Rhode Island
Checks and Balances, Cancelled: DSA-Backed Sanchez Claims Providence Council Gavel to Pass Rent Control With Morales
What happened
On Monday, Oct. 5, Providence City Councilor Miguel Sanchez (Ward 6) announced in a press release that he has the votes to become the next City Council President for the 2027–2031 term. According to the release, “a majority of the Democratic nominees for Providence City Council” back him, and the incoming council has also pledged support for Juan M. Pichardo as President Pro Tempore, Shelley T. Peterson as Majority Leader, and Jill Davidson as Majority Whip. Sanchez is now the council’s majority whip. Current Council President Rachel Miller is leaving office.
Sanchez said what the gavel is for: “We will work with expected Mayor-elect David Morales to pass a rent stabilization ordinance, while continuing to address housing affordability, strengthen our public schools, invest in our neighborhoods, and expand economic opportunity.” Morales, a state representative endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America, beat Mayor Brett Smiley in the Sept. 9 Democratic primary and is heavily favored over Republican Dave Talan on Nov. 3. Sanchez was endorsed by the Providence chapter of the DSA in his 2022 council race, according to the Boston Globe. That’s why GoLocalProv’s headline says the city’s top two posts are “poised to be held by Democratic Socialists.”
The background: earlier this year the council passed an ordinance capping many annual rent increases at 4%. Smiley vetoed it in April, and the override failed by one vote in May. In the Sept. 9 primaries, a Morales-aligned slate of council candidates nearly swept, The Providence Eye reported. That included Miguel Martínez Youngs, a former council policy staffer who helped draft the rent ordinance, unseating Ward 1’s John Goncalves, and David Marshall beating Ward 7’s Ana Vargas, who had switched her position to vote down rent stabilization.
Sanchez has a record of high-profile clashes with the mayor’s office. In January 2025 he and Councilor Justin Roias kept the City Council chambers open overnight as a warming space for homeless residents over Smiley’s objection that “City Hall does not have the resources, expertise or proper facilities to serve as an emergency shelter.” In 2023 he said he was fired from a job in Gov. Dan McKee’s office over pro-Palestinian social-media posts, and in May 2025 the council flew the Palestinian flag over City Hall, a move Smiley called “divisive.” The council will formally elect its leadership by majority vote at its first meeting in January 2027.
Original reporting
Read the underlying sources:
RI News Today — Providence Councilors open up Chambers overnight. Mayor opposes action. (Jan. 2025)
Virtue Forge commentary
A city council isn’t a mayor’s legislative staff. Its job is to scrutinize the executive: question the budget, push back on overreach, and slow down bad ideas. Providence has had that tension for years, and whatever you think of Brett Smiley, his veto and the council’s failed override meant a price-control ordinance got a second look. Monday’s announcement says that check is going away. The incoming council leader’s first public promise isn’t oversight. It’s to “work with expected Mayor-elect David Morales” to pass the mayor’s signature policy. When the second floor and the third floor of City Hall run on one agenda, nobody in the building is paid to say no.
The timing matters too. The leadership deal was locked in and announced before Providence voters cast a single general-election ballot. Several of these nominees, Sanchez included, still have opponents in November. Settling who runs the council months ahead, in a primary-decides-everything city, treats the November election as a formality and the voters in Wards 5, 6 and 9 as an afterthought. Humble government earns its mandate first and then divides up the offices.
Here’s the problem with the policy. Rent caps don’t build apartments. They tell the people who finance and build housing that City Hall will limit what they can earn on it. When St. Paul tried a strict cap, multifamily permits collapsed and the city spent the next few years undoing the law (our St. Paul briefing). Providence’s housing shortage comes down to supply: permitting, zoning, taxes, and the cost of building. A council that wanted lower rents would compete with Morales on who can approve more homes faster. Instead the incoming leadership has promised to help him cap prices. Rhode Islanders who want trustworthy, competent city government should watch whether anyone on this council is still willing to tell the mayor no.