In his inaugural address as the new mayor of Brockton, Moises Rodrigues offered a paean to Brockton’s diversity and a call for civic unity moving forward.
“We are a mosaic of cultures and experiences,” said Rodrigues, a former at-large city councilor and the longtime head of the Cape Verdean Association of Brockton. “Our diversity must be celebrated. It must also reflect in how we govern.
“That means ensuring access to inclusion and representation in our city leadership,” he continued. “It means supporting language and cultural competencies across city services. It means recognizing that diversity is not just a word — that it’s a standard we must meet in economic development, in improving the quality of life of our residents and educating our children.”
Rodrigues, who previously served as Brockton’s acting mayor following the death of then-Mayor Bill Carpenter in 2019, is the first person of color popularly elected to lead the diverse city. About 40% of Brockton’s population is Black, according to U.S. Census data, making it the largest racial demographic in the city. This is largely attributed to the local Cape Verdean population, who are often categorized as Black but do not all identify with that race, as well as the city’s large Haitian community. Brockton also has higher percentages of mixed-race residents, foreign-born residents and disabled residents than the state at large.
In his speech, Rodrigues painted a daunting picture of the challenges currently facing the city, citing public safety, disparities in education, homelessness, and housing affordability as pressing issues his administration will need to address moving forward.
These and other challenges can only be met if Brockton’s residents tackle them with a shared sense of purpose, Rodrigues asserted.
“The work will not be easy — real changes are never easy,” he said. “But I believe in all my heart that the people of Brockton are ready to do this. I believe that we are ready to come together, not as old times [and] newcomers, as rivals or as neighbors. We must come together united by a shared love for this great city.”
That reference to rivalry, and a subsequent call for “collaboration triumph[ing] over division,” could be taken as oblique references to Brockton’s hotly contested 2025 mayoral election, which is still playing out in court. Rodrigues, who is an immigrant from Cape Verde, narrowly defeated Jean Bradley Derenoncourt, who is an immigrant from Haiti.
After initial results showed Rodrigues winning by 260 votes, a recount that spanned several days narrowed that margin to 259. Now, Derenoncourt is suing to overturn the results of the election and force Brockton to hold a new one, accusing Rodrigues’ supporters of inappropriately telling elderly Cape Verdean voters how to cast their ballots on Election Day.
While Rodrigues did not directly mention any of this in his speech, he closed his address by asking the crowd that had packed Brockton City Hall for his inauguration — as well as the swearing in of Brockton’s new city council and school committee — to remain in the room together in a show of unity rather than leaving immediately after his address.
“Usually, the mayor and the families and everybody leaves, but I want us all to stay ’til the end of the meeting, and we can walk out of here as one body, one government for the people of the city of Brockton,” Rodrigues said. “So nobody’s going anywhere!”
That request elicited loud applause from the packed crowd at Brockton City Hall.
