Please support Independent-minded Democrat, Jonathan Daly-LaBelle, in his challenge against 16 year conservative incumbent state rep, Sam Azzinaro.
Daly-LaBelle has been engaged in community organizing and activism for over 20 years and already has a couple of successful political campaigns to his credit.
‘A significant part of the reason I am running for State Rep is that Westerly generally has a record of being a “lean blue” community. Voters in District 37 should have the choice of voting for a candidate who may be more inline with their values. The incumbent has a voting record of being anti-choice, opposing many common sense gun regulations, supporting many gun use expansions, was primary sponsor of legislation in 2023 that amounted to a book ban, and strongly opposed legislation that would have replaced the out-dated, only state in the nation to celebrate, Victory (over Japan) Day with Peace and Remembrance Day.'
Jonathan is pro-choice, in favor of reasonable gun regulations, prioritizes LGBTQ rights as human rights, and sees the issues of housing and health care through a prism of human rights. “During these very uncertain times, and a crucially important presidential election looming, it makes sense for voters, and community members in general, to consider how their state legislators stack up on all these issues. It makes a difference now, and maybe even more so in the coming years.”
For the last seven years, Daly-LaBelle’s civic engagement has been primarily centered on issues of peace and anti-militarism. One entity, No Endless War or Excessive Militarism, is a street level effort that builds awareness by calling to RI’s congressional members toward economic conversion, to fund and create jobs to address the climate crisis and in fields of human need, achieved in part by reducing military spending, and away from fueling war, the nuclear) arms race, and a burgeoning militaristic society.
The second effort is a loosely-knit coalition of peace organizers from different parts of the state known as Just Peace RI. Daly-LaBelle is a key cog in this coalition, which primarily focuses on peace and anti-militarism issues at the state legislative level. While it is a true challenge moving legislation and resolutions through the State House, JPRI holds among its successes the passage of an important resolution related to the US signing onto and ratifying the UN Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). The Senate passed the resolution in 2022, and the House passed their identical version this year, just a couple of weeks ago. The incumbent, Azzinaro, was not present for this vote.