Meet Michael
My name is Michael Garman, and I’m a climate and democracy advocate. I’m running to be your State Representative because the Trump administration is waging an all-out war on the most vulnerable members of our society and our fundamental values. We need Democratic leaders who will fight back at the State House instead of abandoning our principles and allowing the cruelty of the national Republican agenda to win in Rhode Island. Over her 33 years in office, our current State Representative, Rep. Edith Ajello, has voted to cut core social services, supported tax breaks for predatory corporations, and abused her power to block ethics reform. I’m running because our district and city deserve leaders who will fight for economic equity and dignity for all.
In recent decades, the General Assembly has time and again chosen to cut taxes for well-heeled corporate interests and the highest-income people, reducing investments in healthcare, housing and education for the most vulnerable in order to enrich the most prosperous. Rep. Ajello has supported many of these unjust policies, including Medicaid cuts, the devastation of the state pension system, and tax breaks for Citizens Bank and the Superman Building developer. Not only did she support Mayor Smiley’s regressive 2025 property tax increase, but she was also the only State Representative not employed by him to cosponsor an even more extreme bill that would have allowed an unlimited increase.
In addition to supporting the Mayor’s inequitable tax plan, Rep. Ajello refused to criticize him publicly after the city police were caught collaborating with ICE under his watch. ICE is a rogue agency whose presence has been felt throughout our city, from the courthouse in our district on South Main Street to homes where it has conducted raids and disappeared our neighbors in Silver Lake. Now more than ever, we need Democrats who are going to stand by our principles and vigorously oppose Trump’s campaign of terror against our immigrant neighbors instead of trying to outflank Republicans from the right on the issue.
Housing affordability is an issue that affects me personally. I rent a 130-square-foot room for $1,150 a month, so I know the crunch of the housing crisis we’re facing. I know that we can’t afford to wait to build more housing and strengthen tenant and homeowner supports and protections. At the same time, addressing the housing crisis doesn’t mean abandoning our architectural history. Before he became an organic farmer, my father served on the local Historic District Commission for many years, and he met my stepmother while teaching in the Cultural and Historic Preservation program at Salve Regina. They nurtured my appreciation for the wealth of architectural beauty and history throughout our state and for the preservationists like Antoinette Downing and Doris Duke who fought to save it from the wrecking ball. I firmly believe that, with policy solutions like historic rehabilitation tax credits, affordability and preservation can work together instead of against each other.
I’m also intimately familiar with and deeply concerned about Trump’s crusade against higher education. My mother and stepfather are URI professors, and their colleagues have been forced to contend with research grant cuts. These attacks on academic freedom have been especially acutely felt in our district. I firmly believe that the General Assembly needs to do everything within its power to protect open inquiry at our state’s public and private universities.
The climate crisis is an existential threat, and it’s an issue I work on addressing every single day. I grew up in Newport, and I learned at a young age that much of my hometown and our state could be underwater within my lifetime if we don’t correct our course. Tweaking our tax structure and investing in healthcare for all won’t matter if our planet burns to a crisp. After I graduated from Yale, I started working for the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters, a nonprofit committed to building a stronger environmental movement from the grassroots to the halls of power. Unfortunately, it appears that Rep. Ajello, who voted to give Exxon a tax break in 2021, doesn’t view the issue with the same urgency.
Just as our future depends on climate action, it also needs us to defend our democracy from attacks at both the state and federal levels. I founded Ocean State Ranked Choice Voting, a nonprofit that organizes Rhode Islanders to advocate for an electoral system that reflects the will of the people and strengthens our power to hold our leaders accountable. I still serve on its board and will always fight to protect the right to vote and upgrade our electoral system. Rep. Ajello chaired the Judiciary Committee as part of the leadership team of Speaker Gordon Fox, who resigned in disgrace and went to prison for bribery and improper use of campaign funds. In 2013, she abused her power to undermine democratic accountability by citing a nonexistent rule to justify acceding to Speaker Fox’s demands and overturning a unanimous vote advancing a constitutional amendment that would have clarified that the Ethics Commission could discipline legislators for voting on conflicts of interest. Now more than ever, we need Democrats who will fight for democracy, not subvert it.
Conceding on our core values means embracing injustice and hatred. America needs Democrats who will fight. We need to take on corporate lobbyists instead of taking their checks. We need to resist Trump by creating a more equitable tax structure to make up for lost federal funding instead of cutting state investments in Medicaid and SNAP. We need to defend the dignity of LGBTQ+ people (I’m proud to be bisexual!) and immigrants instead of allowing the reactionaries pushing hatred to turn anyone who isn’t exactly like them into second-class members of society, just as they have with women by gutting reproductive rights. We need to take bold steps to address the climate crisis instead of allowing short-term expediency to imperil the future of our planet. The choices our leaders make at the State House are more important than ever before.
If I haven’t met you yet, I look forward to getting to know you soon! I’ll be talking to voters across the district from now until the primary on September 8th and am eager to learn more about the issues that are most important to you. Please feel free to call or text me at (401) 644-4108 or email me at michaeljgarman10@gmail.com at any time. If you agree that this moment demands Democrats who will fight, I hope to earn your vote in the primary on September 8th.
— Michael