Governor Raimondo’s Open House Brings Hundreds of Visitors

At the center of the rotunda, Governor Gina Raimondo, her husband Andy Moffit and son Tommy Moffit, 8, shook hands with visitors, posed for photos and signed autographs for the hundreds who stood in line. The Open House at the State House was hosted by Governor Gina Raimondo and First Gentleman Andy Moffit as part of the celebration for her Inauguration. Free food and beverages by RI companies. "Make It In Rhode Island" is the theme. The Providence Journal/Kathy Borchers
 PROVIDENCE, R.I. – No one could blame Jessica Salvas if she’d come for the food.

The spread at Governor Raimondo’s inaugural celebration at the State House on Saturday was worthy of the city’s reputation as a creative food capital. Local restaurants served everything from lattes and scones to crostini and clam chowder.

But Salvas wasn’t in line for food. She was in the longer line – the one for people waiting to shake hands with the new governor.

“I’m hopeful,” Salvas said. “I think she has a lot of economic pull…”

She’s among those who said they’re counting on Raimondo to deliver on her inaugural slogan, “Make It in RI.”

Salvas, 29, a part-time student at Rhode Island College, is unemployed. The single mother from Woonsocket lost her $10.50-an-hour data entry job at Tasca Automotive Group in Cranston. She was one of 50 people, she said, who was laid off.

Of the half-dozen people interviewed who waited in the line to greet the governor, the common lament was the lack of jobs in Rhode Island. The state’s unemployment rate is 7.1 percent, the fourth-highest in the country.

HipHop Activist and cofounder of BlackBerry Soul Radio, Quadeer "M.C. Spice" Shakur and his wife Cashawna "Cash the Stylist" Shakir were also on hand to meet Governor Raimondo with their daughter Shakirah. When Raimondo met Shakirah, she immediately hugged her and squeezed her cheeks saying: "I did this for you. So you can be Governor one day, too." That was the highlight of Shakirah's day.

Raimondo is Rhode Island's first woman governor.

Left to right: Cash the Stylist, M.C. Spice, Governor Raimondo and Shakirah Shakir

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