On Thursday July 16, four candidates running to be Rhode Island Attorney General visited the Lincoln School in Providence for a forum on their policies. Hosted by Sojourner House, the candidates spoke about ways they would lead the state’s legal team to enforce state law pertaining to cases of domestic violence as well as immigration, guns, and more.
Keith Hoffmann is the former chief of policy for sitting Attorney General Peter Neronha, who has endorsed him in this election. Kim Ahern is a prosecutor who worked for the last three attorney generals in Rhode Island and is currently chair of the Cannabis Control Commission. Jason Knight is a State Representative for Barrington and Warren who has sponsored several state laws on gun control, including the landmark 2025 law to ban the sale of assault weapons. The only Republican in the group was Alan Gordon.
Only one candidate was not in attendance—Joseph J. Solomon Jr., a state representative from Warwick.
Domestic Violence in Rhode Island
After the candidates introduced themselves, moderator and journalist Ed Fitzpatrick of The Boston Globe began by asking how each person would address domestic violence—an issue close to the mission of Sojourner House, which provided services to over 5,000 abuse victims last year and operates three shelters.
Almost all candidates argued that the AG’s office needs more prosecutors to work the cases against alleged domestic violence (DV) offenders and more staff to support victims. Hoffmann pointed out that Neronha created a special victims unit with dedicated prosecutors for DV cases, as well as cases of sexual assault, child abuse, child molestation and elder abuse.
“When I left that unit in 2019, my average caseload that I personally handled was 150 cases,” said Ahern. “Right now, the average caseload in that unit per prosecutor is about 200, 220… The office needs more resources, more prosecutors to take these cases with the seriousness that it deserves.”
Ahern said the AG office’s Critical Case Review Committee sorts through cases and decides where to focus their efforts based on “highest lethality risk,” or “which victim is likely to be killed.” To ease the load on prosecutors and lower the amount of violence in the state, Ahern and the other candidates agreed that Rhode Island needs to invest in prevention. For example, most candidates argued that housing should be available to people fleeing abusive situations.
“Housing’s got to be provided,” said Gordon. “You gotta break the cycle, and somebody suffering abuse needs to know that there’s someplace safe to go.”
Representative Knight said the office should be used as a “bully pulpit” to pressure other entities in the state to fund critical prevention resources, including housing and possible curriculum changes in public schools.
“How do you get a victim who is suffering from the abuser to break the chains of power and control? Physically, how do you get them away? And one of the ways is to have housing,” said Knight. “This is where the General Assembly needs to go, and the AG needs to be the biggest cheerleader to get you funds and to fix our housing problems.”
ICE, Immigration, and Civil Rights in Rhode Island
Knight pointed out the General Assembly also just passed three bills around controlling immigration enforcement in Rhode Island. The state has seen increases in ICE arrests since Donald Trump became president again in 2024.
One bill creates a pathway for Rhode Islanders to sue federal officials for violating their constitutional rights. Another law lowered the maximum misdemeanor imprisonment time from one year to 364 days. This prevents immigration officials from abusing a federal law that allows immigrants convicted of a crime punishable by a year imprisonment to be detained or deported. The third bill prohibits federal agents from conducting civil arrests at Rhode Island courthouses without a valid judicial warrant.
Fitzpatrick noted that on Monday, July 13, ICE agent David Brouillette shot and killed 25-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero on his way to work. He was a father from Colombia who was authorized to work in the United States. His three-year-old daughter was reportedly at the site of the incident wearing pajamas and a pink backpack.
This came just a week after ICE agents fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston, and then detained his younger brother and threatened him with deportation. Araujo had lived in the United States for decades. Hoffmann called Guerrero’s death a “tragedy,” as well as those of Alex Pretti, Renée Good and other individuals killed by ICE agents.
“[Some] are U.S. citizens, some are undocumented, some are green card holders, none of them should have been killed,” said Hoffmann. “We have to ensure that spaces are protected from ICE agents and provide guidance to entities that we do not control in the Attorney General’s office, such as the courts and schools and others, as we have done under AG Neronha. And I drafted those guidances under his direction.”
