Rhode Island Elections ProjectIndependent election information
Candidate profile under construction · Data last reviewed October 7, 2026
Rhode Island House · District 61

Leonela Felix

Democrat · Incumbent · Pawtucket

2026 candidate
Portrait of Rhode Island Representative Leonela Felix

Portrait: Rhode Island General Assembly ↗

About this candidate

Leonela Felix represents House District 61 · Pawtucket.

At a glance

Democratic incumbent in the 2026 candidate roster.

How to read this page

Campaign positions, election returns, campaign finance and outside scorecards are labeled by source and period.

Official General Assembly biography ↗

Campaign priorities

Criminal justice reform

Reform sentencing and cash bail, support rehabilitation and reentry, and maintain public safety.

Housing

Protect tenants, expand affordable housing and prevent displacement and homelessness.

Reproductive justice

Protect bodily autonomy, abortion access and reproductive healthcare.

Healthcare

Support Medicare for All and comprehensive, affordable coverage.

Government transparency

Expand public access to government information and improve responsiveness and accountability.

Workers and wages

Raise wages, protect workers’ rights and support small businesses.

Official campaign issues page. Summaries attributed to the sources shown.

Past electoral performance

Districtwide general election results. Select a year to open RIEP’s results map.

2024
Winner · 3,256 votesDistrictwide general election
57.3%
2022
Winner · 2,202 votesDistrictwide general election
61.5%
2020
Winner · 3,500 votesDistrictwide general election
63.8%

Democratic primary history

House District 61 · Share of votes cast for named candidates.

2026
1,006 votesDemocratic primary · Official results
53.34%

Rhode Island Board of Elections ↗. Official 2026 results updated September 15, 2026. Earlier primary years are under construction.

Campaign finance snapshot

28-days-before-election report · 2026 · September 2, 2026 to October 5, 2026. Figures describe this reporting period.

$-500.00Net cash receipts
$3,918.03Spent during period
$8,718.05Cash at period end
View Leonela Felix’s campaign finance →

The filing reports no liabilities; fund balance equals ending cash. CF-2 reports negative $500.00 in PAC receipts and $3,918.03 in campaign expenses. The blank CF-3 provides no donor detail. CF-4 separately lists a $500.00 contribution refund to James Kingston on September 29, described as over the allowable limit. The refund is already reflected in CF-2’s negative receipts and is not added again to campaign expenses. Filing classifications are preserved.

Open 28-days-before-election financial report (PDF) ↗

Read the financial report on this page

Record in office · 2025–2026 General Assembly

40Lead-sponsored bills
157Bills cosponsored
8Lead bills passed chamber
6Lead bills became law

Session attendance

91Sessions eligible
74Sessions present
17Sessions absent
81.3%Attendance rate

Presence recorded in official House Journals. “Not Voting” on a floor vote is not treated as an absence. Attendance rate is a percentage.

Leadership
No leadership role listed
Committees
House Judiciary Committee · House Small Business Committee · House Veterans' Affairs Committee

Official committee roster · Dataset updated August 30, 2026.

Experimental · 2025–2026 House

Vote-based ideology

How Leonela Felix’s recorded votes compare with other representatives. This feature is under construction and measures voting patterns, not legislative effectiveness.

Loading voting records…

How this is calculated

One-dimensional W-NOMINATE estimates positions from 450 divided roll calls in 91 official House journals. Similar positions indicate similar voting patterns in this vote set. Party labels color the points; they are not used to estimate the positions. The positive direction is anchored to Michael Chippendale; zero is not a calibrated ideological center.

Coverage ends June 11, 2026. Named votes reconcile with printed totals in all 1,210 extracted binary roll calls. Missing votes and recusals are not counted as Nay. Annual fits are separately scaled and cannot measure ideological change directly. House and Senate coordinates are not directly comparable.

