PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The mayor and his partner are going to be parents.
A spokesman for Mayor Jorge Elorza confirmed that the city’s mayor and his girlfriend of four years, Stephanie Gonzalez, are expecting a child.
Elorza, 41, and Gonzalez, 31, first met in 2013 at Central Falls Mayor James Diossa’s inauguration, according to a Providence Journal profile that featured the couple. They began running together - sometimes four times a week - and the friendship turned romantic.
They officially became a couple in September 2013, right before Gonzalez was sworn in as a Central Falls councilwoman. No longer on the council, Gonzalez now works as an associate director of partnerships at Blackstone Valley Prep Mayoral Academy.
Elorza told The Journal in 2015 that his favorite thing about his beau is “how committed she is to her community.” The couple also told former Journal staff writer Alisha Pina that they often text when they are apart.
“A woman doesn’t expect you to be with her all the time,” Elorza said, “but a woman does expect you to remind her that she’s important to you all the time, and that’s what I try to do.”
He elicited “awws” during his own inauguration when he turned to Gonzalez and said: “I love you baby.”
The news of their growing family came in a holiday card - that featured the couple posing on the City Hall steps with a small stocking, according to reporting from WPRI. But the mayor may have dropped a hint during the taping of The Journal’s Insiders podcast on Thursday.
When asked, “What’s the best political advice you ever got?” Elorza spoke about keeping a balance between work and family.
“For the past five years...I’ve been so committed to being mayor. I have given all of myself to this. But the truth is that it’s unsustainable to keep up like this....Politics will come and go but there are some sort of steadies, things that you always want to be in your life. I’ve been so blessed by being so supported by all of my loved ones and my family but I want to make sure that there is actual balance here. There can't be 100 percent about the city all of the time.”
The baby is due in June.