Cicilline kicks off re-election campaign, emphasizes need to send two Rhode Island Dems to DC

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Congressman David Cicilline kicked-off his 2022 re-election campaign Tuesday night at the Graduate Hotel in Providence.

The congressman is seeking his seventh term to represent the First Congressional District in the Ocean State.

Cicilline said the last couple years have been tough as the state and the country has battled with the COVID-19 pandemic and that has been his main focus the last two years.

“I have been very focused on helping Rhode Islanders get through this pandemic and helping small businesses survive and helping families get through a very difficult economic time,” he said.

Cicilline touted his work on crafting gun safety legislation, supporting small businesses and producing good paying jobs in Rhode Island.

The Congressman emphasized he will fight for protecting women’s productive health care rights and took a shot at the Supreme Court following their decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

“I don’t think we can count any longer on the United States Supreme Court to protect our freedoms,” remarked Cicilline.

When asked if he is endorsing a candidate to replace outgoing Congressman Jim Langevin in District 2, he did not name a specific candidate, but vowed to support the Democratic nominee.

“We cannot give Kevin McCarthy one more vote to become Speaker of the House that would be very bad for Rhode Island, it would be very bad for our country,” said the congressman.

“We need to be sure that we continue to have a Democratic majority in the House, so I’m going to do whatever I can to support the Democratic nominee to be sure we send two Democrats to Washington,” he concluded.

The call to to keep the Democratic majority in the US House comes a day after a Boston Globe/Suffolk University poll showed that Republican Allan Fung was leading all Democratic challengers in the District 2 race.

According to the latest candidate filings with secretary of state, Cicilline is not facing a primary challenger but Republicans Allen Waters and Frederick Wysocki have filed to challenge the incumbent congressman.