This experimental analysis is separate from CEL’s Legislative Effectiveness Score and RIEP’s Legislative Progress Index. View all representatives and methodology → · Official House journals ↗

Bills & votes

Leonela Felix’s 40 lead-sponsored bills in the 2025–2026 General Assembly, from RIEP’s official-source research. Passage and law status reflect the recorded snapshot; “Not recorded” does not describe the current disposition of a bill.

Lead-sponsored records · 2025–2026 40 records
BillYearPassed chamberBecame law
H53492025YesYes
H53502025Not recordedNot recorded
H53612025Not recordedNot recorded
H53822025Not recordedNot recorded
H53982025Not recordedNot recorded
H54392025Not recordedNot recorded
H55012025Not recordedNot recorded
H55022025Not recordedNot recorded
H55072025Not recordedNot recorded
H55232025Not recordedNot recorded
H58292025Not recordedNot recorded
H58782025Not recordedNot recorded
H58952025Not recordedNot recorded
H59112025Not recordedNot recorded
H59142025Not recordedNot recorded
H59152025Not recordedNot recorded
H59272025Not recordedNot recorded
H59472025YesNot recorded
H59822025Not recordedNot recorded
H60262025Not recordedNot recorded
H63482025Not recordedNot recorded
H63872025Not recordedNot recorded
H70912026Not recordedNot recorded
H71982026YesYes
H72032026Not recordedNot recorded
H72082026Not recordedNot recorded
H72112026Not recordedNot recorded
H72122026Not recordedNot recorded
H72132026Not recordedNot recorded
H72152026Not recordedNot recorded
H73692026YesNot recorded
H73732026YesYes
H75552026Not recordedNot recorded
H76442026YesYes
H76532026YesYes
H81172026Not recordedNot recorded
H82652026Not recordedNot recorded
H82702026Not recordedNot recorded
H82752026Not recordedNot recorded
H85042026YesYes

Source: RIEP research using Rhode Island General Assembly bill-status records, August 30, 2026 snapshot.

Outside ratings & scorecards

Each organization uses its own methodology. RIEP does not combine these into an overall candidate score.

Legislative effectiveness · 2023–2024

Center for Effective Lawmaking

1.05Expected benchmark: 0.904

Historical score covering the 2023–2024 legislative session. It does not measure Leonela Felix’s 2025–2026 record.

Meets Expectations#29 of 66 House Democrats

The party rank compares this legislator with other members of the same party in the same chamber. CEL’s expectations label uses a separate benchmark that accounts for party status, seniority and committee leadership. “Meets Expectations” means a score between 50% and 150% of that benchmark; it does not mean an average party rank. How CEL defines expectations ↗

38Bills introduced
36Committee action
7Beyond committee
7Passed chamber
6Became law
View full legislative effectiveness details

The score weights advancement by bill significance. The expected benchmark accounts for comparable legislators’ party status, seniority and committee leadership.

CategoryBills introducedCommittee actionBeyond committeePassed chamberBecame law
Commemorative00000
Substantive3735665
Substantive and significant11111

Historical scores

2023–2024 · 1.05 · Party rank 29 of 66

2021–2022 · 0.89 · Party rank 38 of 65

Produced by the Center for Effective Lawmaking at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, not by RIEP. Source report ↗ · Methodology ↗ · Glossary ↗

Experimental RIEP calculation · 2025–2026

Three-stage legislative progress index

1.01#34 of 75 House district records

#34 of 64 House DemocratsAbove House average

View entire 2025–2026 House ranking →

Why RIEP publishes a current-session index

CEL’s Legislative Effectiveness Score is our research benchmark. The CEL data presented here cover 2023–2024 and have not been extended to the 2025–2026 session. RIEP’s provisional index provides a current-session view of bill sponsorship and advancement while that historical score remains available for context.

RIEP uses three equally weighted stages and a House average of 1. It does not reproduce CEL’s five-stage method, bill-significance weights or expected-performance model. “Above” or “below House average” describes this index only; it is not a CEL expectations label.

