Courtesy Aaron Regunberg for Congress
Since Aaron Regunberg took his state assembly seat in 2014, he has been part of a vanguard of young progressive lawmakers pushing the Democratic leadership to the left.
Five years ago, 28-year-old progressive Aaron Regunberg came within 2,000 votes of becoming lieutenant governor of Rhode Island. If he’d won, he would very likely be the sitting governor today. The state’s chief executive at the time, Gina Raimondo, departed in 2021 to take over as President Biden’s secretary of commerce, leaving the office to Dan McKee, who won re-election in 2022.
Now, the almost-governor is running for Congress to replace Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) who’s stepping down in June after representing the district for over a decade. Regunberg’s campaign platform consists of a bold agenda to accelerate the green transition, curb the influence of special interests in Congress, and take up the mantle from Cicilline as the House’s foremost anti-monopoly advocate. Recently, Regunberg has joined the ranks of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and a handful of House progressives in calling for the impeachment of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, after a number of reports exposed that he repeatedly accepted undisclosed gifts from a billionaire right-wing benefactor.
“We have to take on the powerful corporate interests rigging the rules of the game,” said Regunberg in an interview with the Prospect. “That’s why I’m running for Congress, because we need someone who has a record of making real changes even when they’re up against long odds.”
Regunberg’s path to victory is far from certain. The two-term state representative faces a competitive field of 14 other candidates, hungry to fill a relatively rare vacancy for one of Rhode Island’s two congressional districts. The list of contenders includes current lieutenant governor Sabina Matos, former White House aide Gabe Amo, a smattering of other local elected officials, and a renewable-energy investor, Don Carlson, who’s self-funding his campaign. Even more candidates are expected to throw their hat into the ring.
The primary will be held in September, which leaves a limited runway for any front-runner to break out. Lt. Gov. Matos sports a roster of in-state allies, and Amo carries a network of national connections from his time inside the Biden administration.
Regunberg recently secured endorsements from a number of left-wing organizations, including activist Nina Turner’s Our Revolution and the Rhode Island Working Families Party. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) endorsed his 2018 bid for lieutenant governor, as did a collection of state unions.
In a splintered field for a solid-blue seat, Regunberg is hoping to consolidate the progressive vote, which could deliver him enough of a margin in what’s expected to be a relatively low-turnout election. But while the national repercussions are muted, the stakes could rise. Open-seat Democratic House races have in recent years become a battleground between moderate and progressive forces. Regunberg, the only candidate to pledge not to take contributions from corporate PACs, already has progressive organizations at his back.
“We need Aaron in Congress both to confront right-wing extremism and also to push Democrats to deliver for working people,” said Georgia Hollister Isman, New England regional director of the Working Families Party.
But some left-wing groups in Rhode Island are opposing his congressional bid.
Kumar Appaiah/Creative Commons
A view of the Rhode Island State House
IN APRIL, SIX MEMBERS OF AN ORGANIZATION called the Rhode Island Political Cooperative put out an extensive statement blasting Regunberg’s candidacy, and intimating that he is not a “true” progressive. This past week, the Democratic Socialists of America Providence chapter also issued a “no-endorsement” in the race, detailing their objections to several votes Regunberg took in the state assembly that the chapter deemed antithetical to the organization’s principles. They cite his support for the former Speaker of the state assembly, and his votes in favor of several austerity budget provisions, among other issues.
The opposition might seem confounding to anyone outside the state, or even to residents who’ve been following Rhode Island politics over the past several years.
Since Regunberg took his state assembly seat in 2014, he has been part of a vanguard of young progressive lawmakers pushing the Democratic leadership to the left. He has a track record of championing progressive causes, from Medicare for All to the Green New Deal.
In the state assembly, Regunberg helped win guaranteed paid sick days for the first time in Rhode Island’s history. He also spearheaded successful efforts to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers, and secure investment for renewable-energy projects. Each of these reforms was opposed by industry and initially faced challenges from more conservative Democrats.
Going into the 2017 state budget negotiations, Regunberg stood alongside 25 other lawmakers (representing enough votes to block a budget bill) to roll out an ambitious budget proposal called the Fair Shot Agenda. The proposal prioritized a $15-an-hour minimum wage, funding for school repairs, and raising taxes on the wealthy. Many of those initiatives were included in the final budget, though some in piecemeal form (the minimum wage hike only extended to $10.50 an hour).
