On a recent Wednesday evening, Connor Burbridge is knocking on doors on Ninth Street on Providence's East Side, looking for votes.
“Hey sir, do you mind if I have a minute of your time?” Burbridge asks John Howard, the man who opened the door. “I’m running for U.S. Senate in the Democratic primary.”
“You are?” responds Howard, surprised when Burbridge introduces himself as an opponent of U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, 76, who first won his seat 30 years ago.
“Yeah,” Burbridge continued. “I’m running on a platform of taxing the billionaires, universal healthcare, big investments in public education.”
Howard said he liked Burbridge’s vibe, his stance on these issues, and his talk about confronting creeping authoritarianism.
But the challenge facing Burbridge became clear when Howard asked him another question: “When did you launch your campaign? I haven’t heard about you.”
A lot of voters haven’t heard about Burbridge, mostly since his campaign lacks the money to run TV commercials.
Nationwide, more than 90% of U.S. House and Senate incumbents typically win re-election. Locally, more than 60% of state legislators won’t even face a challenge in elections this year. And in a state like Rhode Island, where one political party – the Democratic Party – dominates statewide offices, the forces of incumbency have an outsized influence.
This year’s primary races for governor and lieutenant governor are notable exceptions. Gov. Dan McKee and Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos face spirited challenges.
Across the country, the 2026 political season appears to be one in which many older, better-funded establishment-flavored politicians are getting challengers, from Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan to Angie Nixon in Florida. In Massachusetts, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton is challenging an older, venerable political force, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey; polls show Markey with an advantage. But it’s particularly hard in Rhode Island to take on someone like Reed, who grew up as a custodian’s son in Cranston and usually ranks as the state’s most popular elected official.
Reed’s campaign said he’s focused on serving Rhode Islanders, delivering for the state and countering the Trump administration.
“The American people are understanding that this administration is not serving their best interests,” the senator said during an interview on Ocean State Media earlier this year. “In fact, it’s undermining their best interests.”
Reed also has $3.6 million in his campaign account.
Burbridge, a New Jersey native and Army vet who helps run a tree farm and works in assisted living, moved to Rhode Island six years ago. He had less than $4,000 in campaign cash as of the last filing.
Instead, the 31-year-old first-time candidate and a squad of volunteers knock on doors twice a week to spread the word.
Making the pitch
On a recent weeknight, Burbridge’s field manager, Michael Citarella, briefed volunteers at Providence’s Lippitt Park before they scattered to nearby East Side streets.
“We are here to fight for the working people,” Citarella said, “to help advance, you know, top issues – Medicare for all, abolishing ICE. Jack Reed is trying to talk about how much he’s against this Iran war, but he’s funding Trump’s Defense Department with $900 billion last year, $1 trillion this year.”
As we walked, Burbridge sounded like the progressives trying to push the Democratic Party further left in a number of states – including some who have staged upsets over better-funded fellow Democrats.
Burbridge called himself a New Deal Democrat, and he’s energetically campaigning in a race he almost didn’t run.
“You know, the truth is, I never wanted to be a politician,” he said.
Burbridge is active on social media, where he said he’d do more to restrain corporate power, he criticizes Reed for supporting aid to Israel, and he scorns the senator for not responding to a debate challenge.
In this year of anti-incumbent sentiment, concern about an aging generation of politicians and worries about affordability, Burbridge’s stances might resonate with many Democrats.
He said they do.
“I mean, it gives me energy to talk to people and see just how fired up people are when I say, hey, this is the policies I’m putting out at the federal level,” Burbridge said.
Burbridge said he targeted the U.S. Senate because he saw a need. But he acknowledged that he faces a big uphill battle.
“We think that these conversations need to be had. It’s what Rhode Islanders want,” he said. “This conversation, this debate on what kind of party we want, what kind of politics we want in this country, how we want to effectively respond to the crises that we’re facing across the board. I think there’s a lot of value to our campaign.”
A campaign reality check
There’s another Democrat running against Reed, Luis Daniel Muñoz. Muñoz received 3.1% of the vote in a primary for governor in 2022. Like Burbridge, Muñoz runs low-cost campaigns.
These types of super-longshot candidates run for governor and federal office in every Rhode Island election, striving to win while ignoring, or at least hoping to circumvent, the pervasive power of money in politics.
“I think they’re an important part of the political process,” said John Marion, executive director of the nonpartisan good government group Common Cause of Rhode Island.
“They mean that the incumbent is not going uncontested in the race,” Marion added. “And that’s important, right? In a democracy you need choice for it to be a well-functioning democracy.”
Local historian Steve Frias of Cranston said dark horse candidates can have an effect if they highlight an issue overlooked by an incumbent. But he said that’s uncommon.
“Generally, long shot candidates don’t have much of an impact on a race,” Frias said, “as long as the incumbent has enough resources and is sufficiently popular.”
In 2016, Frias ran a spirited, competitive challenge against Democrat Nicholas Mattiello, the powerful speaker of the Rhode Island House of Representatives at the time.
In the heat of the campaign, Mattiello unveiled his support for phasing out the state car tax – an example of how political competition can work to taxpayers’ benefit.
If Burbridge was running for the General Assembly, his emphasis on meeting voters through door-knocking could give him a good shot at winning.
Senator Reed himself served in the state Senate before running for federal office. And since so many General Assembly seats are uncontested this year, a higher level of state legislative candidates could be good for the public interest.
Instead, Frias said, the lack of competition and the power of incumbency reinforce a different dynamic.
“Incumbents tend to be supported by special interest groups, who fund their campaigns,” he said. “And therefore the legislation that comes out of the General Assembly is usually favorable, one way or another, to the most powerful special interest groups. In this state, it happens to be labor.”
Voting is already underway in the state primary election that ends on Sept. 9.
Polls have become less reliable in the cell phone age. But a survey released last week by the Pell Center at Salve Regina University reinforced the possibility that Burbridge may be fighting a losing battle. It showed Reed with 61% of the support, Burbridge with 12% and Munoz with 4%.
