PAWTUCKET – Vanessa Lopez says she’s counting on her connection to what she describes as overlooked sections of Senate District 15 to put her over the top in her race against incumbent Sen. Meghan Kallman in the Sept. 9 Democratic primary.
While she’s been cautiously optimistic for some time as she’s slowly gained momentum, Lopez said, it was really after her recent social media video went live depicting the difference between Kallman’s neighborhood and Fairlawn and her native Woodlawn sections of Pawtucket that she really started seeing more interest in her candidacy.
She says what she’s found is that the areas of the district with the most signs are near where Kallman lives in the more affluent area, and that people in other neighborhoods rarely see or hear the incumbent. Kallman, she said, is out of touch with average residents’ needs.
Kallman, who first won election in 2020, vehemently denies that assertion, saying she’s confident of her record in this district she’s privileged to represent. The support at the doors has been overwhelmingly positive, she said, and she’s getting plenty of good feedback on her deep involvement, her very progressive stances, and her communication and transparency about what she believes and what she’s doing.
The League of Rhode Island Businesses group Lopez is endorsed by has made a name for itself through misleading and disingenuous behavior, Kallman said, and any comments or claims that come from the league or its candidates should be taken with great skepticism.
Her opponent has not been politically involved, voting once as as a Republican and once as an independent in the last 15 years, Kallman said, and while she’s not going to impeach her motives, the group backing Lopez has every incentive to twist the truth and has been exposed for stretching the limits of campaign finance law.
When someone can’t win by being forthright about who they are, said Kallman, they resort to the tactics being used here, and that, in her view, is not worthy of respect, and it’s not what Rhode Islanders are looking for.
Lopez said the biggest difference between her and her opponent is that she’s a bridge builder.
“If the role of a senator is to lead, then I believe one has to be mindful of how and what they communicate to their constituency,” she said.
She said she’s pragmatic, and as a leader, she thinks it’s important to be practical and effective as opposed to proposing solutions without considering the long-term and oftentimes unintended consequences.
“Sometimes I feel as though many of our current lawmakers are on a quest for cosmic justice instead of being realistic, and that’s unfair to Rhode Islanders,” she said.
Lopez emphasized her primary objective if elected will be to get our state spending under control. Before taxpayers are asked to pay more, she stated, everyone should be asking why the state needs more of residents’ money in the first place.
“We are not the government’s personal ATM,” she said.
Listing her accomplishments, Kallman said housing has been her top issue, supporting numerous bills on that front. She said she fought to ban forever chemicals in consumer goods, and sponsored the bill to establish the Rhode Island Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program, a low-cost public-option retirement savings program for Rhode Islanders who don’t get benefits.
The league has opposed the so-called Taylor Swift Tax, said Kallman, which is out of line with just about everyone in District 15, who are universally in favor of tax equity. They also back gun safety reform, she said, which is why she’s co-sponsored every one of those bills.
She has successfully advocated for free busing for constituents, helped establish strong wage theft and whistleblower laws, and the “list goes on and on,” she said. She said they successfully passed the Rhode Island Building Decarbonization Act, which was vetoed by the governor, but she expects they’ll be able to override that veto the next time, and has also led the charge on increasing the minimum wage to $20 per hour.
The ideas and initiatives she stands for are easily to find and accessible, said Kallman, and she’s always available through her website, phone calls, emails, and meetings.
“The disingenuous faction running every campaign should give every Rhode Islander pause,” she said. “I’m clear about what I stand for.”
Lopez said campaigning has proven especially difficult in District 15 because of how many multi-family homes where people don’t come to the door. She said maybe one person from those homes has done so all summer, and even at single-family homes, there are many signs prohibiting solicitation. She said those circumstances have made it more important to leverage social media, including with the recent successful video.
Lopez said she agrees with much of the populace that “a lot of politicians are full of it,” claiming to stand by certain things and believing that having this or that endorsement means they understand the needs of constituents, meanwhile they’re living in their own bubble. That bubble for Kallman has been very obvious to her, she said, as the incumbent is catering to a small demographic.
Asked about Kallman’s assertions of league ties to MAGA and conservatism and whether she voted for the current president, Lopez said she won’t entertain such questions. Everyone has gotten so lost in political warfare, she said, and there have been so many times where progressives have approached her with their litmus test to try to make sure she’s in line with their political dogma, all while neglecting the important issues.
Progressives sometimes feel they have a monopoly on ideas, she said, but she probably aligns more with the old-school, centrist Democrat. In many cases there is too much focus on philosophical questions or federal issues, she added, when they should be redirecting attention to the issues people face where they live.
Lopez said she believes she can compromise with others in the General Assembly, as long as she’s not betraying the U.S. Constitution or turning her back on promises made when she started running. She said she won’t compromise on anything tied to “taxing people into poverty.”
She said she won’t take Kallman’s divisive approach of making “gross generalizations about people I’m elected to represent,” and can share ideas with people she disagrees with.
One of the reasons people are upset about the league, said Lopez, is that they’ve planned all along to gain enough power to actually make a difference, which means enough seats in the Senate to block a budget. Only then will they have negotiating power, she said. She said she was originally planning to run for a House seat, but felt a Senate one would give her more of a chance of making meaningful change.
