Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee trails Democratic primary rivals in bid for whole expression

Ryan King

July 01, 11:48 AM July 01, 11:48 AM

RICHMOND, Rhode Island — Gov. Dan McKee faces rigid Democratic principal opposition in his campaign for a total, 4-year time period following assuming the Ocean State's best governing administration job 16 months back.

A the latest poll of 353 likely Democratic principal voters showed McKee lagging Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea 20% to 24% forward of the Sept. 13 nominating contest. The poll was performed by Boston Globe/Suffolk June 19-22 and experienced a margin of error of furthermore or minus 5.2 proportion points.

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“Polls appear and go, and the campaign has just started,” McKee stated in response to the poll numbers, WPRI claimed. “I never definitely place a whole lot of inventory in any figures, regardless of whether you are up or you are down.”

McKee first ascended to the governorship in March 2021 just after then-Gov. Gina Raimondo stepped down from the post to serve as the secretary of commerce in the Biden administration. As lieutenant governor, McKee was the next in line for the part. He was to start with elected lieutenant governor in 2014, after eight many years as mayor of Cumberland, in Rhode Island's northeast corner.

Both McKee and Raimondo experienced been matter to speculation that they did not get on perfectly. During the peak of the COVID-19 disaster in the point out in 2020, McKee was hardly existing through Raimondo's frequent televised press spectacles and experienced been reportedly still left out of her inner circle.

"I was elected to be the backup quarterback who can go into the activity," he informed reporters in 2020, in accordance to the Providence Journal. "I’m a backup quarterback that is not aspect of a staff. I don’t even have a uniform."

Versus the backdrop of speculation about their skilled romance, McKee and Raimondo came alongside one another in the community eye all through the changeover in 2021. He was afterwards sworn in to office environment as governor by Gorbea.

Gorbea was initially elected secretary of point out in 2014. She declared her candidacy for governor in Might 2021, just a couple of months immediately after Raimondo stepped down. The Rhode Island governor is limited to two consecutive conditions in office environment, so Raimondo would not have been able to go after a third bid as governor this cycle.

“The poll demonstrates that Rhode Islanders want a governor they have confidence in to always be on their side and who is familiar with how to get issues finished for persons,” Gorbea's campaign manager claimed, according to WPRI. “Nellie Gorbea has been in the trenches with local community leaders in Rhode Island for far more than thirty a long time, earning genuine development on significant worries like housing and defending voting legal rights and reproductive freedoms.”

The poll also found that previous CVS executive Helena Foulkes had vaulted close to the top rated of the pack with 16% of voters favoring her. About 31% of voters had been undecided.

On Sunday, McKee acquired an endorsement from the point out Democratic Party throughout its convention. State Treasurer Seth Magaziner, a congressional hopeful, also obtained the party endorsement for the primary race in the state's 2nd Congressional District. A new poll from Boston Globe/Suffolk had Magaziner trailing primary Republican contender Allan Fung in the typical election, despite the district leaning heavily Democratic above the previous 30 decades.