Rhode Island Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos was the early favorite in the race for an open seat in the 1st Congressional District last year. But a signature-gathering scandal took on a life of its own, and undermined Matos’ hopes of landing in Congress. Her boss, Gov. Dan McKee, shows how a lieutenant governor can move up if they’re in the right place at the right time. But some Rhode Islanders continue to question the value of the lieutenant governor’s office. So what does Matos say about that? What has she done to overcome the disappointment of her performance in last year’s congressional race? And what does Matos say about Democrats losing support among Latinos? This week on Political Roundtable, Ian Donnis goes in-depth with Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos.
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Ian Donnis: Welcome to The Public’s Radio.
Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos: Good Morning, thank you so much for having me.
Donnis: You ran in the 1st Congressional District last year. You were the frontrunner at the start and then there was a signature gathering controversy that proved to be a difficult issue for your campaign. If you could do that all over again, is there anything you would have done differently?
Matos: I have to say that I think all of us have a lot to learn from what happened last year. I learned a lot. I have to say there’s so many things that if I could do over again, I probably would change. But as we say, hindsight is 20/20, right? So right now what I can tell you is that I learned many lessons. I learned that you have to trust but also verify. You need, also, I learned that I have to trust my instinct more. Because, there were many instances in which things were happening, and my instinct was to do something different, and I didn’t follow my instinct. And the other thing that I learned is that our system needs strengthening. And that’s why I’m so happy that the Secretary of State Amore has taken that initiative to make sure that we make the changes that we need to make in our election system to ensure that the people of Rhode Island, the voters, don’t lose faith in our democratic process.
What happened last year was actually a disservice to our democratic process. This was a violation of the trust of the people of the state of Rhode Island, of the voters of the state of Rhode Island. And we have to make sure that something like that doesn’t happen ever again.
Donnis: Has your experience of what happened changed your view of public service and how you approach your job as lieutenant governor?
Matos: Public service has been rewarding because every time you, it’s what an experience every time that I get a message from someone who just lets me know how some work that my office did changed their life or changed an issue, a challenge that they were having and how we were able to help them. But also every time I get a message, especially from young women, that send me a message telling me how they see me in public service and they feel identified. They feel like if I, if she can do it, I can do it also. Those are the moments in which, help. Those are the moments actually that helped me to get through the tough moments, right? And that’s, those are the moments that I was more reliant on last year, through all the tough moments that I went through last year.
Donnis: So far this year, you’ve released a policy plan on Alzheimer’s disease. You’ve called for changes to the small business councils you oversee in your role as Lieutenant Governor and talked up the idea of employee ownership of businesses. These all seem like worthy efforts, but I wonder if you have any bolder, more high profile initiatives that you’re planning or pursuing.
Matos: Oh, I believe those are very bold. Those are those are bold and high profile initiative. When we look at the Alzheimer’s. and I can tell you once we announced the plan with the announcement that we had was for the five year plan for the state of Rhode Island. This is the second plan. And the feedback that I got from people in the community that were so grateful to see that we were prioritizing the Alzheimer’s related diseases, and you won’t believe the amount of people that are dealing with. relatives, loved ones that are suffering with Alzheimer’s or are caring for someone that is suffering with Alzheimer’s.
So this is very relevant and it’s something that we need to make sure that we provide every support that we can from the state level to the people suffering from Alzheimer’s. When we look at the small business and the employee owned, this is crucial right now. Our population in the state of Rhode Island for the year 2030, 25 percent of our population is going to be over the age of 60. And when you think about that 12,000 businesses in the state of Rhode Island are owned by individuals over the age of 60, they start thinking about retirement. If we don’t have a plan, if we don’t get prepared for when those individuals decide to retire, we could be in a situation in which we could lose those businesses after we have supported them to grow in the state of Rhode Island. If they don’t have a succession in place, what could happen is that those businesses could be closed or could be moved out of the state. The employee-owned option is something that could be available for those businesses that don’t have a plan, don’t have someone that is going to be taking on the business after the founders decide to retire.
So this is a pressing issue that we should be working on. If we sit and wait, it’s gonna be too late. These are things that require working ahead of time.
Donnis: You’ve had some ups and downs in your relationship with Gov. McKee. I wonder what do you consider the best accomplishment that you and the governor have worked on together?
