Dan McKee was celebrating his narrow victory in the Democratic primary surrounded by supporters, when someone handed him phone — it was his opponent simply calling to concede. And McKee is desperate to avoid not only becoming the first U.S. governor to lose a primary since 2018 but also the first Rhode Island governor to lose a primary in more than 30 years. Foulkes, a former executive at CVS Health, has outraised the incumbent and flooded the airwaves with campaign ads.
And unlike four years ago, Democratic voters this election year have increasingly shown a willingness to oust incumbents. McKee, 75, will also have to overcome simmering anger over a bridge repair project that has dragged on longer than expected. Beside Foulkes, McKee’s other nemesis in the campaign is a critical bridge in Providence, Rhode Island — New England's third-largest city.
In 2023, McKee closed the westbound side of Washington Bridge after state officials flagged a “critical failure" and announced repairs would take several months. The partial closure quickly rippled throughout the region. The bridge carries Interstate 195 over the Seekonk River from Providence to East Providence, as well as the south coast of Massachusetts and Cape Cod.
Nearly 100,000 vehicles cross it every day, which now must pass through entirely on the reconfigured eastbound side. Repairs have since taken much longer than promised as costs have increased from initial estimates, creating plenty of material for Foulkes to criticize McKee’s leadership. McKee has fought back that he kept people safe and that the bridge construction will be finished by 2028.
He often points to Maryland, saying the Washington Bridge will be complete ahead of the replacement of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which is set to be done in 2030 after it collapsed and killed six construction workers in 2024 when a massive container ship crashed into it. But bridge sagas have a way of haunting governors, said Adam Myers, a political scientist at Providence College. Thorny issues like crime, immigration and cost of living often can be difficult to pin down because they involve complicated systems.
Foulkes has robust political family ties. Her grandfather and uncle, Thomas and Chris Dodd, were both Democratic senators in Connecticut. She worked at CVS for 25 years, eventually becoming president of the company’s pharmacy division between 2014 and 2018.
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