Providence, Rhode Island's openly gay
Mayor David N. Cicilline announced Saturday he'll run for Congress.
Cicilline, 48, threw his hat into
the ring a day after Rhode Island Representative Patrick J. Kennedy
said he would not seek re-election.
In announcing his candidacy, the
two-term mayor said that if elected he would focus on the middle
class.
“I'm running for Congress because
Washington has lost sight of what is really happening to the
hard-working middle class in the cities and towns in America,”
Cicilline
said in a statement. “There's a dangerous disconnect between
what Washington thinks will help the American people out of this
miserable economic decline and what will really make a difference in
their lives right now. I see the cost and the reality of that
disconnect every single day.”
Cicilline, a lawyer and a former state
representative, was first elected mayor in 2002 and re-elected in
2006. He easily won both contests with an overwhelming majority of
the vote.
A second Democrat, Bill Lynch, the
chairman of the State Democratic Party, also declared his candidacy
for Kennedy's seat on Saturday, saying his top priority in Washington
would be “jobs, jobs, jobs.”
In elected, Cicilline would become the
fourth openly gay lawmaker in Congress. The current list includes
representatives Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Barney Frank of
Massachusetts and, most recently, Jared Polis of Colorado.