Rhode Island's Democratic governor lost his own party's primary by a staggering 25-point margin, the first sitting governor in the country to suffer that fate since 2018.
Gov. Dan McKee was crushed on Wednesday by businesswoman Helena Foulkes, a former CVS Health executive who turned voter frustration over a botched bridge project and rock-bottom approval ratings into a decisive victory. Foulkes won 62% to McKee's 37%, a blowout that ended the governor's political career and sent a clear message about the cost of mismanagement.
The result was not close, and it was not a surprise. Polling before the primary showed Foulkes holding a 38-point lead over the incumbent. McKee's approval rating sat at just 24%, one of the lowest of any governor in America. His own party's voters had seen enough.
The Washington Bridge, a major commuter artery in Rhode Island, was abruptly closed in December 2023 over structural concerns. As of this week it remains under reconstruction, and the project has dogged McKee throughout his tenure, causing lengthy commute times and deep public frustration.
McKee tried to reframe the bridge disaster as proof of his leadership. He told voters he shut it down to keep people safe, secured federal funding, and put the project on pace to finish ahead of schedule.
Voters didn't buy it.
Foulkes hammered McKee's management of state government broadly and the bridge crisis specifically. She told voters that people feel state government "works with a powerful few" and that ordinary Rhode Islanders "don't think it's working for them." That message landed with an electorate already fed up with an administration that couldn't keep its infrastructure from falling apart.
McKee, for his part, tried to turn the race into a referendum on Foulkes' corporate background. He painted her as an out-of-touch executive and went after her leadership role at CVS Health amid the company's controversial handling of prescription opioids. But attacking a challenger's résumé is a weak play when your own record includes a crumbling bridge and a 24% approval rating.
McKee first became governor in 2021, not by winning a gubernatorial race, but by default. Former Gov. Gina Raimondo left office to serve as Commerce Secretary in the Biden administration, and McKee, then the lieutenant governor, stepped into the role. He had previously served as mayor of Cumberland and won two terms as lieutenant governor, but the top job came to him through a resignation, not a mandate.
He managed to win his first full term in 2022, but barely. That primary included Foulkes, and McKee edged her by just a few percentage points. Wednesday's rematch was not nearly as close. The margin swung from a narrow McKee win to a 25-point Foulkes rout, a collapse that reflects how thoroughly McKee squandered whatever goodwill he had.
In his concession speech, McKee acknowledged the loss but offered little in the way of accountability. He told supporters it was "something that I think is difficult to deal with" and urged them to "hold our heads high." That is a generous way to describe a 25-point repudiation by your own party.
Sitting governors almost never lose their own party's primary. The last time it happened anywhere in the country was 2018, when Kansas Republican Gov. Jeff Colyer lost the GOP primary to then-Secretary of State Kris Kobach by fewer than 400 votes. That race was razor-thin. McKee's loss was a landslide.
In Rhode Island, the last time a sitting governor lost a primary was 1994, more than 30 years ago. McKee now holds the distinction of being the most decisively rejected incumbent governor in recent American politics.
McKee's defeat is not an isolated event. Democratic incumbents and establishment-backed candidates have faced a string of primary losses in recent cycles. In Missouri, Wesley Bell crushed Cori Bush for a second time in a Democratic primary, and in Michigan, Rep. Shri Thanedar lost his seat to a socialist challenger. The pattern is clear: Democratic voters are restless, and incumbency offers no protection when the record is indefensible.
Even Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania has drawn talk of a potential primary challenge in 2028 as intra-party tensions continue to simmer. The Democratic coalition is fracturing, and leaders who fail to deliver results are finding out that party loyalty has its limits.
Foulkes will advance to the November general election in a state that leans reliably blue. She will face the winner of the Republican primary between Aaron Guckian, the GOP's 2022 nominee for lieutenant governor, and Elaine Pelino, a retired business executive. Three independent candidates, Ken Block, Jasjit "Jay" Gotra, and Christopher "CD" Reynolds, will also appear on the ballot.
None of them are likely to pose a serious threat in a state where Democrats dominate. Foulkes enters the general election as the prohibitive favorite.
Her corporate background will draw scrutiny. A former senior executive at CVS Health and former CEO of Hudson's Bay Company, Foulkes currently sits on Costco's board of directors. McKee's attacks on her CVS tenure and the opioid question did not gain traction in the primary, but a Republican opponent may find more fertile ground, especially if Foulkes runs as a progressive reformer while carrying a Fortune 500 résumé.
Still, the central story of this primary is not Foulkes' rise. It is McKee's fall. A governor who inherited the office, barely survived his first primary, presided over a bridge disaster, and watched his approval rating crater to 24% got exactly the result his record deserved.
In New York, Brad Lander recently toppled Dan Goldman in another high-profile Democratic primary upset. From Rhode Island to New York to Missouri, the message from Democratic voters is the same: do the job, or lose it.
When your own voters reject you by 25 points, the bridge isn't the only thing that collapsed.
