Political Profile: Jennifer Stewart, Candidate for State Rep. in District 59
Thursday, September 01, 2022
Jennifer Stewart is running for State Representative in District 59 -- here's why.
1. What do you think is the biggest political issue this campaign season in Rhode Island?
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe biggest political issue in Rhode Island right now is instability in housing, particularly for renters. The median sale price of homes in Rhode Island continues to rise, dramatically outpacing the ability of many people to buy homes. At the same time, higher sales prices can incentivize owners to sell their property, leaving renters vulnerable to double-digit rent increases they cannot afford as new owners bring rents up to current market rates. Both homebuyers and renters struggle to limit housing costs to 30% of their income. This is a crisis that introduces uncertainty and instability into people's lives and can force people to choose housing over healthcare and food. It amplifies and worsens problems elsewhere in society. Housing advocates estimate that one in three Rhode Islanders can’t afford rent and that over 1,300 people are unhoused.
2. What do we need to do to improve Rhode Island's economy?
To improve Rhode Island's economy, we need to cap rent increases to no more than 4% annually to help stabilize housing and we need to increase the minimum wage to $19.00 per hour. Building affordable housing is important, but it doesn’t address the housing instability that renters are facing now. People spend too great a proportion of household income on housing, utilities, and transportation, so they do not have the money to spend elsewhere in the economy. Rhode Island should pass the Percentage Income Payment Plan (PIPP), which would create a multi-tiered income-sensitive program to ensure that home energy utility costs are affordable. In addition, as costs increase, salaries have not kept up. We need to make sure that people’s wages can meet today’s costs of living. Wages for most have been too flat for too long. The minimum wage for non-tipped workers in Rhode Island is $12.25 an hour and won’t reach $15 until 2025. As reported in the 2022 Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Factbook, a worker would have to earn $34.06 an hour and work 40 hours per week year-round to afford the average rent in Rhode Island without a cost burden.
3. What is the greatest challenge facing Rhode Island as a state?
The greatest challenge facing Rhode Island is an inability of political leadership to act with urgency to address urgent problems and to enact policies that are broadly popular with Rhode Islanders. Whether it’s sending bills like the Equality in Abortion Coverage Act (EACA) or the Percentage Income Payment Plan (PIPP) back for further study, in effect killing legislation for the session, or passing climate legislation that is not fully implemented until 2050, political leadership ensures today’s problems will continue to be tomorrow’s problems, too.
4. Why are you running for office? What makes you uniquely qualified?
I am a high school teacher which means that my career has been motivated by a deep care for people, for the common good, and for the future. My actions are not motivated by personal gain, corporate interests, or short-term profits. Like the teenagers I work with every day, I value transparency, fairness, and having actions align with words. Recently, with the help of the RI ACLU and joined by another plaintiff, I successfully challenged a Pawtucket city ordinance that blatantly violated the First Amendment, hurt non-incumbents running for office, and made elections in Pawtucket less competitive. As this lawsuit example demonstrates, when something is not right, and I have an opportunity to do something about it, I act to make it right. Successfully challenging this ordinance helps candidates seeking office throughout Pawtucket and makes Pawtucket more democratic. That benefits all of us. I’ll bring this spirit to my work as an RI state representative.
5. Who is your inspiration?
My inspiration is Civil Rights Movement activist Fannie Lou Hamer. Her work on behalf of desegregation and voting rights, along with her leadership in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, demonstrated an unrelenting commitment to ensuring that everyone can live with dignity in the United States.
For more campaign info go here.