Democrat Gabe Amo is now Rhode Island’s first black congressman after winning the general election on Nov. 7th.
The Rhode Island Board of Elections shows Amo received 64.7% of the total vote, beating republican Gerry Leonard who received 35% of the votes.
In Bristol, 62.8% of voters selected Amo, and 36.9% went to Leonard. In the previous 12-way Democratic Primary that Amo won in September, he received 41% of Bristol’s votes.
For the Rhode Island 2023 General Election, some towns had the opportunity to vote on a school bond that would provide funding for the construction of new schools, including Bristol. The town’s residents voted to approve the bond by 66.5%. Bristol is eligible to borrow up to $200 million and replace the Mount Hope High School as well as replace other schools.
Bristol accounted for 6.7% of the overall vote, including those in the RWU community.
K.C. Ferrara, Director of the Feinstein Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement, is one RWU community member who voted to approve the school bond.
“Even though my children are already out of the district, I know the challenges they had while attending that school,” Ferrara said, “we need to provide a good, healthy, safe, educationally conducive building for learning, and that current building does not accomplish any of those things.”
Ferrara commented that the current Mount Hope High School has limited community spaces and is overall outdated. The school is also in a location that is vulnerable to flooding as it was built on a swamp.
With assistance from Ferrara, RWU was able to launch the “All In” campaign that pushed college students to go to the polls or participate in other ways of voting.
Every four years a committee put together by Ferrara encourages students to register. There are plans for the initiative to “flood campus” in the spring for the upcoming primary season.
“Wherever people sit in the field we want them to make the best decisions for themselves,” said Ferrara.
