Former Rhode Island Mayor Touches ‘Third Rails’ In 2023 Presidential Campaign: Watch

MANCHESTER, NH — For four years in the early 2000s, Steve Laffey was the mayor of the scrappy city of Cranston, Rhode Island. He ran for the U.S. Senate seat in 2006 against U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a Republican who was installed to fill out the remainder of his father’s term in 1999 — but lost the primary by about 5,500 votes. About a decade ago, he flirted with a Republican run for governor in Colorado … for a few days. In 2014, he ran for Congress in Colorado, in a relatively safe Republican seat, but placed fourth out of four candidates.

Today, Laffey wants to be president and is taking his message straight to the voters of New Hampshire.

If elected, Laffey said he would tackle the “third rail” issues many candidates do not want to discuss — the Federal Reserve System, Social Security, and public education. They all, he said, “have to be radically changed.”

Online, Laffey addresses some of the solutions he would offer. He said his background “was unique” compared to other candidates, running a financial company, teaching finance in Rhode Island, and being the mayor of Cranston for four years between 2003 and 2007.

Laffey said K-12 education was a major issue he would take on, saying, “The public schools cannot be fixed.” While many of the candidates were discoursing about “wokeness” in schools, he said the real issue was the fact that only 18 percent of students are proficient in history. His solution? During the next decade, move children away from public schools and have the money follow the child — while giving parents a choice to fund homeschooling, religious schools, or other private institutions. With the Internet, in 2023, he said, many courses can be taught for much less money.

“It couldn’t be any worse,” he said. “It will be a lot better.”

Laffey said he understood education issues, dealing with a school board as mayor. His six children were also educated in a mix of public and nonpublic schools, while the last three were homeschooled. He said education would bring back the middle class. Laffey said he believed his “lower-middle-class background” and commonsense solutions would resonate with voters.

During his first race for mayor, he unseated a popular Democrat by pointing out significant issues in the city and being honest with voters, saying they would not like everything he proposed. Voters elected him anyway, he said. Laffey said voters were “acutely aware” of the problems in Cranston and gave him a chance. The same thing could be said for the United States in 2023.

“We need action,” he said, noting that Americans, especially older ones, were not optimistic about the nation's course — even though unemployment was at 3 percent. “The future for the first time, for their children, is worse.”

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