Rhode Island's Dan McKee lost his Democratic gubernatorial primary to former CVS executive Helena Foulkes, becoming the first elected governor in the country to lose a primary since Hawaii's Neil Abercrombie fell in 2014.
Foulkes beat McKee decisively, Just The News reported she captured 62% of the vote to McKee's 37%, a blowout that matched the trajectory of pre-election polling showing the incumbent trailing by 38 points. McKee also holds the distinction of being the first sitting governor of any state to lose a party primary since Kansas Republican Jeff Colyer was denied renomination in 2018, and the first Rhode Island governor to lose a primary in more than 30 years.
The result was not a surprise. A University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll taken last month pegged McKee's approval rating at just 24%, a number that would sink any incumbent. Foulkes, who narrowly lost to McKee in their 2022 primary matchup, ran a rematch campaign built almost entirely around one issue: a bridge.
The Washington Bridge spans the Seekonk River, connecting Providence to Rhode Island's eastern suburbs and Massachusetts. It serves as a major artery for summer travelers heading to Cape Cod. In 2023, McKee ordered the bridge partially shut down over safety concerns. Nearly three years later, it remains a construction zone and a political millstone.
McKee tried to turn the closure into a strength. In a campaign ad posted to his X account, he argued his case directly:
"The Washington Bridge was a disaster. I shut it down to keep us safe, secured federal funding and we're on pace to complete the bridge ahead of schedule."
Foulkes saw it differently. During a debate last month covered by WPRI, she called the bridge project "a poster child for mismanagement" under McKee's watch. That phrase stuck. For commuters who spent years rerouting around the closure, it landed harder than any campaign ad defending the timeline.
Foulkes framed her candidacy as a broader indictment of how Rhode Island's government operates. She told the Associated Press:
"People feel like state government just works with a powerful few. They don't think it's working for them."
That message, government by insiders, for insiders, is potent in a small state where political networks run tight and voters know who benefits from public contracts. McKee never found an effective counter.
The governor tried to reframe the race as a contest between a working-class public servant and a corporate outsider trying to buy the office. He told the Associated Press that voters faced a choice between "somebody who wants to buy this state office who doesn't have any credibility with their policy thoughts and someone like myself, who has a strong record in terms of working people."
McKee also went after Foulkes's 25-year career at CVS, alleging she "turned a blind eye to the opioid crisis" during her tenure at the pharmacy giant. It was a sharp line, CVS's role in opioid distribution has drawn scrutiny nationally, but McKee offered no specific evidence in his public statements to back the charge. And with his approval at 24%, the attack lacked the credibility to change the trajectory of the race.
Foulkes, for her part, comes from a family steeped in Democratic politics. Her grandfather, Thomas Dodd, represented Connecticut in the U.S. Senate. Her uncle, Chris Dodd, held the same seat. She also served as an executive at Hudson's Bay in addition to her CVS tenure.
McKee's path to the governorship was itself unusual. He originally assumed the office in 2021 after then-Governor Gina Raimondo left to serve as President Biden's Commerce Secretary. He won a full term in 2022, narrowly beating Foulkes in that year's primary. This time, voters gave him no such margin.
Foulkes did not run as an outsider without institutional support. The Washington Examiner reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to Rhode Island days before the primary to campaign for Foulkes, a signal that national Democratic figures saw McKee as expendable and Foulkes as the stronger general-election candidate.
On primary night, Foulkes struck a unifying tone in her victory speech:
"Tonight, we may have won the Democratic primary for governor, but let me be clear about what happens next: You will have a governor for everyone."
McKee, conceding, kept it brief. "This is something that I think is difficult to deal with, but we just got to hold our heads high," he said.
McKee was not the only Rhode Island incumbent to fall. Breitbart reported that Providence Mayor Brett Smiley also lost his reelection bid the same night, to 27-year-old democratic socialist David Morales, who carried an endorsement from Sen. Bernie Sanders. Two sitting executives in Rhode Island's two most prominent offices, both defeated in a single primary night. That is not a fluke. It is a pattern.
Foulkes now advances to the November general election. The New York Post noted that McKee joins a short and unhappy list: the last elected governor to lose a primary was Hawaii's Neil Abercrombie in 2014, and the last sitting governor of any kind to be denied renomination was Kansas's Jeff Colyer in 2018, who had assumed office after Sam Brownback's resignation.
Voters sent a clear message in Rhode Island: a nearly three-year bridge closure, a 24% approval rating, and a record that failed to match the rhetoric added up to a governor who ran out of road. When the people who have to live with the consequences of mismanagement get a chance to weigh in, they don't need a pollster to tell them what to do.
