Does the social class of a politician influence their economic policy choices? Leveraging a close elections RDD design, we explore the effects of electing a mayor from a lower class on levels of redistribution. Focusing on municipal politics in Italy—where quasi-majoritarian electoral rules enable mayors to retain control of the legislature—we examine three types of outcomes: tax progressivity, social spending and indicators on the quality of local public goods provision. Using a second design, based on exogenous variation in mayoral term limits, we additionally probe whether obtained treatment effects are moderated by mayoral reelection incentives.