Rep. Matthew S. Dawson (D-Dist. 65, East Providence) was elected to the
Rhode Island House of Representatives in November 2022. He is a member of the House Judiciary Committee, the House Municipal
Government and Housing Committee, the House State Government and Elections
Committee, and the House Special Legislation Committee.
During the 2025 legislative session, Representative Dawson introduced a law, the Human Trafficking Prevention Notice and Training Act, that requires hotel employees and short-term rental property operators to annually receive human trafficking awareness training. He also sponsored legislation enacted into law that protects election officials and poll workers by making threats to election officials a misdemeanor.
Another law introduced by Representative Dawson in 2025 enables the burying of high-voltage power lines between Bold Point Park in East Providence and India Point Park in Providence. He also passed legislation into law that protects tuition savings plans from judicial attachment irrespective of the state in which the account was opened.
In 2024, Representative Dawson introduced a new law that will
expand mail ballot access for voters who cannot sign their name due to
blindness, disability or inability to read or write. He also
introduced bills that would
make it a misdemeanor to harass another person by using an electronic device
to record their movements and that would
help to protect the public's ability to secure accountability for the
failure of the Washington Bridge.
During his first legislative
session in 2023, Representative Dawson introduced a new law which allows
families affected by childhood lead poisoning to recover up to three times
their actual damages if their landlord is found to have violated lead
safety laws.
He graduated from East Providence High School, the
University of Rhode Island, earning a degree in Journalism and Political
Science in 1990, and the New England School of Law in 1995.
Born on
January 12, 1968, Representative Dawson is a practicing attorney at Lynch &
Pine. He is currently a member of the RI Bar Association, the RI Association
of Criminal Defense Attorneys, and the RI Hospitality Association. He also
is the owner of The Red Door restaurant in Providence, has been a member of
the Boston College football chain crew for the past 25 years, and plays
guitar in the band Liquid Courage.
His past public service includes
serving as a prosecutor for the RI Attorney General's office from 1995-2011
where he served as Chief of the Narcotics and Organized Crime Unit and,
later, as Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division. From 2012-2014 he served as
a Probate Judge in East Providence. Representative Dawson was the 2019
Providence Journal's People's Choice Attorney of the Year and he served as
President of the Rhode Island Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys from
2021 to 2022.
He lives in the Riverside section of East Providence
with his wife of 27 years, Bethany, and their two daughters, Kelsea and
Abby.