Joseph Polisena Jr.

Joseph M. Polisena Jr. (born 1989/1990) is an American attorney and politician who is serving as the mayor of Johnston, Rhode Island. The son of former state senator and Johnston mayor Joe Polisena, he succeeded his father as mayor in 2023. He is a member of the Democratic Party and previously served on the town council beginning in 2019.

Early life and education Joseph Polisena Jr. was born in 1989 or 1990, and was also involved on a gubernatorial campaign.

Political career Johnston town council In 2018, Polisena Jr. was elected to Johnston's town council, and began his tenure in January 2019. Leading up to the 2020 presidential election between incumbent Republican president Donald Trump and former vice president Joe Biden, Polisena Jr. spoke to the Boston Globe on why voters in Johnston voted for Trump in the 2016 election. He stated that he would be "staying blue" and would vote for Biden in the 2020 election. He launched his campaign in May. The Boston Globe observed "nominal competition" in the race. Polisena Jr. emerged victorious with 69% of the vote. He was sworn in in January 2023.

Tenure Days he was sworn into his office, Polisena Jr. ended the town's contract to publish legal notices in the town's free weekly newspaper, the Johnston Sun Rise, to have them advertised in the statewide Providence Journal. The Sun Rises publisher later told the Boston Globe that Polisena Jr. had privately stated his intention to end the contract while expressing his disapproval of the newspaper's critical coverage of him. Polisena Jr. confirmed that he had met with the publisher, but denied asking for the firing of the newspaper's journalist under the threat of ending the contract.

Speaking to a Providence Journal columnist, Polisena Jr. expressed his dismay with Trump's victory in the 2024 presidential election. Among other comments, he blamed the Democratic Party with losing touch with working class people, and accused the campaign of Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, of erring by "focusing on things like identity politics – from trans rights to calling Trump a racist – rather than more universal issues". In late 2024, Polisena Jr. expressed his opposition to a proposed affordable housing project in Johnston that qualified for the state's Low and Moderate Income Housing Act and thus inhibited the town's ability to block the project. At a town council meeting, he requested that they allow him to take the land by eminent domain, so that it can instead be used for a public safety complex and new town hall, both funded by ending plans for a new high school.