Representative Jason Knight
Deputy Majority Leader
Second Vice Chair, House Judiciary
Member, House Environment and Natural Resources Committee
Member, House State Government and Elections Committee
Jason Knight (D) has represented District 67 in Barrington and Warren
since first being elected in November 2016. He was named a Deputy
Majority Leader in January 2021. Representative Knight is the second
vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee and is a
member of the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee and the
House State Government and Elections Committee.
Representative Knight has sponsored and cosponsored numerous measures
for firearms safety. He was the sponsor of the law passed in 2021 to ban
“straw
purchases,” the buying or procuring weapons on behalf of
someone who is legally prohibited from possessing them. He cosponsored
the law prohibiting high-capacity
gun magazines, as well as laws banning
bump stocks and modifications to make semi-automatic weapons
work like fully automatic weapons, and ensuring gun sales applications
are reviewed by the police in the
purchaser’s own community.
He has sponsored numerous efforts for criminal justice reform, including
a 2022 law that eliminated
court fees for many Rhode Islanders to prevent them from
becoming a stumbling block that results in re-incarceration.
Representative Knight also sponsored a law that allowed more people to
have their arrests records
sealed when they’ve been acquitted or exonerated, and waived
a $100 fee for all expungements.
Another law he sponsored enables cities and towns to establish programs
to offer tax credits to property owners age 60 and over in exchange for volunteer
hours. In his first term in the House, he enacted legislation
allowing churches and religious organizations to require national
criminal background
checks for employees and volunteers working with children. He
has cosponsored many other bills for fair elections laws, stronger
environmental protections, and economic justice.
Representative Knight served eight years in the United States Navy as an
enlisted nuclear power operator. He taught at the Naval Nuclear Power
Prototype facility at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory before
completing three and a half years of service on the USS Albuquerque.
Representative Knight received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emerson
College and a Juris Doctor from Suffolk Law School. He was admitted to
the Rhode Island Bar and worked for the Rhode Island Department of the
Attorney General as a special assistant attorney general from 2006 to
2010.
Representative Knight is now a self-employed attorney and a member of the
Rhode Island Bar Association. He is a former member of the Board of Trustees
at Temple Habonim in Barrington and also previously served on the board of
directors of Arts Alive!
Representative Knight lives in Barrington with his wife Nicole. They
have two children. He was born on October 28, 1969.