TWO PROVIDENCES

Two Providences

A Conversation with Incoming State Representative Enrique Sanchez

Last month, 26-year-old Enrique Sanchez won the Democratic primary for Rhode Island House District 9, beating out longtime state representative Anastasia Williams, who had held the seat since 1993—before Sanchez was born. His victory, which is all but assured in the November general election, would vault another self-described leftist into the State House. An educator in the Providence public school system and an outspoken activist, Sanchez represents a new generation of young, progressive politicians formed in the summer of 2020, amid resurging anti-racism protests, a charged election season, and a worsening pandemic.

On Monday, before heading off to City Hall for a public hearing, Sanchez spoke with the College Hill Independent about his past, his politics, and his plans for the future.

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Note: this interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

The Indy: Could you start by talking about how you got interested in electoral politics? You started in activist groups—how did you make that transition?

Enrique Sanchez: I’ve always had an interest in politics and government. I was big into history, geography, government during my youth, and I realized, well, this is my calling. The environments surrounding me have led me to a specific political reasoning: I lean toward the left, toward progressive values. I’ve seen a lot of poverty, in places like Providence and New York; and when I spent time in the Midwest, in Iowa; during my time traveling in Mexico, Central America, Guatemala; and even when I was visiting Europe, in urban cities like London and in Paris. I’ve been intrigued with learning about past revolutions, past movements that have shaken up politics around the world.

When I graduated from Rhode Island College in 2019, I was already involved in local campaigns, volunteering. I was canvassing for folks, I started to learn the political atmosphere here—who was who, who was where, state legislation, city council stuff, all that. And when I began teaching four years ago, as a substitute, I started seeing firsthand the issues within our school system. We always knew that the schools in Providence were not producing the results they needed to be. But once I was in the school system, I was like, I gotta do more than this. I gotta try to do my part to uplift our kids, all 22,000 students in the Providence school district.

Fast forward to two years ago. I started becoming more involved in local activism during the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. A lot of folks on the left were all fired up. I got involved with groups such as the Black Lives Matter RI PAC, Reclaim RI, Providence Democratic Socialists of America, Sunrise PVD—most of the progressive left-leaning organizations across our city and state.

Then, last year, I decided to ramp it up: I thought I’d see if I could win this position. I got to know my district that I now represent. I started connecting with folks, checking in with people. A lot of people were pushing back against me running for the position, because I was taking on a 30-year incumbent, an Afro-Latina woman. But she just wasn’t delivering for constituents. She was a moderate, a conservative Democrat politician. She wasn’t voting correctly on the issues. In the state house she was voting yes to give public subsidies and tax breaks to private developers; she voted against Act On Climate, which was passed last year; she criticized the governor’s decision to let Afghanistan refugees into the state. How can you be an immigrant, a woman of color, and then critique the governor’s decision to let refugees from the Middle East come to Rhode Island?

Her votes on these policies weren’t aligned with what she was saying were her core values and convictions. So, you know, it was time for her to go. She was there for 30 years. It was time. I announced in October, and then I started fundraising, making moves. I started checking in with folks. In January, I began knocking on doors. From January to September 13, I was knocking on doors consistently, five or six days a week after work, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. most of the days. On weekends, I started at 11am. I ran the district a good six, seven times—over 10,000 doors.

The Indy: Rhode Island is ostensibly a very blue state. But as you’ve talked about, there’s a lot of ideological diversity in the state’s Democratic Party. Could you talk about how you see the party’s different divisions, and also where Republicans stand—especially as it looks like a Republican, former mayor of Cranston Allan Fung, could potentially win in Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District?

ES: I think people are realizing that both parties can be corrupt. Both parties, whether you’re Republican or Democrat—especially now, during this pandemic—people have realized, oh, the Democrats have been running things around here. They’ve allowed increases in the tax rate and electricity rates; they’ve allowed for our housing crisis to get out of control; they’ve allowed for flooding across our city to get out of hand. The Republicans have been slowly gaining traction, gaining momentum. They are on the Trump Train. But they’re not really beating the drum of the MAGA movement.

Allan Fung would be a disaster for Rhode Island; there’s no doubt in my mind. But has Seth Magaziner [the Democratic candidate for the seat] been delivering on his campaigning? He’s not firing up young people. That’s why he’s second in the polls right now. The left want someone who is going to get them fired up, who’s going to get them excited for this race. Fung is campaigning with an economic populist approach. He’s hustling, he’s showing up everywhere. He’s building a coalition of Republicans, Democrats who have been let down by the party, and then a large pool of independents, who he could pick up as well. He is building a coalition of folks on all sides of the political sphere here in Rhode Island.

