Dem
52
Ties
2
GOP
46
We'll have to check our sources on this, but we believe the official state motto of Rhode Island is "We're even more boring than New Hampshire." At very least that was the story of the primary the Rhode Islanders held yesterday, where there was just about as little drama as is humanly possible. Here's the rundown:
Governor: The Democratic primary was the most notable contest of the night, such as it is. Incumbent Gov. Daniel J. McKee (D) was dethroned by businesswoman Helena Buonanno Foulkes, who avenged her 2022 primary loss to McKee, 62.4% to 37.6%. Normally, if an incumbent gets beaten that badly, it's big news. Here, it was entirely expected. McKee is unpopular in the Ocean State, and is blamed in particular for mismanaging the Washington Bridge retrofit (the Bridge connects Providence to East Providence), and for failing to tackle the state's skyrocketing housing prices. Plus, Rhode Islanders pretty much always end up hating their governors. There is a reason Gina Raimondo was more than happy to accept an offer to join Joe Biden's Cabinet, and to get out of town. Note, incidentally, that there is no "progressive vs. moderate" angle here, as both McKee and Foulkes are moderates. There's also not much of a "new generation" angle, because while McKee is 75, Foulkes is 62.
The Republican candidate is not yet known, as banker Aaron C. Guckian and actress Elaine M. Pelino are in a near dead heat, 50.6% to 49.4%. Whichever one of them comes out on top will lose in November. Rhode Island is now a D+8 state, and it's not the Republicans' year. And while you can't put too much stock in primary turnout, the fact is that 128,000 Democrats cast a primary ballot, as opposed to just 23,000 Republicans. That's a margin of nearly 6-to-1 for the Democrats, and surely must be at least something of a clue as to the relative levels of enthusiasm on the two sides of the aisle.
Lieutenant Governor: We mention this race primarily because one of the candidates is named Xaykham Rexford Khamsyvoravong. If you could play his name in Scrabble, you'd win the game instantly. But you can't do that, and he can't be lieutenant governor, because he lost yesterday to incumbent Sabina Matos (D), 37.4% to 26.4%. The Republican nomination was uncontested, so the GOP candidate will be former state Rep. John J. Loughlin II. He'll lose, too, since votes for governor and lieutenant governor correlate very closely. That's why only 17 states elect the lieutenant governor separately from the governor. In all the others, it's either a joint ticket, or there's no lieutenant governor at all.
Attorney General: There was one other major statewide office up yesterday, so we might as well mention it, especially since this race featured the only close primary that will actually matter. The current AG, Peter Neronha, is term limited, and the Democratic nomination to replace him went to Special Asst. AG Kim Ahern. She narrowly beat out Keith Hoffmann, who has worked in various governmental positions, including a post in the state AG office. Hoffmann had two big endorsements, namely his boss Neronha and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). They didn't quite get the job done, because again, Rhode Islanders tend to sour on their elected officials (like Neronha), and while they're pretty Democratic, they're not generally progressive (like Warren). So, Ahern triumphed, 36.3% to 33.1%.
The Republican will be Alan Leonard Gordon, whose picture looks like one of those "What would 18th/19th century presidents look like if they lived today?" photos:
That's George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln and Gordon, respectively. Gordon's platform has exactly one plank, and it's a very unusual one. He thinks that if sexual relations are had, and they result in pregnancy, and the woman did not specifically give consent to being impregnated, then that is effectively assault and battery, and the man should either go to prison or be put to work doing hard labor. We do not think that will play well in Rhode Island... or anywhere else. Perhaps Gordon has not noticed this, but while there are many men willing to support harsh restrictions on women when there is an unplanned pregnancy, those men are rather less willing to support harsh restrictions on the men who made those unplanned pregnancies possible. We would not be surprised if, in November, Ahern puts up the largest margin of victory of anyone on the Rhode Island ballot.
U.S. Senate: This is where things get extra boring. Sen. Jack Reed (D) won his primary with 76.9% of the vote. The second-place finisher, with 13.4%, was 31-year-old Connor F. Burbridge, who argued it's time for new leadership in the Senate. Rhode Islanders weren't buying it any more than their neighbors in Massachusetts were. This is the sixth U.S. Senate primary Reed has won, and in November he'll win his sixth U.S. Senate general election. He won the last one by 33, the one before that by 40, and the one before that by 47. True, the trendline is heading in the wrong direction, such that he might have a close election if he ends up running for an 11th or maybe 12th term (at which point he'd be a Strom-Thurmond-like 112 years of age). But he's not going to have a close election for his 6th term. His victim will be Republican activist and former bureaucrat Raymond T. McKay.
RI-01: This district is D+12, and Rep. Gabriel Amo (D) is running for reelection. He was unopposed yesterday, as was his Republican opponent, Kellie Keenan. She is a public health worker whose platform is so moderate, it could be confused for the platform of a Democrat. The problem here is that won't get it done with Trumpy Republicans in Rhode Island, while Democratic voters can just vote for the actual Democrat.
RI-02: This district is D+4, and could plausibly be competitive under the right circumstances. However, the incumbent, Rep. Seth Magaziner (D), is also running in this one. Up against an incumbent, in a pretty blue district, in a blue-trending year, is a pretty tough hill to climb for a Republican. The GOP-er who will try it is Victor Mellor, who won the state's only contested House primary yesterday, defeating Stephen T. Skoly 58.1% to 41.9%. Mellor is endorsed by Rudy Giuliani, Michael Flynn and a bunch of quack doctors. His core issues are ending vaccines and protecting the Second Amendment, which his website describes as "Almost non existant" [sic x2] in Rhode Island. Some readers don't like it when we say that a candidate has no real chance to win, but c'mon here. There isn't a single Republican named in this item for whom you can make a plausible case for victory. Most of them are facing near-intractable headwinds, and the one who's in an actual winnable race (i.e., Mellor) is a terrible fit.
Mayor, Providence: We don't generally mention mayoral races, except in the five or ten biggest cities in the country. However, this one's making some headlines because state Rep. David Morales (D), who is a Democratic Socialist, defeated incumbent Mayor Brett Smiley (D), who is not, 52.5% to 47.5%. Morales is 27, and would be the youngest mayor in the city's history if he defeats Republican Dave Talan in November. Given that the last time this very lefty city elected a Republican mayor who actually stayed a Republican was 1939, you have to like Morales' chances. Soon, he will be the Zohran Mamdani of Rhode Island.
And there you have it. Up next week, it's the final primary of the year, in Delaware, which is going to work hard to find a way to be even more boring than Rhode Island. (Z)