The Rhode Island Political Cooperative’s attack on Regunberg is part of a rift within the state’s left wing that’s become more pronounced in recent years, according to several Democratic activists interviewed by the Prospect. The infighting has shades of a familiar dynamic dividing left-wing coalitions elsewhere, which most prominently came to the fore during the New York City mayoral election in 2021. The argument involves how much to emphasize working inside the political system versus organizing outside of it, and how adversarial the left should be against the Democratic Party.
The Cooperative first formed in 2019, with the explicit goal to take a more combative approach to leadership and run candidates to challenge incumbents, sometimes even other progressives. Though the group initially gained traction, its candidates lost almost unanimously in this past election cycle, including each of the signees in the letter against Regunberg. A number of sitting lawmakers in Rhode Island who were previously affiliated with the cooperative have since revoked their membership.
Regunberg and other lawmakers associated with the Rhode Island Working Families Party have often clashed with the Cooperative, not in terms of policy positions but rather on political tactics. The Cooperative did not respond to a request for comment, nor did several of its members.
The conflict generally began during the 2018 election, when Regunberg ran for lieutenant governor, and Matt Brown, the co-founder of the Cooperative, entered the governor’s race later in the campaign season to challenge Raimondo. Though Raimondo was not well liked by the left in Rhode Island, many progressives deemed a primary challenge unwinnable and not worth focusing their resources on.
Brown and Regunberg didn’t align on strategy and ran separate campaigns, but that didn’t stop their opponents from painting the two as part of the same reform ticket to rally supporters against them. Raimondo ended up winning by over 20 points in the race, and may very well have driven higher turnout than expected for Regunberg’s opponent Dan McKee.
These tensions re-emerged in 2021 when the Cooperative recruited a primary candidate to run against a state senator, Dawn Euer, supported by Regunberg. During the race, Regunberg penned an op-ed in The Boston Globe questioning the Cooperative’s rationale for challenging another progressive, and criticizing their primary candidate, Jennifer Jackson, for espousing anti-vaccine views and lamenting prohibitions on corporal punishment against children. The Cooperative ended up backing away from its endorsement of Jackson.
Another flashpoint in the current battle between the groups is whether to withhold votes for party leadership, which both the DSA and the Cooperative’s statements criticized Regunberg for not doing. Regunberg counters that, though he didn’t always agree with former Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, he was voted through unanimously, leaving little to no leverage to push for any concessions.
“What matters more? Concretely moving the policy agenda forward or throwing up some feel-good vote that’s only symbolically impactful?” asked Regunberg in an interview with the Prospect.
Regunberg responded to the criticism in the letter by underscoring his core contention with the Cooperative. As a lawmaker, he told the Prospect, his primary goal is to build coalitions that can deliver concrete policy achievements.
“At town halls, my constituents always told me that their main priority for a progressive lawmaker was for me to get big priorities accomplished, and that meant working with people I didn’t always agree with on every issue,” said Regunberg.
Regunberg welcomed the need for outside organizing, but emphasized that legislative accomplishments are necessary to build momentum for a movement.
“It’s a balancing act, but alienating too many people from your coalition can also be detrimental,” said Regunberg.
In Congress, Regunberg sees this coalition work as even more crucial in order to push for his ambitious reforms. Those include a climate agenda that builds on the clean-energy investments in the Inflation Reduction Act by placing hard restrictions on fossil fuel usage to eventually phase out the industry. Regunberg also plans to continue the work of Cicilline, who as chair of the House Antitrust Subcommittee from 2019 to 2023 was a thorn in the side of big business and commissioned an extensive report on the monopolization of the tech sector. Regunberg plans to push for new antitrust legislation to rein in Big Tech, and expand anti-monopoly policies to other sectors such as health care. On issues of corporate power, Regunberg emphasized his willingness to create transpartisan alliances with Republicans in order to get things done.
It isn’t clear how much the internal discord on the left will impact Regunberg’s campaign. The Cooperative has yet to endorse any other candidate in the race, despite attacking the leading progressive. However, the group’s position runs the risk of fracturing the progressive vote for Regunberg and delivering a path to victory for a more moderate candidate. Regunberg’s campaign hasn’t ruled out that scenario, and is mobilizing for the months ahead to fortify support.
