According to the Wall Street Journal, Rhode Island’s stagnant population growth will result in the loss of a valuable U.S. Congressional seat and billions in federal aid after the 2020 national Census. Fewer people are choosing to make Rhode Island their home … why? The Democrat-dominated General Assembly has failed the people, advancing a progressive-left and special-interest agenda that benefits the insider few, while increasing taxes and the cost of living on the rest of us — the many.

Sadly, Rhode Island has become an inhospitable place to raise a family or build a career, and we are not keeping pace with the rest of America when it comes to jobs and population growth. The U.S. population increased 0.48% in 2019, yet RI saw virtually no growth. Some say people are fleeing for warmer weather, but this argument is easily debunked when looking at low-tax New Hampshire, which saw a 0.46% increase, despite even colder weather.

Now Democrats want to impose a new gas tax! After creating unaffordable property taxes, high electricity prices, and soaring healthcare premiums, they support “green-new-deal” type schemes like the Transportation & Climate Initiative (TCI), which will tax regular and diesel gas by 17 cents/gallon, just for starters. Catering to environmental extremists who want to punish families and businesses for using vehicles in our everyday lives, TCI and Democrats want to make fuel so expensive that you will be forced to use less of it, falsely believing that limiting your freedom will somehow save our planet.

After decades of absolute legislative rule, Democrats have steered our state into bottom-10 rankings on a number of critical national economic indexes, including the dishonor of being CNBC’s “worst” state for business.

We also drive away families because of the dismal condition of our government-run public school system. Families are denied the freedom to choose a better educational path for their children because Democrats are beholden to government teacher unions that block school reforms.

As we look to the next decade, maybe it’s time to realize that if we want more family- and business-friendly policies — that will attract more people to our state — maybe we need to reconsider who should represent you in the Statehouse.