While Ahern echoed Knight and Hoffmann and spoke about training judges, police and sheriffs to enforce relevant immigration laws, Gordon used the question to speak about how he is a “pro-life” candidate.
“[If] there’s an unborn visitor to Rhode Island from another jurisdiction, I’m going to look to expand the legal personhood of that unborn child, such that if they’re too mature to abort, they’re too mature to deport,” said Gordon, whose comments drew sideways glances from several audience members in the front-row. He continued on to say that abortion is more of a tragedy than gun violence levels in the state and suggested the AG’s office should prosecute men with charges of disorderly conduct, assault or poisoning if a man encourages a pregnant woman to seek an abortion. “Women are being pressured into a dangerous surgery or drug taking. We men are the problem.”
Gun Control in Rhode Island
The other candidates took more direct approaches to discussing gun control policies, unified in rebuking Solomon Jr.—the one candidate not in attendance—who voted against an assault weapons ban and called RI’s policy “probably one of the most restrictive in the entire nation.”
“I’ve handled these cases, and they often do intersect domestic violence as a lethal tool to kill your loved one,” said Ahern. “If I am the attorney general, of course, I’m going to do everything I can to continue to bring down violence and work with legislators and make sure that we’re implementing the law that was just passed.”
Hoffmann touted his experience defending laws such as the Red Flag Law, which allows firearms to be removed from a person who poses danger of injury to self or others by court order.
“I’ve defended a large-capacity magazine ban in court. I’ve defended the Red Flag Law in court. I defended restrictions on carry in state parks in court, successfully,” said Hoffmann, who said he worries about gun violence as a parent, especially after shootings at Brown University and in Pawtucket this past year. “These laws are constitutional, and we have to strive to seek consensus on further gun safety reforms.”
Both Hoffmann and Ahern credited Knight for sponsoring the ban on assault weapons sales, which he defended as “not, in fact, most restrictive in the nation.”
“We can’t let up on the gas, and things that I would get behind in the next general assembly session are Representative Boylan’s bill to reform our Blue Card process to make it truly educational, so that when someone holds a license to possess a firearm, they’re doing so with a ton of training, said Knight. “And the legislation to hold sellers and manufacturers liable for negligent sales.”
The candidates made their final attempts to separate themselves from the pack towards the end of the program. Ahern noted she is the only candidate to win a women’s rugby national championship.
“You want a leader at the attorney general’s office that recognizes that teamwork. The AG’s office is really just a big team,” said Ahern. “And I think, by the way, that you want someone who’s tough enough to play women’s rugby at the national level as your next attorney general.”
Gordon said he would declare a “domestic abuse emergency,” and use money from a voluntary paycheck withholding program for men called “Man Up!” to fund several initiatives.
“Years ago, the State of Rhode Island used the emergency procedure to open new pot stores during a business emergency,” said Gordon, who has been involved with the Healing Church of Rhode Island that sees cannabis as a religious substance and has faced several legal issues over possession and more. “This is a little bit more important. It would be unconscionable not to use that mechanism for this greater need. I’m going to protect everybody’s rights, even if my man, Donald Trump, doesn’t like it.”
Knight said he is the “whole package,” with a political background as well as decades of legal experience as an attorney.
“That is what I’m bringing today: deep experience in the courtroom, deep experience in the general assembly, and a no-nonsense approach,” said Knight. “We are going to stand up for and fight and protect Rhode Islanders from the bad guys and the wrongdoers, wherever they are, either in a boardroom, or on the street corner, or in the White House.”
Hoffmann again pointed to his recent experience as a senior official in the AG’s office overseeing work on litigation over the environment, consumer protection, civil rights and more.
“I’m the only candidate with legal and leadership experience across the whole breadth of the attorney general’s work,” said Hoffmann. “I have experience doing all of this work and helping to lead the office on the executive team, both day-to-day operations, and fighting the Trump administration and winning.”
The State’s primary elections will be held on Wednesday, September 9.
Eric Halvarson es reportero de noticias locales para The Providence Eye.
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