The democratic socialist movement surging across major cities this summer notched another win Wednesday in Providence, Rhode Island.
The city’s Democratic primary voters nominated state Rep. David Morales, who was backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, over incumbent Mayor Brett Smiley.
Morales, who vowed to focus on bringing down Providence’s prohibitive housing costs by capping annual rent increases, is now favored to win the November general election in this deep-blue city of 200,000 residents.
Smiley had vetoed a similar proposal passed by the city council earlier this year, stressing housing-construction efforts he said would more effectively lower soaring rents.
A victory for Morales, 27, in November would make him the latest democratic socialist to lead a U.S. city.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, both democratic socialists, took office this year, and Janeese Lewis George is favored to become mayor of Washington, D.C., next year.
The next mayoral test for the democratic socialist movement will come in Los Angeles, where Mayor Karen Bass is facing a challenge from DSA-backed city council member Nithya Raman. Both candidates advanced from a hotly contested open primary earlier this year.
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