RI Democratic Party Chair McNamara Announces Candidacy for 2nd Term

RI Democratic Party Chair McNamara Announces Candidacy for 2nd Term

Rhode Island Democratic Party Chair Joseph McNamara announced his candidacy for a second term on Tuesday.

McNamara was first elected chair of the RI Democratic Party in 2014, succeeding Grace Diaz.

“Four years ago, I became chair on the eve of the 2014 election at a critical time for our party. At the time, we were in the middle of a bruising general election battle, having not elected a Democratic governor in our state in a generation. Four years later, we kept our federal delegation solidly blue and, for the first time in 29 years, we re-elected a Democrat as Governor by sending Gina Raimondo back to lead our state,” said McNamara in his letter announcing his candidacy.

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

McNamara continued, “we still have more work to do and I am looking forward to leading our party into the future. We must continue to build strong training programs for candidates to get the tools they need to win. We must continue our partnership with the cities and towns to ensure that the gains that have been made are not lost. We must work with our partners in Rhode Island and around the country to expand voter registration programs and build a voter protection operation that will fight to make sure those voters can cast their votes on Election Day.”

About McNamara

McNamara has been a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives representing District 19 since January of 2003.

Prior to that, he represented District 29 from January of 1994 until January of 2003.

During the last election cycle, then-Gubernatorial candidate Matt Brown called for McNamara to step down following his endorsement of Michael Earnheart for state representative in House District 3.

As GoLocalProv reported, McNamara would rescind the endorsement.

As GoLocal reported, Raimondo refused to call for the rescission of the endorsement of Earnheart.

GoLocal wrote, "McNamara is a close ally of Speaker of the House Nick Mattiello. Historically, the chair serves at the pleasure of both the Speaker and the Governor.

Neither Raimondo or Mattiello’s offices would respond to questions about McNamara’s future."

RI Democratic Party Elections

As GoLocalProv reported, the Rhode Island Democratic Party will hold elections for all executive committee offices during its first State Committee meeting of 2019.

The meeting will be held on Sunday, March 24 at 6 p.m. at the Cranston Portuguese Club.

Running for Office

Interested candidates for office on the executive committee (Chair, 1st Vice Chair, 2nd Vice Chair, 3rd Vice Chair, Secretary, Corresponding Secretary, Recording Secretary, Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer) need to submit a letter indicating what office they intend to run for via e-mail to [email protected] later than March 1, 2019, at 5 p.m.

Each candidate’s letter must also indicate which State Committee member will raise the motion to nominate, as well as which State Committee member will second the nomination.