Cranston City Councilman Robert Ferri announced Tuesday he is running for mayor of Cranston.

Ferri is widely regarded as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, and will face either incumbent mayor Ken Hopkins or State Representative Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung- both Republicans- in the general election.

Ferri is a former Republican, having first been elected to the City Council in 2020. He switched parties in 2022, flipping council control from the GOP to Democrats.

In prior Herald reporting, Ferri said that his reason for switching was due to political pressure and a lack of support from Hopkins and former Ward 6 Councilman and Republican City Committee Chair Matthew Reilly.

“They have led an effort to ostracize and ridicule me for doing my job,” Ferri said at the time of the switch. “Reilly and Hopkins have made it abundantly clear that my presence as a Republican in city politics is unwelcome.”

Ferri kept up his criticism of Hopkins in his campaign announcement, saying Hopkins has been primarily working for his friends and allies rather than in the interests of Cranston residents.

“For too long, our city’s chief executive has been more interested in helping their well-connected friends than listening to and solving the problems of regular Cranston residents,” Ferri said.

In the announcement, Ferri outlined repairing city infrastructure, investing in schools, generating new revenue for Cranston and taking on environmental challenges as priorities for him.

“We cannot afford more mayors who think they have all the answers, but cannot get even the basics right or get back to you in a timely fashion,” Ferri’s statement reads. “We need someone with a clear track record of bringing people of different viewpoints together to make policy that improves lives.”

Ferri will hold a campaign kickoff at Lang’s Bowlarama on March 10 at 2 p.m.

Cranston has not had a Democratic mayor since Michael Napolitano left office in 2009, although it has not voted for a Republican at the presidential level since the Rhode Island Board of Elections started tracking results by municipality in 1988.