McKee Loses Democratic Primary to Foulkes, First RI Governor Ousted in Over 30 Years

Gov. Dan McKee's bid for a second full term is over. Helena Foulkes, a former CVS executive, defeated the incumbent Tuesday in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, according to projections from the Associated Press and NBC News, making McKee the first sitting Rhode Island governor to lose a primary in more than 30 years.

The race was a rematch of 2022, when McKee narrowly beat back Foulkes in a five-candidate field. This time, Foulkes outspent him on television advertising by a 3-to-1 margin, according to AdImpact, and entered Election Day with a double-digit lead in public polling. An August University of New Hampshire survey found just 16 percent of Rhode Islanders, and 24 percent of Democrats, approved of McKee's job performance, with most disapproval tied to his handling of transportation and infrastructure.

That infrastructure record became the defining issue of the campaign. Foulkes hammered McKee over the state's Washington Bridge, which was abruptly closed in 2023 over safety concerns and has yet to be fully replaced. McKee has defended the closure as a matter of prioritizing public safety over politics and pledged the project would be finished by 2028. At a debate last month, McKee accused Foulkes of "disparaging" the state; she shot back that she was disparaging its governor, not Rhode Island.

McKee, 75, ascended to the governorship in 2021 when Gina Raimondo left to join the Biden administration. His fall marks just the second time in more than three decades a sitting Rhode Island governor has lost renomination, the last was Republican Bruce Sundlun in 1994, and the first governor nationally to lose a primary since 2018.

Foulkes now heads into a November 3 general election as the Democratic nominee in a reliably blue state.