Sen. Tiara Mack Is Building a World Future Generations Can See Themselves in

By Eva Herrick

In the nation’s smallest state, State Sen. Tiara Mack is determined to make a big impact. When Mack arrived in Providence, Rhode Island for college, she immediately got involved in the community, tutoring after school, working at the statehouse, and volunteering for political campaigns. After graduating from Brown University in 2016, Mack commuted for two years to an AmeriCorps role with Teach for America, teaching high school algebra and geometry, while maintaining her civic life in Providence. Running for office, however, was never on Mack’s radar—until she took a closer look at the 2020 candidate and saw someone who wasn’t genuinely committed to the community.

“I got mad,” Mack shared with Future Caucus in an interview, “So instead of continuing to get angry, I decided to get elected.”  

And elected she was. In 2020, Mack became the first openly queer Black woman elected to the Rhode Island Senate, where she now represents District 6.

For Mack, the history of her state and her district is central to her work. Rhode Island has a long history of valuing freedom—not for some, but for all—as one of the 13 colonies founded on principles of religious freedom and as the first state where Black Americans could vote before the Emancipation Proclamation, with abolition efforts beginning in the state legislature over two centuries before the onset of the Civil War. In Mack’s district, which includes parts of the capital city of Providence, this history still figures prominently in civic life. The district is home to one of the oldest Black communities and churches in the state, a diverse population of immigrants from around the world, including Portugal, Liberia, and Cambodia and, perhaps most uniquely, has a constitutionally protected Black majority.

Even as an emblem for the state’s progress, District 6 has also been at the center of Rhode Island’s biggest challenges, including aging infrastructure and urban renewal. As a community on the water, Mack’s constituents feel the direct effects of environmental protection policies and how the city’s infrastructure is failing to keep up with development. A highway cuts the district in half, which not only makes the electoral map a bit more confusing, but is also a stark reminder of redlining and gentrification, the effects of which continue to push out communities that have lived in the district for generations.

Like many young lawmakers, who tend to live among and face the same day-to-day challenges as their constituents, addressing affordability and the housing crisis is Mack’s top priority. When she began her first term, however, her progressive housing policies were met with resistance from her fellow state legislators. In the face of this opposition, Mack had to get creative by brainstorming ways to reframe housing policy so it could pass.

After some trial and error, Mack built the lever she’d use to move housing policy: a package of five bills to strengthen tenants’ rights by protecting them from discrimination, arbitrary costs, and unsafe housing conditions. Even her colleagues who had initially resisted Mack’s earlier tenant protection advocacy found aspects of the package compelling—in particular, the fifth bill in the package, which prohibits landlords from requiring rental application fees, had widespread support and became law in June of 2023.

Creative policy solutions like this couldn’t have come at a better time, but Mack knew she would have to keep at it as conditions evolved. Currently, over 60% of the people living in Mack’s district are renters, housing costs have outpaced salaries, and for many aging homeowners, downsizing within the district is unrealistic. 

At the same time, Providence, which is only three hours from New York and an hour from Boston, is becoming an increasingly appealing place for young professionals to live and raise a family. But where many see these new arrivals as gentrifiers threatening an already fragile market, Mack sees these changes as an opportunity. 

“No new group coming to a place to live is a bad thing,” Mack explained. Instead of fearing gentrification and legislating against something, Mack has reframed her approach and aims to legislate in a way that’s realistic and complementary to the impending shifts. By focusing on anti-displacement and community development in tandem, Mack has a vision for the future of her community, which includes both maintaining affordability and welcoming newcomers.

Mack sees a future where the character of her district’s neighborhoods stays the same, but with new people and businesses. She sees a future where people can get a matcha or a poke bowl, but they don’t have to change the grocery store that they’ve been going to, or the bus line they take to work. 

Rhode Island has always been among America’s most forward-thinking states, and Mack intends to keep it that way, while staying true to her district’s history. 

“Even if I wasn’t a part of the generation before’s dream of what America could look like, I can be a part of shaping the American dream for the generations after me.”