Challenger Helena Foulkes is projected by the Associated Press to defeat incumbent Gov. Dan McKee in Wednesday’s Democratic primary.
Foulkes, 62, is best known for her 25-year tenure at Woonsocket-based CVS — one of the few publicly traded companies based in Rhode Island — where she served as president of CVS Pharmacy, a subsidiary of the larger corporation, from 2014 to 2018.
Though an incumbent Democrat in a heavily blue state, McKee, 75, faced an uphill battle in the primary. An August poll found that the governor had just 30% of the vote to Foulkes’s 45%.
McKee inherited his governorship in 2021, when Gina Raimondo left the post to serve as the U.S. Secretary of Commerce under former President Joe Biden. McKee, who had been elected as the state’s lieutenant governor in 2014 and 2018, stepped up.
In 2022, McKee was elected to his first full term as governor, receiving approximately 33% of the vote in the Democratic primary, defeating Foulkes. McKee went on to beat Republican Ashley Kalus in the general election with 58% of the vote.
Foulkes will now turn her attention to the Nov. 3 general election.
The Republican primary race between Aaron Guckian and Elaine Pelino has not yet been called.
Independent Ken Block, who lost a 2014 GOP primary for governor to Allan Fung and who ran as a candidate of the now-defunct Moderate Party in 2010, also expects to be on the ballot. As do two lesser-known independents, Jasjit Gotra and C.D. Reynolds.
McKee’s term runs through January, until the new governor is sworn in.
This is a developing story and will be updated
