2020 Election Profile: Evan Lemoine, RI State Senate District 1
Thursday, September 03, 2020
Meet Evan Lemoine who is running for election in Senate District 1 (Providence).
Read what he has to say about why he is running for office.
This is part of an ongoing series by GoLocal featuring each of the candidates for House and Senate.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST1. What do you think is the biggest political issue this campaign season in Rhode Island?
All roads always lead back to the economy, and this pandemic has shown how vulnerable the state is as we keep inching towards restarting Rhode Island. We must continue to prioritize worker safety and make sure science is guiding our decision-making. What is most troubling though, is it took this pandemic for some leaders to realize how many of our working families are struggling. We need to strengthen our social safety net, increase minimum wage and index it to inflation, and prioritize an economy that can truly grow our middle class.
2. What do we need to do to improve Rhode Island's economy?
There are two essential things needed to improve our economy — (1) prioritizing investments in education, job training, and career and technical education programs; and (2) eliminating regulations that are designed to favor insiders that donate to the elite political establishment and discourage fair and equitable competition. As we teach our youth and young adults, we need to stop the train of high school and college graduates who leave this state for lack of job opportunities — I was one of them, and nothing has changed a decade later. For our economy, beyond a thorough review of job-killing regulations, we need to be open-minded to opportunities such as the legalization of marijuana. We can’t just keep sitting on the economic sidelines, we need to start leading.
3. What is the greatest challenge facing Rhode Island as a state?
Our political system is failing the people. Government is becoming too slow and unresponsive, and it’s been primarily focused on short-term thinking. We need fresh thinking with a focus on fixing our problems for the long-term. Look at the existing state of our education system, infrastructure, economy, healthcare, election accessibility, and the tax system to name just a few — why do we only fix things once they reach an abysmal state? Many Rhode Islanders have lost trust in their government to provide basic services because they know access to officials is reserved for the political establishment. For me, this is why I favor term-limits and also refuse money from all PACs and state lobbyists — I will be an advocate for the people who want meaningful change.
4. Why are you running for office? What makes you uniquely qualified?
I’m running for Senate because I love this state and want to see it succeed, but see so much untapped potential. When I graduated college during the last recession and saw the lack of job opportunities, I was disappointed that I had to go to neighboring Connecticut for a job. Seeing this economic downturn means we have a chance to truly make Rhode Island stronger. I’m the only certified public accountant (CPA) that is running and I also teach not-for-profit and governmental accounting classes, so I have a unique understanding of government financial statements and budgeting. But I also know we can’t cut our way to prosperity either, so there will be a lot of difficult decisions ahead.
5. Who is your inspiration?
My parents have been incredible inspiration to me. My dad is a retired Woonsocket firefighter and continues to operate a small business. I saw all of the hard work he put in every day to raise our family. My mom is a bookkeeper and always pushed me, my brother and my sister to advocate for ourselves. It’s really my parents’ background that nudged me into business and my accounting career. I’m so fortunate to be close with my parents and to have them there for me as two of my biggest cheerleaders.
Website: https://www.evanlemoine.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.comEvanLemoineRI/
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/EvanLemoineRI/
Biography
Evan Lemoine was born and raised in Woonsocket and attended public schools before attending Johnson & Wales University in Providence. His father was a city firefighter and operated a pool company while his mother worked as a bookkeeper. This combination taught Evan the value of hard work and the importance of a good education.
Evan has built a record of leadership and service, starting in eighth grade and continuing today. Evan has always sought out ways to help out the “little guy” and made sure he served everyone fairly. From his early roots in student government to his state and national leadership with career and technical student organizations, such as Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda (FBLA-PBL), Evan attributes much of his success to these vital extracurricular programs. Evan brought attention to Rhode Island as a past two-time national officer in FBLA-PBL, which serves nearly a quarter million student members annually.
