With Camille Vella-Wilkinson not running for reelection in the Rhode Island House of Representatives, the City Councilman that lives in District 21 is making a run for the seat.

Ward 4 Councilman James McElroy announced his bid for the district shortly after Vella-Wilkinson made her announcement. McElroy’s decision will open up his Ward 4 seat in November, which will be contested between Democrat Mike Penta, Republican Steven Hopkins and independent Joanne Miller.

With McElroy not running for reelection, there will be at least four new members of the City Council come January, as Council President Steve McAllister, Ward 3 Councilman Tim Howe and Ward 6 Councilwoman Donna Travis are all not running for reelection.

Both Vella-Wilkinson and McElroy are Democrats.

McElroy said he became interested in running for office because of his family. His wife, Charlee, recently retired as the principal of Sherman Elementary School, and the two have four children, one of whom- Kelly McElroy- is a municipal court judge.

“My wife is a teacher and principal for 35 years in Warwick, my children are teachers for over 20 years,” McElroy said. “I just believe in public service. And there was always something that was interested in me. So I just decided to take my chances with it.”

McElroy first ran for Ward 4 in 2018, taking the seat over from Joe Solomon, who successfully ran for mayor of Warwick that year. McElroy has held that seat ever since.

Should he be elected, McElroy said his top priorities in the General Assembly would be economic. McElroy said that he was proud that Warwick had not had tax increases for most of the years that he had been on the council.

“You want to help the average taxpayer pay their bills,” McElroy said. “You want to look out that you’re not spending money needlessly, and basically think of it as your money and your neighbors’ money. You want to take care of the money and do whatever you can do.”

The last politician to move from the Warwick City Council to the General Assembly was Vella-Wilkinson herself, who represented Ward 3 before running for District 21 in 2016. In a speech made on the floor, she said that the reason she wasn’t seeking reelection was her belief in term limits.

McElroy complimented Vella-Wilkinson’s work and said that similarly, he was a believer in term limits.

“I won’t do 20 years up there,” McElroy said.

District 21 was the most competitive race in the state in 2022, with Vella-Wilkinson beating Republican Marie Hopkins by 38 votes. Hopkins is running again this year.

McElroy said that he’s ready for a competitive race, and he and Hopkins have talked and agreed to keep the race positive.

“It’ll be a campaign on the issues,” McElroy said. “I’ll introduce myself to the voters, and hopefully they’ll agree that they feel that I will do a good job up there and they’ll go with me.”