Ronald Joseph Mariano (born October 31, 1946) is an American politician currently serving as the Speaker of the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into ...

. A Democrat from Quincy, he was first elected to the House in a December 1991 special election. He was appointed assistant majority leader in February 2009 and majority leader in January 2011 by then-speaker Robert DeLeo, who he succeeded as speaker upon DeLeo's retirement in 2020. He represents the 3rd Norfolk district.

Life and career

Mariano was born and raised in Quincy, where he attended public school. He received his B.S. from

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and his M.Ed. from the

University of Massachusetts Boston The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a Public university, public US-based research university. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus University of Ma ...

. He became a teacher and was elected to the Quincy School Committee, where he served from 1989 to 2009. He also served on the Ward 2 Democratic Committee, the Norfolk County Advisory Board, and the

Quincy College Quincy College (QC) is a public community college in Quincy, Massachusetts. It is an open admission school that offers associate degrees, bachelor degrees, and certificate programs. It was founded in 1958 and enrolls approximately 3,500 studen ...

Board of Governors. In January 2023, Mariano was reelected to a second term as Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. His priorities for the 193rd Massachusetts General Court include child care affordability, public transport reliability, and oversight of hospital

mergers and acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

. Mariano also outlined a focus on revising Massachusetts' state law to comply with the Supreme Court's 2022 ruling in ''

NYSRPA v. Bruen ''New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen'', , abbreviated ''NYSRPA v. Bruen'' and also known as ''Bruen'' or ''NYSRPA II'' (to distinguish it from the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. City of New York, 2020 cas ...

'', which declared may-issue permitting for firearms unconstitutional, as opposed to shall-issue permits. In October 2023, Mariano indicated that he intends to run for Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives during the 2025-2026 legislative session.

Awards

From 1997 to 2000, Mariano served as Vice Chair of the Massachusetts House of Representative's Joint Committee on Insurance, becoming Chair in 2001. In 2005, he became chair of successor Joint Committee on Financial Services. In these roles, he oversaw the 2006 Massachusetts health care reform and 2008 auto insurance deregulation, for which he was received the 2008 Insurance Professional of the Year Award. Mariano was the 2014 recipient of the Quincy Parks Conservatory's Charles Francis Award. In December 2021, Mariano received the Norman B. Leventhal Excellence in City Building Award in the environment category. Mariano was the 2022 recipient of the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugee Advocacy Coalition's Change Maker Award. In June 2023, Mariano was awarded the Legislative Champion Award by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization for supporting

patient advocacy Patient advocacy is a process in health care concerned with advocacy for patients, survivors, and caregivers. The patient advocate may be an individual or an organization, concerned with healthcare standards or with one specific group of disor ...

References

External links

"Ronald Mariano"

Massachusetts General Court The Massachusetts General Court, formally the General Court of Massachusetts, is the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts located in the state capital of Boston. Th ...

.
"Public Officers of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (2007–2008)"

. * (campaign website) , - 1946 births Living people Politicians from Quincy, Massachusetts Northeastern University alumni University of Massachusetts Boston alumni Speakers of the Massachusetts House of Representatives Democratic Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives 21st-century members of the Massachusetts General Court {{Massachusetts-MARepresentative-stub

Life and career

Awards

References

Further reading

External links