be able to commit at this time. I’ll break it to you right here. I am not running for governor in 2026. You can take me right off that list. I am looking to support a leader for Rhode Island that is going to do exactly what I said at the top of our time together. I want somebody who is going to be swinging for the fences, who is going to be messaging to the people of Rhode Island about the ways that we need to make investments. In our people, in our workforce, and in Rhode Island’s future. And I want to hear big, bold plans about getting that done.
Donnis: All right, we’ve got to leave it there. Thank you so much for joining us, State Senator Alana DiMario, a Democrat from Narragansett.
DiMario: Thank you so much.
+ + + +
President Trump has raised the focus on tariffs as a tool that he believes will boost the American economy. But tariffs have been controversial throughout U.S. history and a Brown University president was a leading opponent of them during the presidency of Andrew Jackson. You can read more about that in my Friday TGIF politics column posting around 4 this afternoon on X, Bluesky, Threads, Facebook, and at thepublicsradio.org/TGIF.
That’s it for our show. Political Roundtable is a production of The Public’s Radio. Our producer is James Baumgartner. Our editor this week is Alex Nunes. I’m Ian Donnis, and I’ll see you on the radio.