That’s how we got here. The party has not been delivering for the state. I would like to do my part, but the party needs to understand that it can’t give in to corporate interest, to fossil fuel companies, to private developers, to the elites. We just can’t, or else our base, the working class, is going to be let down. We’re seeing the results of what’s been happening right now.

The Indy: I’m interested in hearing your take on the school system, especially given that you work in it. What’s your view on the state’s takeover of the Providence Public School District? And what do you think of how education has been infused into Rhode Island politics over the past few years?

ES: Education is the basis of who we are in Rhode Island. I’m a supporter of improving our public schools. I’m not really for charter schools, private schools, even though I know that they’ve been delivering for a lot of our youth, especially Black and brown youth.

The leadership has been doing okay, but it could be better. There could be more diversity. There could be more openness to progressive values, progressive approaches. We could do better outreach to parents, community members, and local groups. The Providence Teachers Union could be more involved in afterschool activities. A lot of the teachers don’t have kids in Providence, or come from other parts of the state— there’s a disconnect.

What do I think of the state takeover? It hasn’t been delivering for our kids. Everyone voted for a state takeover [of the Providence Public School District] three years ago after that Johns Hopkins report that came out. But it’s been three years. The commissioner has stated that delays in reaching the goals are due to the pandemic. And now the plan is that the takeover will last until 2027. What can I say? Things have accelerated so badly that there is no good relationship between the union and RIDE [The Rhode Island Department of Education]. Teachers have been leaving across our district. Absenteeism has been huge. Remote learning has been bad for our kids. We don’t have an elected school board. Right now we have an appointed school board. I think we need an elected school board for the whole city. And test results are still not seeing improvements in RICAS testing, ACCESS testing, the PSAT, and the SAT. Administrators have been dealing with the burden of hiring new teachers—especially young teachers of color—and retaining them. It’s been a mess. Over 250 teachers have retired or were displaced or quit their jobs since the beginning of the pandemic. That number keeps growing.

I want to address major issues with the funding formula for Providence kids. Right now, Providence students receive 13.5% less in school funding per pupil compared to other school districts. We need to amend the right to education in our constitution, to make it more student friendly. We need to make sure that private institutions, not just Brown but all these other private colleges, and LaSalle Academy and Bishop Hendricken High School, are, you know, having to pay their fair share— not granting them tax credits. Charter schools and private schools should not be receiving public money. They’re private and charter schools for a specific reason.

The Indy: You utilize Twitter a lot—how do you see social media fitting into this movement? Are other types of politicians using it as much?

ES: The old-guard establishment folks, older folks, don’t really use social media. They have social media, but they don’t really utilize it to talk about policies and issues. I’m pretty active on Twitter and Instagram; I have a Facebook, too, but I mostly use Twitter and Instagram because that’s where I draw a lot of the younger folks who are curious about politics and government. I’m still building my way up—Sam Bell [a state senator] has been on Twitter forever. He has like 6,000 followers. David [Morales, a state representative] has almost 4,000 followers.

Social media shouldn’t be everything. But it is helpful. Otherwise, for us to actually get the word out about these things, we have to invest our money into mailers. And these mailers cost thousands of dollars, which is money we don’t have.

Money is something that us progressives have an issue with here, compared to the establishment. They take money from corporate lobbyists, fossil fuel companies, police unions, you know—we refuse to accept that money because we’re the ones advocating against their policies and their special interest. I mean, I understand the worker unions—they’re fighting for their wages and jobs. But what about folks getting priced out? The Superman building deal is going to bankrupt our city; the finances don’t add up. It’s a tax break of $29 million over 30 years for the private developer. All they want to do is ‘clean up’ downtown—meaning they want to kick out homeless folks, kick out working class folks, break public transportation. They want to get rid of RIPTA [Rhode Island Public Transport Authority] eventually. They want to push all the homeless folks out to places in my district and Upper South Side, on Westminster, to other working class communities.

There’s two Providences: one in which young professionals, lawyers, have their careers, and then there’s the other Providence, where working class families—especially Black and brown families—are marginalized.

After our interview, Sanchez and I walked toward City Hall, where a long line of green-shirted trade union workers had already formed. They were waiting for the imminent public hearing on a proposed $29 million tax break for the developers of the so-called Superman building—the one Sanchez talked about in our conversation—after which the Providence City Council would decide the deal’s fate.

“I’m not even sure I’ll make it in,” Sanchez said. We walked to the front of the line, where we met up with several of his fellow progressive leaders—Sam Bell and Jackie Goldman among them—as well as some potential future candidates. He introduced me to each one, cracking jokes and catching up before what was sure to be a tense forum. Then he turned, smiled, and waved goodbye, before disappearing into the government building.

SACHA SLOAN B’23.5 encourages you to check out the Rhode Island political twittersphere, where you can find Enrique Sanchez @EnriqueForRI!