It’s been 39 years since a member of the Republican Party was elected to the Providence City Council. Axel Brito ’26 hopes to change that on Dec. 2.
Brito, a 21-year-old Los Angeles native, is running as a Republican in the Ward 2 special election, which will fill a seat vacated by former City Councilor Helen Anthony. Voters in Ward 2 — which includes Blackstone, College Hill and Wayland — will ultimately choose between Brito and the winner of a four-way Democratic primary race.
The winner of the election will be sworn into office as soon as the results are certified, according to City Council Chief of Staff June Rose. All 15 City Council seats, which each carry four-year terms, will be up for re-election next year, Rose wrote in an email to The Herald.
Brito hopes that his fiscally conservative, pro-individual freedom platform will resonate with Ward 2 voters.
Over the last three years, Brito has only spent two weeks back home, he told The Herald. Instead, he has chosen to spend breaks in Providence, a city he finds “quite beautiful.”
Housing issues in Providence, including recent increases in rent costs and property taxes, were key factors in Brito’s decision to run for the Ward 2 seat. “There should be a rent cap … (and) property taxes should be reduced for houses under $2 million,” Brito said.
As part of a University program that allows undergraduate students to simultaneously work toward a Master of Arts in Teaching, Brito will stay at Brown for an additional year after graduating in 2026 with bachelors degrees in political science and education studies.
Despite running as a Republican, Brito does not adhere to GOP extremes, he said. “The Republican Party has shifted far too much to the right,” he said.
“I believe in transgender rights, I believe in immigrant rights (and) I believe in civil rights,” he said. “I believe in gun rights. … That’s the most conservative thing about my viewpoint.”
Brito noted that immigrants are “part of our community.” While he didn’t think council members could intervene in federal immigration enforcement, he plans to “speak up” about the issue.
Bringing the Providence Public School District back under local control is also at the top of Brito’s priorities. PPSD has been under state control since 2019, The Herald previously reported.
Brito wants “parents, teachers (and) alumni (to) be on that school board, and be able to represent themselves and have actual power.” Gabriel Long, the father of a PPSD first-grader, said the state’s takeover has relegated the Providence School Board to an advisory role often ignored by the state.
Anthony Vega, the press secretary for the City of Providence, wrote in an email to The Herald that Mayor Brett Smiley “agrees that Providence Public Schools should return to local management,” noting Smiley’s PPSD Transition Plan that was released earlier this year.
The Rhode Island Department of Education did not respond to a request for comment.
Axel Brito ’26 canvassed on College Hill on Wednesday. Brito hopes that his fiscally conservative, pro-individual freedom platform will resonate with Ward 2 voters.
In an interview with The Herald, Brito challenged several of Smiley’s mayoral actions.
Smiley has been “mismanaging the city’s budget and buying stuff that’s completely unnecessary,” Brito claimed. He referenced the city’s purchase of a building at over double its valuation, alleging that the deal had “direct ties to (Smiley’s) backers.”
In response, Vega wrote that purchasing the building, which houses 10 city departments, saves the city millions in annual rent costs.
Brito also criticized the Payment in Lieu of Taxes agreements between the city and several Providence colleges and universities, including Brown.
“Brown should definitely be paying more of their dues,” Brito said. The University “consistently talks about community, and they consistently talk about their partnerships with school districts,” but is “directly part of the reason why we don’t have what we need.”
“We can’t keep raising property taxes forever just because institutions like Brown, RISD and other nonprofit organizations get away with abusing that status,” Brito said.
University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in an email to The Herald that the PILOT agreements “established Brown and Providence’s other colleges and universities among the nation’s most generous voluntary financial contributors to the city in which they operate.”
Brito also called for “more bike lanes” and “other modes of transportation that aren’t just buses and cars.” He noted that recent cuts to the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority have been “hugely detrimental to … people that need to get to work,” particularly individuals who “commute from more suburban areas.”
Vega noted that RIPTA is funded by the state, not the city, and emphasized that the mayoral administration “will continue to ensure Providence is a safe community for the many cyclists and pedestrians who live, work and visit our city.”
Brito joined the race relatively late, deciding to run in the middle of September.
Dave Talan, vice chair of the Providence Republican Party, wrote in an email to The Herald that his organization “sent out requests to every registered Republican in Ward 2 to consider running for the open City Council seat, (and) Axel responded that he would like to run.”
But Brito faces several obstacles in his campaign. “Ward 2 is very blue,” Professor of Political Science Katherine Tate wrote in an email to The Herald.
Brown’s on-campus housing falls in Ward 2, and its students — and employees — tend to lean heavily Democratic, The Herald previously reported. Brito said it would be “lovely” if more students and residents voted in local elections, but he added that he does “not want Brown students to register and vote” in this one “because they would probably vote for the Democrat.”
Finances are yet another obstacle to Brito’s longshot bid. “My coffers are very empty,” he said, but he’s “not really that worried.” While Democratic candidates are “pouring all this money into the primary,” Brito plans to prioritize “(knocking) on doors” and conducting a grassroots campaign, he said.
He noted that in the past, he has tried to distance himself from student groups involved in politics. But he plans to attend an Oct. 22 forum for the Ward 2 candidates hosted by the nonpartisan student group Brown Votes.
Still, if elected, Brito hopes to pave a new path to change.
Talan wrote that “at least three of the other four” candidates for City Council are “very liberal, much more so than the average East Side resident.”
Lev Kotler-Berkowitz is a senior staff writer covering city and state politics. He is from the Boston area and is a junior concentrating in Political Science and Economics. In his free time, Lev can be found playing baseball or running around with his dog.