Matos: The governor and I have an excellent working relationship. I always have to go back to the beginning. The governor and I started during the pandemic, making sure that we brought vaccination to every municipality, every community. I think that was crucial. I work also with the governor in developing the 2030 plan for the state of Rhode Island. I continue to work with him in collaborating. Right now, they’re looking at ways in which we can increase the people’s income. Again, I’m going to go back to the employee owned option in which if you look at the data, those that are employee owned tend to have a 33 percent higher income than those individuals that are just employees. So this is a way in which we can ensure that we’re increasing people’s income and also helping them to build wealth.
Donnis: The Rhode Island Brotherhood of Correctional Officers, the correctional officers union at the state prison, is very critical of Governor McKee’s nomination of the interim director Wayne Salisbury to be the permanent director of the State Department of Corrections. They say he’s had a brush with the law. They don’t think he has the right stuff to be director. How do you respond to this criticism?
Matos: I trust the governor’s decision, and his trust that Wayne is the right person and I believe that the governor is making the right decision.
Donnis: It was about two months ago when Governor McKee promised a day of accountability and a reckoning on the Washington Bridge. Traffic is generally better on the bridge, but it still takes a long time to get over some other areas like the Henderson Bridge during rush hour. When will we see this day of reckoning that the governor called for?
Matos: We’re still waiting for the investigation that’s taking place. This is gonna be a possible legal process coming. So there’s information that we still don’t have available to share. As soon as it’s available, the governor will share that.
Donnis: Your political success reflects how we’re seeing a lot more diversity in Rhode Island politics. Bodies like the Providence City Council, the General Assembly are much more diverse with people of color than they once were. At the same time, there are still a lot of economic disparities for people of color in Rhode Island. How do you think that should be addressed?
Matos: Well, I’m very happy to see where we are right now. If you remember when I was elected to the Providence City Council at that moment, although in the past we’d had more females, but at that moment I was the only woman elected during that election. And we have made some gains, in the General Assembly, thanks to the hard work that a lot of people have been doing in the Latino community. What we have seen right, what we see right now, it has taken years of preparation and work. We always have to go back and recognize the work that the founders of the Latino Political Action Committee did: Dr. Pablo Rodriguez, Nelly Gorbea, Melba Depena, Victor Capellan, Angel Taveras.
Donnis: Sure. But after this success, what is, how can economic disparities be reduced for people of color?
Matos: It goes back to housing. It’s go back to housing. If we want to address the challenges that the people of color and every community is having here in the state of Rhode Island goes back to housing. Right, now people are paying more than 35 percent of their income on housing. That is making them, that they’re not, it’s making. It’s causing them not to be able to have the resources to be able to provide for their family. So housing is one.
The second one, which is another initiative of the governor’s education. We have to ensure that we continue to provide education opportunities for people of color and low income individuals in the state of Rhode Island. That’s the only way we can ensure there’s going to be economic mobility for them and to be able to increase their income, and to be able to improve the quality of life and of their families.
Donnis: As a Latina, you are a staunch Democrat, but we hear these days about how more Latinos in various states are voting Republican. Why do you think that is?
Matos: Well, Latinos, we are not monolithic. We care about the same issues that every other population cares about. Yes, we have been more, we have been closer to the Democratic Party. I believe the Democratic Party has always been more inclusive and has been championing these issues that we care about. We care about education. We care about the economy, bringing opportunities, and the Democratic Party tends to do that.
Donnis: But if Democrats are losing support among Latinos, what is the answer for Democrats?
Matos: I believe, well, we cannot take the Latino vote for granted. And I think that’s the one thing that the Democrats have to do is to make sure that we’re not taking the Latino vote for granted. I can tell you from experience in previous campaigns, even dealing with presidential campaigns in the past, that the Latino vote has been taken for granted. People just assume that a Latino is gonna come out and vote. And there is not investment being made to ensure that the voters come out. I can tell you, I have seen more of a movement within the Republican Party lately has been making more investment with and reaching out to the Latino community. So the Democratic Party has to make sure that we do the same thing and we don’t take the Latino vote for granted.
Donnis: All right, we’ve got to leave it there. Thank you very much for joining us. Rhode Island Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos.
Matos: Thank you Ian.
Progressive lawmakers in Rhode Island point to Massachusetts in urging support for a new tax on people who earn more than a million dollars a year. A so-called millionaires tax has raised $1.8 billion ahead of the end of the fiscal year in the Bay State. That’s a lot of money. But legislative leaders in Rhode Island remain cool to the idea of raising taxes on the well-to-do. You can read more about that in my TGIF column, posting around 4 p.m. this afternoon at thepublicsradio.org/tgif and on what used to be known as Twitter @IanDon.
