Representative Christopher R. Blazejewski
House Majority Leader
Christopher R. Blazejewski (D) was first elected in November 2010 and represents District 2 in Providence. He was elected by his Democratic colleagues to serve as the House Majority Leader in November 2020 after having served as Deputy Majority Whip since May 2015. As a representative, Leader Blazejewski has championed environmental protection, education, civil rights, senior services, healthcare, and economic opportunity for working families.
In 2021, Representative Blazejewski cosponsored and led passage of the Act on Climate, requiring the state to reach net zero emissions based on current climate science and providing for an equitable and just transition and inclusion of environmental justice communities most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. He also led passage of legislation putting Rhode Island on a path to a $15 minimum wage, banning firearms from school grounds, and ensuring pay equity for Rhode Island workers regardless of sex, race, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, age, or country of ancestral origin.
In 2019, Representative
Blazejewski cosponsored and led passage of the Reproductive
Privacy Act, which codified in state
law the privacy rights and reproductive freedoms guaranteed by the United
States Supreme Court in the case Roe v. Wade. He also cosponsored and helped
secure passage of legislation extending
the statute of limitations to help survivors of
childhood sexual abuse seek justice. In 2020, he co-sponsored and helped pass a
law banning
untraceable firearms - “ghost guns” and
3D-printed guns - in Rhode Island. He also cosponsored the “fair
chance licensing” law protecting Rhode Islanders
from being denied occupational licenses because of unrelated criminal
convictions.
Representative Blazejewski sponsored Rhode Island's first-in-the-nation Homeless Bill of Rights, enacted in 2012. He sponsored legislation creating the Deborah DeBare Domestic Violence Prevention Fund, and a law that expanded the crime victims' compensation fund to assist domestic violence survivors and their children and families. He sponsored a law expanding domestic violence protective orders to protect more children as well as a law making noncompetition agreements unenforceable against hourly and low-wage employees, children and college students.
He was the sponsor of the Innovate
RI Small Business program that assists Rhode
Island small businesses in applying for and matching federal funds targeting
research and innovation. He also sponsored the creation of Rhode Island’s Wavemaker
Fellowship program, which is aimed at
attracting and retaining graduates in the fields of science, technology,
engineering, design, and medicine through tax credits for student loan
payments. Another law he sponsored requires “Super
PACs” to disclose major donors.
Representative Blazejewski graduated from Harvard University in 2002 and received his juris doctorate from Harvard Law in 2005. An attorney, he works for Sherin and Lodgen LLP. He is licensed to practice law in Rhode Island and Massachusetts and is a member of the Rhode Island Bar Association.
Representative Blazejewski was born on Dec. 3, 1979. A lifelong Rhode Islander, he resides in Providence with his wife, Ami Gada, their daughter, Aria, and their son, Liam.