Representative Cherie Cruz Contact information

Rep. Cherie L. Cruz (D-Dist. 58, Pawtucket) was elected to the Rhod​e Island House of Representatives in November 2022. She represents Pawtucket’s Fairlawn and Woodlawn neighborhoods, where she was born and raised. She is a member of both the House Judiciary Committee and the House Municipal Government and Housing Committee. She also serves on the Joint Legislative Commission on Female Recidivism.

During her first legislative session in 2023, Representative Cruz sponsored a law which eliminates certain housing rental application fees. She also introduced legislation which would create the Office of Early Childhood Development and Learning to provide access to affordable, quality child care and to create a child care system that supports families, workers and the Rhode Island economy. Representative Cruz also introduced a bill which would establish a new division of civil representation within the Office of the Public Defender that would provide legal representation to tenants in eviction proceedings.

She is a graduate of Brown University, with a Bachelor’s degree in Education Studies Cum Laude and a Master’s degree in Urban Education Policy as the Urban Education Policy Fellow. She also earned an Associate’s degree in Liberal Arts at the Community College of Rhode Island.

Representative Cruz runs an early-childhood development program at CCAP through the Love That Baby programs supported by the Rhode Island Department of Health.

She currently serves on the Rhode Island Senate Commission on Justice Reinvestment, the board of the RI Welcome Back Center, the board of the Reentry Campus Program, the board of the Transcending Through Education Foundation, and the executive board of the RI ACLU, and is the co-founder of the Formerly Incarcerated Union of Rhode Island. In addition, her past public service includes serving on the Rhode Island Special Education Advisory Committee, the board of OpenDoors of Rhode Island, and the RI Governor’s Council on Behavioral Health.

Born on January 12, 1968, she is the mother of four children, Christopher, Charice, Aaron and Terrell, and grandmother to Jazzlynn.