Voters in Brockton on Tuesday made history electing city councilor at-large Moises Rodrigues, a Cape Verdean immigrant with decades of municipal experience, to serve as the city’s first Black mayor.
Rodrigues’ election, a perhaps long-time-coming development in one of Massachusetts’ few majority-minority cities, marks a shift in Brockton’s political leadership as the city begins to address issues with homelessness, fiscal management, school governance and water infrastructure.
He immigrated to United States as a teenager and now will lead one of Massachusetts largest and most diverse cities.
Here are five things to know about Rodrigues as he steps into the role.
He’s been a first before.
In 2013, Rodrigues was the first Cape Verdean elected to the Brockton City Council as the body began to look more like the population it served. His election in that race followed a stint as a top aide for Mayor James Harrington. At that time, he told The Enterprise that tackling dirty streets was the issue he was most looking forward to taking on as councilor.
He made urban cleanliness a key part of his mayoral campaign platform.
Rodrigues has vowed to crackdown on illegal dumping and to launch “an aggressive code enforcement initiative” to combat litter and trash appearing in city streets.
“We will hold absentee landlords accountable for maintaining their properties and open spaces,” said Rodrigues in a campaign video circulated on social media. “By prioritizing cleaning and beautification, we will foster the sense of pride and make Brockton a city we are all proud to call home.”
Along with urban cleanliness, his campaign website shows a core platform that includes public safety initiatives like investing in youth crime prevention programs and addressing addiction through treatments and support centers, education initiatives like investing in technical and vocational school programs, and economic development initiatives that include negotiating a new contract with the city’s desalinization facility and making “new” incentives to attract businesses to settle in Brockton.
He’s been (acting) mayor of Brockton before.
Following the sudden death of former mayor Bill Carpenter in July 2019, Rodrigues was elected by fellow city councilors to finish out the remaining several months of term. Though not duly elected, Rodrigues became the first non-white person to serve as Brockton mayor.
He supports the mayor remaining the chair of the Brockton School Committee.
It’s an issue that has triggered controversy in Brockton and put Rodrigues on the opposite side of his opponent City Councilor- at-large Jean Bradley Derenoncourt and Brockton’s outgoing Mayor Robert Sullivan.
Last year, a pair of independent reports revealed that incompetence and a lack of oversight enabled a $18 million budget deficit within Brockton Public Schools. One of the reports identified Sullivan as a key player in the budget process and recommended that the mayor, who now serves as default Brockton School Committee chair, should no longer hold that extra responsibility. Sullivan agrees, but Rodrigues does not.
“I believe the mayor should continue to be the chair of the school committee,” said Rodrigues during a debate hosted by the NAACP Brockton area branch last month. “If something happens to the safety of students within this city or within the schools, it rests on the shoulders of the mayor…that’s why the mayor belongs in the school committee.”
He is kind of a polyglot.
Rodrigues LinkedIn profile lists him as able to speak Portuguese and Kriolu, or Cape Verdean Creole, with native proficiency, Spanish with professional proficiency and French with limited proficiency.
If he ever delivers a multilingual press conference with all four languages, he would demonstrate proficiency in one more language than Boston mayor Michelle Wu who has delivered press conferences in English, Spanish and Mandarin.
Rodrigues is now set to take office in early January 2026.
