Déjà vu all over again in House District 39 as Democratic incumbent faces MAGA Republican

Editor’s note: This is the third in a three-part series on state legislative races, chosen based on competitiveness between candidates and relevant district issues. Of the 113 seats in the Rhode Island General Assembly, all of which are elected every two years, 24 seats feature at least two candidates on the Nov. 3 ballot.  

They are both moms in their 40s who want to lower energy bills and preserve western Rhode Island’s rural beauty.

The similarities between Democratic Rep. Megan Cotter and her Republican challenger Jasmin Roy end there.

Cotter, the two-term incumbent for House District 39, has a record of legislative accomplishments she can point to while canvassing the 100-square mile district, spanning Exeter, Richmond, and Hopkinton: adding more money to the green bond for forest and farmland preservation, spurring — and leading — a newly begun legislative panel to study how housing developments affect water supply in rural communities; and limiting self-checkouts at grocery stores to preserve jobs.

Roy, a member of the Hopkinton Town Council, has focused her legislative campaign on denouncing various Democratic officials, including Cotter, for promoting “communism” and government overreach, including in education.

“I don’t coparent with the government,” Roy proclaimed in a June 1 episode of local conservative podcast Cumberland Unfiltered. 

A vocal Trump supporter who touts Second Amendment protections and parental rights in education, Roy’s views, as shared on her campaign website and social media, are likely to resonate with many of the voters in the district, which backed Trump in the last three presidential elections. Cotter’s predecessor, Republican Justin Price, attended the Jan. 6 rally outside the U.S. Capitol, though Price said he did not participate in the riots. 

Cotter narrowly lost to Price in her first run for office in 2020, before defeating him by 32 votes in 2022, and again in 2024.

And while Cotter responded immediately to requests for an interview for the story, and follow-up questions, Roy initially asked for questions sent via email. Rhode Island Current responded with a general overview about the topics to be covered, but Roy  then failed to return more than a dozen phone calls, emails and social media messages over a monthlong period.

“Some of our candidates, they don’t want to be pigeonholed by the media,” said Dave Levesque, founder of conservative business group The League of RI Businesses.

Roy is among a dozen candidates endorsed by The League in state legislative races, and has received more than $5,700 from the League through its unconventional multi-PAC fundraising strategy.

“We’ve had business owners specifically request their donations go to her,” Levesque said of Roy.

The vice-chair for the Washington County chapter of Moms for Liberty, Roy criticized state and local policies on education curriculum and cell phone bans. She has also pledged to reduce “smothering” state laws governing economic development, local zoning and property taxes, and to repeal legislation that infringes on gun rights, according to her campaign website. 

Cotter supported the housing package spearheaded by former House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, but said she thinks there is a “fine line” to reducing municipal red tape to development while taking local concerns into account.

Cotter was one of 28 state representatives — 18 of whom are Democrats — to vote against banning the sale of assault-style weapons in 2025. The bill was approved on the final night of the 2025 legislative session, signed into law by Gov. Dan McKee on June 26, 2025.

Cotter has not pledged specific action on future gun-related legislation, but said she will give careful review to any proposals that come to the floor.

Cotter, 42, of Exeter, who works as vice president of sales for Tony’s Seafood in Seekonk, Massachusetts, tries to focus on local issues rather than national politics: healthcare access, affordability concerns and the push and pull between development and preservation priorities. 

“I try to let the community guide me on what they feel is important,” she said.

A key example: the former A&P supermarket in Richmond, which has sat vacant since 1986. Stop & Shop took over the lease, but kept the shopping center site undeveloped to prevent competitors from opening a rival grocery store.

Not anymore. Advertising for a new tenant has begun, following a new law based on legislation co-sponsored by Cotter in the 2026 session that bans grocery stores from using restrictive covenants to prevent new markets from opening in former grocery store locations. 

Roy called Cotter’s involvement in grocery store legislation that limits the number of self-checkouts a “waste of legislative power” in an Oct. 2 Facebook post. Roy has also used her social media account to criticize Cotter’s work with lawmakers such as U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner and advocates such as members of the reproductive freedom group, The WomXn project. 

Roy, who said in a podcast interview that she is now unemployed, backed fellow MAGA Republicans like gubernatorial candidate Elaine Pelino, who lost in the primary, and U.S. Senate challenger Ray McKay.

The two candidates have not debated, interacted, or even been in the same room since January, when the Chariho Regional School District held its annual omnibus meeting, Cotter said.