Raymond Baccari
News Editor
Cameron Moquin is one of 11 candidates running for the open seat in Rhode Island’s Second Congressional District – following Congressman Langevin’s retirement. The Democratic primary currently consists of eight Democrats including Moquin.
“I just want to improve people’s lives. When I go to work, I patch people up and bring them to the hospital constantly. And unfortunately there’s nothing I can do to change the situation that brought them there. I constantly tell people that I wish I can do more, I wish I can write a law to change the ways that things are for you,” Moquin said in a recent episode of Ray-ality TV.
“Honestly a lot of people are dealing with problems [such as] social and economic [inequality] that are keeping them in a position where it makes things difficult for them.”
One of Moquin’s key policy proposals if elected is environmental stewardship. He supports all the current legislation in place and bills on the floor to prevent climate change. Moquin wants to go further with more mitigation efforts and using current technology available.
Moquin supports reimagining public safety. This contains ideas such as having social workers respond to addiction and mental health crises, as opposed to a police officer.
“It falls into part of my health systems transformation policy where the mental health aspect of emergency response is often carried out by police officers,” says Moquin. “And I would venture to say a majority of what police officers are dealing with out on the streets are mental health oriented. I believe that some legislative pressure from the top needs to be in place nationwide to correct these problems because it’s not just a Rhode Island problem.”
The plan to reimagine public safety plays into Moquin’s plan for healthcare equity. This is a multi-part policy that contains both addressing the homelessness crisis and transforming the country’s healthcare system.
Term limits is a topic frequently discussed during interviews with candidates running for Congress on Ray-ality TV. Langevin served for over 20 years and 11 candidates wouldn’t be running if he chose to seek another term. Moquin is open to the idea, but not ultimately for it.
“I’m not particularly against it and I would consider it. But I do also see the benefit in having some long-term senior [Congresspeople],” says Moquin. “[They may] have been working on policies for decades where the moment comes that you’ll have a bill that you want to introduce to the floor but it may be 20 years down the line that this becomes such [an] important piece of legislation because of public consciousness shifting. And also there [are] people who are just great organizers.”
Moquin cited that voters could vote a Senator or Congressperson out if they don’t think they should serve any longer – essentially being term limits. That’s a term length. There are no limits to how long a member of Congress can serve. For example, Former U.S. Senator of South Carolina Strom Thurmond served in the U.S. Senate until he was almost 100 years old. Some members of Congress self-impose term limits and don’t run for re-election such as the U.S. Senator of Pennsylvania Pat Toomey. Moquin hasn’t yet committed to any self-imposed term limits if elected.
“Right now I’m committed to running the best campaign I can and doing the best I can to help the people of Rhode Island. I don’t have even a place to say that I’m going to have a term to limit. I want to do the best I can, but I don’t want to commit to a term limit,” said Moquin.
Some proposals that Democrats tried to pass in the 117th Congress included adding more justices to the Supreme Court, and Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico statehood. Moquin agrees with both ideas.
One of the first votes the winner of this election will cast is for either a House Minority Leader or Speaker of the House. Moquin said he would vote for Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
Moquin is a RIC Alumnus. He was part of WXIN, The Anchor (as an Arts & Entertainment Contributor) and he founded the Cycling Club. Moquin enjoyed his time as a student at the college.
“I love Rhode Island College. I would go back if I had an excuse to. I went back for a second degree, I loved it so much. I love the culture [at RIC] and I like that it was so small and it’s like a community that I think that you maybe don’t get in some of the other schools – I really [liked my time].”
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