Smiley edges Morales in first public poll of Providence mayoral race 49%
By Patrick Anderson68%
8/7/2026, 2:51:03 PM
Topics: Mayoral Election, Public Opinion Polls
BS Summary: This article contains 19 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Attempt to Sell a Product or Service, and Loss Aversion, with Self-Serving Bias as the most egregious example at 29% saturation with 92 hits. Analysis detected 702 faulty-reasoning hits from 317 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 41.8% and a BS Rank of 49% (15,749 of 30,584 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 51.50% of the article peer group.
The first public polling in the Providence mayoral race finds incumbent Brett Smiley leading challenger David Morales by 4 percentage points, within the margin of error.
The Concord poll's margin of error was 5.65%.
It is the first third-party poll of the mayoral primary.
The Smiley campaign has polled the race through Normington Petts & Associates, according to campaign finance reports, but has not released or discussed the results.
The Concord poll showed 54% of voters have a favorable view of Smiley and 50% have a favorable view of Morales.
Elorza, who was mayor from 2015 to 2023, endorsed Morales on Aug.
3.
Smiley was Elorza's chief operating officer before leaving for a job in state government and then running to succeed the term-limited Elorza in 2024.
The poll shows the race, which Smiley may have hoped would be a blowout last winter, is close and possibly up for grabs given the margin of error.
"After spending more than half a million dollars on attack ads and mailers, Brett Smiley still hasn’t convinced a majority of voters he deserves a second term," Morales senior adviser Ben Shanahan wrote about the poll.
"Neighbors are tired of big money trying to buy elections, and hundreds of volunteers have knocked more than 60,000 doors to share David’s vision of a Providence everyone can afford and feel safe calling home."
But the poll doesn't show Morales winning, despite coming from a Morales ally.
"We're not focused on poll numbers from a special interest group supporting David Morales' campaign," Smiley campaign spokesman Josh Block wrote.
"We're focused on working hard across Providence to make sure voters understand what's at stake in this election and how a Morales victory would make Providence less safe and unravel the progress of the past four years."
This story has been updated to correct an inaccuracy.
Speakers
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100%flagged-word coverageJosh Block
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