Vinny deMacedo

Viriato Manuel Pereira de Macedo (born October 16, 1965[2]), also popularly known as Vinny deMacedo, is a Cape Verdean American politician, and was the Massachusetts State Senator for the Plymouth and Barnstable District, which comprises the communities of Bourne, Falmouth, Kingston, Pembroke, Plymouth, and Sandwich. He is a Republican who was sworn into the Massachusetts Senate on January 7, 2015. In November 2019 deMacedo resigned from the Massachusetts Senate to take a job in higher education.[3]

Vinny deMacedo
Member of the Massachusetts Senate
from the Plymouth and Barnstable district
In office
January 7, 2015 – November 29, 2019[1]
Preceded byTherese Murray
Succeeded bySusan Moran
Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives
from the 1st Plymouth district
In office
1999 – January 7, 2015
Preceded byJoseph Gallitano
Succeeded byMatt Muratore
Personal details
Born
Viriato Manuel Pereira de Macedo

(1965-10-16) October 16, 1965
Brava, Cape Verde
NationalityAmerican
Political partyRepublican
SpouseJennifer deMacedo
Children3
Websitehttp://www.demacedo.org

Political career

Senator deMacedo had no political experience prior to becoming a candidate for the Massachusetts House of Representatives on November 3, 1998, running against the Democratic incumbent Joseph Gallitano. He won the election by a tight margin of 189 votes.[4] He subsequently won re-election as Massachusetts State Representative seven times, serving through 2014.[3]

In November 2014, he was elected to the Massachusetts Senate, succeeding retiring Massachusetts Senate President Therese Murray as state senator for the Plymouth and Barnstable District.[5] As of 2016 he held the position of Ranking Minority Member on the Senate Committee on Ways and Means.[6] His legislative priorities included solving the opiate epidemic facing Massachusetts and ensuring the Commonwealth's fiscal responsibility.[7] Vinny served as one of five state senators (along with 11 state representatives) on the Joint Committee on Marijuana Policy.[8]

During his 16 years in the Massachusetts House, he received many awards for his legislative work including:

Photo of Senator Vinny deMacedo at Massachusetts Ways and Means hearings.

Biography

Senator deMacedo was born in Brava, Cape Verde.[9] He has six siblings, including an older brother, Donaldo Macedo.[9] In 1966, when he was six months old, the family immigrated to the New England region of the United States, where they lived at first in Dorchester, before three years later moving to Kingston, where deMacedo was raised.[9] He graduated from Silver Lake Regional High School in 1983. He went on to study at New York's The King's College, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration in 1987.

After graduating deMacedo began working for his brother in the car business before starting his own gas station in Cedarville in 1991. He continues to be the owner and operator of the RWA Mobil Station on Route 3A. He is a member of the Cedarville and Sagamore Business Association and the Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce.

He is married to Jennifer de Macedo, and is the father of three children.

He visited Cape Verde in January 2008, for the first time since moving to the United States, as part of a political mission,[10] and met several members of the Cape Verdean government, including the President Pedro Pires.[11]

See also

References
  1. https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20191120/vinny-demacedo-bids-farewell-to-senate
  2. profile at Keep Us Connected
  3. Spillane, Geoff (November 21, 2019). "State Sen. Viriato 'Vinny' deMacedo, R-Plymouth, wraps up 21-year legislative career". Cape Cod Times. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
  4. Robert Pree (1998-11-15). "Pondering A Pair Of Political Improbables: Gas station owner makes the grade". Boston Globe/NewsBank.
  5. "DeMacedo handily wins Senate seat".
  6. "Senate Committee on Ways and Means". The 189th General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. malegislature.gov. Archived from the original on July 26, 2016.
  7. "New Senator Says His Top Priority is Curbing Opiate Addiction".
  8. "Joint Committee on Marijuana Policy". MALegislature.gov. The General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved August 24, 2018.
  9. Miller, Yawu (January 11, 2012). "Two Brothers, Two Sets of Political Viewpoints". CommonWealth. commonwealthmagazine.org. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
  10. "Lei de repatriação dos EUA prejudica países pequenos" (in Portuguese). A Nação. 2008-01-16.
  11. "Pedro Pires Recebe Deputado Estadual Norte-Americano, Vinny Macedo" (in Portuguese). Expresso das Ilhas. 2008-01-07.
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