Representative Michelle McGaw
Member, House State Government and Elections Committee
Member, House Environment and Natural Resources Committee
Member, House Health and Human Services Committee
Representative Michelle McGaw (D) was first elected
in 2020 to represent the people of District 71 in Portsmouth, Tiverton, and
Little Compton. She is a member of the House State Government and Elections
Committee, the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee, and the
House Health and Human Services Committee.
A consultant pharmacist who serves the long-term care community, she has championed numerous laws to expand and protect prescription access and affordability for Rhode Islanders. In 2025, the Assembly enacted her legislation allowing 90-day ADHD prescriptions, as well as her bills enabling patients get their prescriptions expeditiously in situations when their prescriber can't be reached, or when their insurers want to substitute equivalent drugs or devices, and her legislation ensuring all college housing is equipped with Narcan. She was the sponsor of the 2023 law requiring private and nonprofit health insurers and HMOs to cover the full cost of life-saving epinephrine injectors, commonly known by the brand name EpiPen.
She has cosponsored laws that raised the legal age for purchasing firearms and ammunition to 21 and required the Department of Health to set standards for toxic PFAS chemicals in drinking water. She has pushed for the state to strengthen its commitments to the environment and clean energy, introducing legislation to prohibit any type of new high-heat solid waste processing facilities in environmentally sensitive areas, and to require the state's Energy Facility Siting Board to deny applications for power plants that would adversely affect Rhode Island's ability to meet its carbon-emissions-reduction obligations.
She is a 1984 graduate of St. Paul Catholic High School and graduated from University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy in 1989.
Representative McGaw serves on the National Conference of State Legislatures' Health Standing Committee as well as its Children, Families and Human Services Committee. She is a member of the Portsmouth Democratic Town Committee and served on the Portsmouth Waste and Recycling Committee and the 2020 Portsmouth Charter Review Committee. She is a former board member for the Rhode Island Democratic Women's Caucus. She was involved in youth recreation and local Little League baseball for many years, including the Little League Challenger Division.
A resident of Portsmouth for more than 30 years, Representative McGaw and her husband James are the parents of two adult sons, Jake and Max.