After Rhode Island Senate Majority Leader Val Lawson won a lopsided vote Tuesday to lead the chamber following the recent death of Dominick Ruggerio, she downplayed potential conflicts stemming from her work as the president of one of the state’s largest teachers’ unions.
Lawson (D-East Providence) easily outpaced rival Sen. Ryan W. Pearson (D-Cumberland) on a 24-to-8 margin, with Senate GOP Leader Jessica de la Cruz (R-North Smithfield) winning four GOP votes, and there was one abstention.
Sen. Frank Ciccone (D-Providence) was elected in an earlier caucus to succeed Lawson as majority leader, the second-ranking post in the Senate. He defeated a rival choice, Sen. Alana DiMario (D-Narragansett), on a 22-10 vote.
Lawson told reporters she will tread carefully to avoid conflicts of interest stemming from her dual role as Senate president and president of the National Education Association Rhode Island teachers’ union.
“I will allow for our lawyers to kind of have that conversation,” the four-term senator said after the Senate vote. “There’s nothing I’m going to do without my due-diligence, I can guarantee you that. It’s of the utmost importance to me all the time.”
Lawson said she does not see a distinction between being a senator and being Senate president since “we all have the same responsibilities here to navigate that piece.”
The new Senate president was non-committal on whether the Senate will pass a ban on assault-style weapons or support a tax increase for upper-income Rhode Islanders.
In thanking senators for supporting her, Lawson said, “The trust my colleagues have placed in me means more than I can express. Serving as president of the Rhode Island Senate is an awesome responsibility, one that I will work tirelessly to uphold.’
Pearson told reporters the top-two Senate roles for Lawson and Ciccone, a former president of the Rhode Island Laborers’ District Council, amounted to “a labor dream-team,” and he said it raised the likelihood for more ethical lapses involving the chamber.
He said the Lawson-Ciccone pairing was put together behind the scenes by labor officials, aided by Senate staffers.
Patrick Crowley, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, said he had not spoken with Pearson and he declined further comment.
A Senate spokesman did not respond to Pearson’s assertion.
Pearson said Lawson “is going to have a very hard time navigating” potential conflicts while leading the Senate and a top teachers’ union. He said there was a rally for NEARI’s legislative priorities earlier this year and he was unsure if she was there to represent the teachers’ union or the Senate.
Following Ruggerio’s unexpected death last week, Pearson presented himself as a centrist choice for state Senate president, and said in the run-up to the caucus he was one vote away from winning the 19 votes needed to lead the chamber.
He said the stumbling block was that some wavering senators “thought they had made a commitment, but weren’t sure” and chose to stick with Lawson. She got 23 votes during the Democrats’ caucus, while Pearson got 8.
Pearson had been seen as Ruggerio’s heir-apparent until a falling out last year amid questions about the health of the dean of the Senate. Ruggerio later backed Lawson to replace Pearson as majority leader.
Speaking with reporters, Pearson said Ruggerio became upset with him “not because of any conversation I had with him,” but because other senators found out about a meeting at Ruggerio’s home in which Pearson broached the issue of Ruggerio’s health. Other senators used the optics of that meeting “to manipulate him into believing that somebody was trying to get rid of him, and that has flowed its way all the way through to where we are today.
“The people in this chamber who used that for their own political gain should really take a hard look in the mirror about what they did and why they did it, and a lot of them didn’t get what they wanted” Pearson said.
Lawson’s rise to the top of the Senate comes as the General Assembly heads into the home stretch of the 2025 session, with about six weeks left and the budget as the top issue facing lawmakers.
Here’s how the Democrats voted in the Caucus to nominate their choice for state Senate president:
Lawson: Peter Appollonio Jr. of Warwick; Sam Bell of Providence, Jake Bissaillon of Providence; Robert Britto of East Providence; John Burke of West Warwick; Frank Ciccone of Providence; Andrew Dimitri of Johston; Louis DiPalma of Middletown; Walter Felag of Warren; Hanna Gallo of Cranston; Victoria Gu of Charlestown; Matthew LaMountain of Warwick; Pamela Lauria of Barrington; Lawson; Mark McKenney of Warwick; Melissa Murray of Woonsocket; Todd Patalano of Cranston; Susam Sosnowski of South Kingstown; Brian Thompson of Woonsocket.
Pearson: Jonathan Acosta of Central Falls, Alana DiMario of Narragansett; Dawn Euer of Newport; Meghan Kallman of Pawtucket; Tiara Mack of Providence; Pearson, Ana Quezada of Providence, and Bridget Valverde of North Kingstown.
Abstained: Lou Raptakis of Coventry.
