My name is Cherie Cruz. I am honored to have served as your State Representative for the past two years here in Pawtucket. I am running again because while much has been accomplished, I know that there is more work to be done. I care deeply about my community and I believe that our voices—strong and deserving—must be heard.
I’m a state representative, but I am not a political insider. Pawtucket is where I was born, raised, educated, and where generations of my family have lived and been laid to rest. I grew up in a working-class family with six siblings. My father, a Navy veteran, coached basketball and boxing at the Pawtucket Boys Club. We were poor, and when our utilities were cut off we would go to the George Wiley Center for help. Our family wouldn’t have made it without the assistance of caring neighbors and dedicated public servants. This is a strong and resilient community, full of people who take care of each other regardless of their background or circumstances.
I earned my GED, became a first-generation college student, and graduated from Brown University with honors, the same place where my father was a custodian and I worked in the school cafeteria. I volunteered for years in my children’s school and supported parents of students in special education. I became a certified parent educator, a peer recovery specialist, and led a ‘Parents as Teachers’ program through the RI Department of Health. Last year, I started work as a tenant organizer, helping renters fight back against do-nothing corporate landlords. I’ve worked with families whose children have been lead poisoned, and I’ve helped tenants facing eviction find ways to keep their homes or find new places to live.
My decades of community work have taught me that it’s the voices of everyday working class people like you and me that matter MOST. That’s why I ran in 2022, and why I’m running for re-election—we need someone in the State House to keep putting the challenges of everyday people front and center. We need people who won’t back down from a fight just because the insiders don’t like what everyday people like you and me have to say.
This year, my good friend Paris lost his mom, Mary Angel Fisher. He left his apartment to care for his mom for two years where she’d lived for 60 years and raised her family. But days after her passing, and even though her rent was fully paid, Mary’s landlord changed the apartment locks, locking Paris out. I had co-sponsored a bill which would allow caregivers to stay in their apartment for up to 3 months after their loved one dies, but I was told it wasn’t likely to pass. I would not accept this. I shared Paris’s story with my fellow Representatives, and we worked hard to get it passed and signed into law. Now caretakers won’t have to go through the same painful experience that Paris and his family did.
That’s always been my approach since taking office: lifting up our stories, working with others to make change happen, and speaking up when I see my community being hurt or taken advantage of. When our Mayor pushed to sell Morley Field, where our kids play, to a trucking company, I helped lead the fight to stop it from happening. It might have angered the establishment, but it was the right thing for our neighborhood. And in my first year at the State House, when we were discussing how to deal with excessive rental application fees, some lawmakers proposed a cap of $35. I argued that it didn’t go far enough, and I introduced a bill banning application fees entirely. I partnered with my House colleagues and my bill passed—with every single one of my colleagues voting yes!—and ensured that anyone can apply for an apartment without being charged simply for seeking a place to live.
As your Representative, I’ve always put families first—kids and Seniors alike. When I was a young mom, I sat on waiting lists and lotteries, praying my kids would get into preschool so I could continue my education and afford childcare to go to work. Finally, in 2002 my two youngest children got into the Mary T. Dean Head Start program, letting me return to school. Child care and early education programs like Head Start changed my life, and I’ll always fight to expand investments in our kids.
When I was young, I watched my Nana—who lived in Fogarty Manor—struggle to get enough to eat and to afford her insulin. I’ve seen far too many family and friends retire in poverty like that. I have seen Seniors—many who are disabled veterans—suffer as they wait months for important medications. As your Representative, I will keep advocating for investments in senior care so everyone is treated with respect and compassion, even after they have transitioned out of working. Our seniors need someone who will fight for them so they can enjoy their lives with dignity.
I also know firsthand the impact that our broken criminal legal system can have on families. Both my parents were formerly incarcerated. As a young adult, I was impacted by the criminal legal system due to the criminalization of cannabis, and further criminalized after surviving domestic violence. Long after I served my probation sentence, our laws kept me from finding stable housing and employment when I needed help the most. That’s why I worked to restore voting rights to those with records—a right my parents died without having—and why I helped lead the fight to fully legalize and expunge past cannabis records.
Working families are struggling while big corporations, greedy employers, and lifelong political insiders become successful off of your hard work. You deserve to live without worrying everyday about how to pay the bills or how to feed your family. You deserve to thrive. That means electing someone who has fought to ensure that working families earn a living wage, who has taken on high rents, who has looked the bad guys in the eye and said, “ENOUGH.” I will keep taking our fight from the streets of Pawtucket to the halls of the State House. I won’t stop until we have true justice for our community.
You can call or text me at 401-378-6804. I’m always proud to help my constituents with issues in their neighborhood, and to navigate the ins and outs of city and state bureaucracy. I love being able to help neighbors, or if I can’t, to try to connect them with someone who can.
People just want and need a chance. I ask for your vote in the primary election on September 10th.
-Cherie Cruz
State Representative, District 58
