These are the new members of the Puerto Rican Senate

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In the face of a new government administration in the country, elected lawmakers were sworn in today as part of the Nineteenth Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico.

During the ceremony, about 75 lawmakers were sworn in to compose the new country Legislature. And while the People’s Democratic Party (PPD) won a majority in both legislative bodies, the Senate is expected to be the scene of a struggle for the absolute leadership of that body. In the upper house, the PPD has 12 seats, so it will need two votes from minority party lawmakers to ratify Senator Jose Luis Dalmau as the new Senate president.

The PNP, meanwhile, has 10 banks in the legislature. While the Citizen Victory Movement (MVC) will have two senators. The Puerto Rican Independentist Party (PIP) and the Dignity Project (PD) will each have a legislator in the Senate. In turn, independent senator José Vargas Vidot revalidated his legislative seat.

Here are the new members of the Senate of Puerto Rico:

  1. Maria de Lourdes Santiago, PIP: Lawyer. She was the elected senator with the most votes. She was a senator from 2005 to 2009. She was a candidate for governor by the PIP in 2016.
  2. Joanne Rodríguez Veve, PD – She is a canonical lawyer. She was elected in her first election aspiration. He is part of the Board of Directors of the organization of Catholic laity, the Puerto Rican Catholic Alliance for Life and the Fatherland.
  3. William Villafañe, PNP. Lawyer. He was the elected neo-progressive senator with the most votes. He was already part of the Senate where he filled a vacancy in the middle of the last four years. He was secretary of the Interior under the administration of Ricardo Rosselló.
  4. Thomas Rivera Schatz, PNP. Lawyer. He was President of the Senate on two previous occasions. He has been president of the PNP where he was previously general secretary.
  5. Juan Zaragoza, PPD: is Authorized Public Accountant. He was the senator elected by the PPD with the most votes. This was his first political aspiration. He was secretary of Property under the administration of the ex- governor Alexander Garci’a Padilla.
  6. José Luis Dalmau, PPD. Lawyer and biologist. A new Senate president was selected by the PPD delegation, although he needs a vote outside the delegation. He was first elected senator in 2000.
  7. José Vargas Vidot, Independent. Salubrista. He was elected the first independent senator in the 2016 elections when he was elected senator with the most votes. He has been noted for his work on behalf of the homeless.
  8. Aand Irma Rivera Lassen, MVC. Lawyer and university professor. Feminist activist. She was president of the College of Lawyers of Puerto Rico. She is the elected senator with the highest number of votes in the MVC, a political group that she also chairs.
  9. Rafael Bernabe, MVC: University Professor of Economics. He founded the Working People’s Party in 2010 and aspired to govern for this collectivity in the 2012 and 2016 elections. He was then part of the MVC’s founding.
  10. Gregorio Matías, PNP: ex-sergeant of the Puerto Rico Police. Matías served as Vice President of Organized Police. He came to the Senate in May 2020 after being certified as the sole candidate to fill one of the vacancies left by ex-senator Larry Seilhammer and Abel Nazario.
  11. Keren Riquelme, PNP: Professor of Linguistics at the University of Puerto Rico. It has lobbied like citizen by the estadidad before the Congress of the United States. After the scrutiny, it could be placed like elect senator in the last space by accumulation supplanting the popular senator, Aníbal Jose Towers.
  12. Henry Neumann, PNP: Ex-athlete, lawyer and merchant. For the past four years he served as vice president of the Senate and chaired the Public Safety Commission.
  13. Nitza Morán, PNP: Entrepreneur and former president of the Santurce Square Merchants Association. She was president of the Women of the Progressive New Party. In her first political fight she was elect senator by district in San Juan. She is one of the new faces of the PNP in the Legislature and will represent St. John’s District 1 alongside Senator Henry Neumann.
  14. Carmelo Ríos, PNP: He is a lawyer. He first became a legislator in 2004 as a senator for the Bayamón and Guaynabo District. In the past four years he served as spokesman for the PNP Majority in the Senate. In 2017 he aspired to the mayoralty of the municipality of Guaynabo, following the resignation of the then mayor Héctor O’Neill.
  15. Migdalia Padilla, PNP: Educator. She has been a member of the Puerto Rican Senate since 2000. She was the first woman to chair the Senate Finance Committee.
  16. Elizabeth Rosa, PPD: Psychologist and Social Worker. She was the only woman on the ballot for the senatorial district of Arecibo.
  17. Rubén Soto, PPD: Studies in Human Resources, Labor Relations and Environmental Planning. Concluded the electoral scrutiny, it prevailed like senator by the district of Arecibo.
  18. There is Garcia, PPD: Folklorist, lawyer and educator – As an elected senator in the Mayagüez-Aguadilla district, she arrives at the Capitol with the mission of giving greater visibility to Western affairs.
  19. Migdalia González, PPD: Academic preparation in management and doctoral student of Human Resources. She was president of the Popular Women in the West of the island. In her first electoral aspiration, she was elect like senator by the district of Mayaguez-Aguadilla.
  20. Marially González, PPD: Psychologist. She is the daughter of the mayor of Jayuya, Georgie González. This was her first election contest in which she was elected senator for the Ponce district.
  21. Ramón Ruiz, PPD: He is a Chemist by profession. He has been part of the Legislature since 2013. He was initially a representative for the Ponce representative district, but is now a district senator.
  22. Gretchen Hau, PPD. Lawyer by profession and former executive director of the Association of Mayors of Puerto Rico. She was elected in her first election aspiration as a senator for the Guayama District.
  23. Albert Torres Berríos, PPD: He comes from the public service at the Aqueducts and Sewerage Authority. He was elected senator for the district of Guayama.
  24. Rosamar Trujillo Plumey, PPD: He worked in the public service from the Department of the Family. She is the daughter of the late mayor of Humacao, Marcelo Trujillo. In her first political aspiration she was elect like senator by the District of Humacao.
  25. Wanda Soto, PNP: Banking Operations Manager. In the past she tried to run for office without success, now she was elected by the Humacao senatorial district.
  26. Javier Aponte Dalmau, PPD: Lawyer and financier. He has worked in the private sector and as an advisor to legislative presidents. He was a representative for the past four years and now enters the Senate for the Carolina district.
  27. Marissa Jiménez, PNP. He has worked in the public service in the customer service areas of various public corporations. He has militated in various political structures of the PNP.

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