Compare RIEP and CEL scores for the same 2023–2024 session →

Lead-sponsored bills, bills passed by the House, and bills that became law, compared with all 75 House district records. A score of 1 represents the comparison-set average.

40Lead-sponsored
8Passed House
6Became law
View calculation and methodology

Each stage receives equal weight. Divide Leonela Felix’s count at each stage by the corresponding House total, average the three shares, and multiply by 75. Rank uses unrounded scores; equal scores share a rank. Bills that become law contribute at each stage they reach. Cosponsored bills and resolutions are excluded.

75 ÷ 3 × (40 ÷ 2469 + 8 ÷ 648 + 6 ÷ 501) = 1.013065.

House totals: 2,469 lead-sponsored bills; 648 bills passed by the House; 501 bills became law.

Dataset updated: September 22, 2026. The complete House calculation dataset includes all 75 district records, including representatives not running in 2026. These snapshot counts are not a live legislative feed.

Prototype only. This is a separate RIEP progress index, not an update to the Center for Effective Lawmaking’s score or an overall assessment of a legislator. It does not include committee-action stages or bill-significance weights. Party comparisons use the 2025–2026 House roster.

Underlying bill records: Official Rhode Island Bill Status/History ↗

RI League of Cities and Towns · 2025Votes on nine 2025 bills and budget items selected by the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns as priorities affecting municipalities, local authority, municipal budgets, public employees, state aid, and local taxpayers.
5/8

This is the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns' score, not an RIEP assessment. Denominators below nine reflect absences, recusals, or other non-votes in the League's published scorecard. Source report ↗

ACLU of Rhode Island · 2025Individual roll-call record on 11 House votes selected by the ACLU of Rhode Island as key civil-liberties issues for the 2025 session. The source shows, vote by vote, whether the legislator's vote matched the ACLU's stated position, opposed it, or was absent/otherwise not voting.
7/11

The ACLU selected these votes to highlight civil-liberties issues. An aligned vote matches its stated position; an opposed vote does not. The selection does not cover every relevant bill or capture committee and floor leadership, so RIEP does not convert it into an overall grade.

ACLU of Rhode Island · 2025 voting record

Eleven House votes selected by the ACLU. The labels compare Leonela Felix’s vote with the ACLU’s position.

1Economic JusticeA Absent / not voting
2Freedom of Speech✓ Aligned with ACLU position
3Freedom to Read Act✓ Aligned with ACLU position
4Racial Justice✓ Aligned with ACLU position
5Criminal Justice✓ Aligned with ACLU position
6Voting RightsA Absent / not voting
7HIV Testing Mandate Repeal✓ Aligned with ACLU position
8Hairstyle DiscriminationA Absent / not voting
9Criminal Justice — election officials✓ Aligned with ACLU position
10Student Privacy✓ Aligned with ACLU position
11Political Speech× Opposed ACLU position

This is an ACLU of Rhode Island voting record, not an RIEP score or endorsement. RIEP displays the underlying organization-selected record without converting it into a percentage, grade, rank, or aggregate candidate rating. The ACLU states that its selected votes do not cover every bill with civil-liberties implications and do not capture committee or floor leadership. Source report ↗

League of Women Voters · 2026 voter guide

The supplied October 2026 South County guide covers selected Chariho-area races. This candidate is not included in that regional guide.

Explore League voter information at VOTE411 ↗

Browse League guide responses and sources →

Endorsements

Published endorsements from outside organizations. Select an organization to view its endorsement source.

Rhode Island Working Families Party ↗

2026 election · House District 61

Climate Action Rhode Island ↗

2026 election · House District 61

Planned Parenthood Votes! Rhode Island PAC ↗

2026 election · House District 61

Providence Streets Coalition ↗

2026 election · House District 61

Reclaim RI ↗

2026 election · House District 61

Outside organizations’ endorsements, not RIEP endorsements. Sources may include organization lists and voter-guide records.

Under construction

Additional bill summaries, floor votes, earlier primary results and digital footprint research will be added after review.