On November 5, Nantucket overwhelmingly elected former Cape and Islands Assistant District Attorney Thomas Moakley as its new state representative. Moakley, a 29-year-old Democrat, Georgetown University graduate and Falmouth resident, won the election in a landslide with no official Republican candidate on the general election ballot, after beating Martha’s Vineyard resident Arielle Faria in the Democratic primary in September. He is set to be sworn into office in January. While Moakley will be representing nine towns on the Cape and Islands, he is already well acquainted with Nantucket. Moakley previously interned for former Nantucket state Rep. Tim Madden. N Magazine caught up with Moakley to discuss why he ran for office, his priorities on Beacon Hill and his take on a range of issues from sea-level rise to affordable housing.

N Magazine: Why did you run for state representative?

Thomas Moakley: I’ve been working in public service as assistant district attorney for the Cape and Islands, and I know I have the skills to be a successful state representative. I think the issues most important to our community like climate change, affordability, the opioid epidemic and women’s reproductive rights—those are some of the biggest issues for me. Climate change, sea-level rise and coastal flooding have become major issues on Nantucket.

N Magazine: How would you address climate change at the State House?

Thomas Moakley: I think the most fundamental role of good governance is to address these issues. When it comes to climate change, it has to be a two-pronged approach, where on the one hand you focus on mitigation, where our power is coming from and reducing our impact on the local level. But what’s most important when we talk about sea-level rise is resilience. That means calling on our experts about how we talk about infrastructure and how we protect existing infrastructure. It’s not just sea-level rise but more frequent and intense storms. It’s a great opportunity for both climate scientists and engineers coming up with new ideas on how to address these challenges.

N Magazine: What about the Vineyard Wind offshore wind project and its recent blade failure that left materials littered across Nantucket beaches? Do you support the project, and do you think the state can or should do anything to address the recent collapse?

Thomas Moakley: On a large scale, I support alternative energy. I support wind energy, solar energy and the proliferation of renewable resources so we can mitigate the impacts contributing toward climate change. I also support the development of microgrids on the local level so we can be more resilient during storms rather than being beholden to larger networks that cover the entire region. The destruction of the blade was a huge disappointment to all of us that know renewable energy is the only responsible path forward, and it was also disappointing because of the breach of trust that had been built up over the years this project was coming to fruition between the company and host communities. Before we were talking about, “Do we want to continue our reliance on fossil fuels or develop renewable energy?” Now the discussion is, “Well, exactly how do we implement that in a way that is responsible to the people hosting that project?” Our role at the state is doing whatever we can to foster transparency and responsibility.

N Magazine: The median price of a home on Nantucket has swelled to $3.5 million this year. You listed affordability as a major part of your platform. What do you believe needs to be done to address the cost of housing on Nantucket?

Thomas Moakley: I support the local option transfer fee because it’s all about giving municipalities all the tools that they can use to address the housing crisis, which is acute on Nantucket. What’s really going to make the biggest impact is recapturing the seasonal housing stock and transferring it into year-round stock for service providers and what’s called the missing middle—such as firefighters, teachers, court workers and municipal employees. The legislature while I was running in the primary did pass a significant $5.1 billion investment in affordable housing statewide, and [state] Sen. Julian Cyr put a lot of legwork into the seasonal communities designation, which is going to give municipalities power to address the crisis. What’s missing is the funding. That’s where the transfer fee comes in. It’s important for the sustainability of so many Nantucket businesses and the critical public services that we act swiftly on this.

N Magazine: What are some other issues important to you?

Thomas Moakley: Access to interpreters in the court systems, and that is something especially prevalent on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket. That’s frankly leading to an inequity of access to justice when both defendants and victims are not able to communicate freely with police officers, prosecutors, their attorneys, court personnel and then in court itself. The court needs help to hire people in our region and statewide.

N Magazine: How do you see your role as state representative?

Thomas Moakley: The role of state representative comes with two primary responsibilities. One is at the legislative level and that’s what gets a lot of bandwidth—things we want to do in the next term. The other part of the job is constituent services. Being the guy when there’s no one else to turn to, to figure out the appropriate executive department that might have control over the issue and making connections to help people navigate the state system, or maybe it’s something as simple as fixing potholes. That’s one of the roles where I’m closest to the people, and I plan to be as accessible as I can. A goal of mine because we have so many dedicated people in the nonprofit and government sectors in this region—[and] we’ve already started in the past few months—[is] coordinating between the nine towns I represent to get conversations going on what has been working for each of those organizations and what we can do to help one another and be responsible for that region when nobody else is.