Ken Block is no stranger to Rhode Island politics. The software engineer is making his third bid for the governor’s office this year, having lost as a Moderate Party candidate in 2010. Four years later, he ran as a Republican, but lost the nomination to then-Cranston Mayor Allan Fung.
In 2026, Block has chosen to run as an independent candidate. He will face Democrat Helena Foulkes and two lesser-known independents, Jasjit Gotra and C.D. Reynolds. Republican Aaron Guckian has claimed victory in the primary.
Block sat down with Ocean State Media political reporter Ian Donnis to discuss his political priorities and why he thinks his message resonates with Rhode Islanders.
Interview highlights
On why he wants to be governor
Ken Block: I decided to jump into this race because, after spectating on things for a decade, I realized that the problems we have haven't been getting better. In fact, in many ways they've been getting worse. I didn't hear any of the candidates really providing the answers that I know Rhode Islanders need. And that's really why I'm here. I don't want to ride around in the SUV. I'm not doing this for a resume stuffer. I'm a problem solver and I see that Rhode Island has a lot of problems to solve.
On how to improve Rhode Island’s economy
Block: My first answer to our economic challenges has nothing to do with the economy. It has to do with education. In too many of our urban school districts, too many of our students struggle and they graduate with skills that oftentimes aren't even high school level. We are a poor state. A third of our population is on Medicaid. A third of our state budget is Medicaid. It's really hard to have an economy that's revved up when we spend so much money effectively trying to remediate the impact that undereducation can have on so many people...
I think we have a moral imperative to fix it because we are negatively impacting way too many people. It's a solvable problem. That's the thing. Other blue states have solved educational problems like we (have). We don't have to look to red states. We don't have to look anywhere. Some of our neighboring states have fixed it. We just have to pick those models and apply them to each district individually because they have different problems. We can make steps to solve our educational problems and improve our outcomes. We have to have the political courage to do it.
On how to improve healthcare in Rhode Island
Block: It's unaffordable. And part of the problem is we're too small. The number of people that we insure in our state is a small percentage of people relative to the risk that we have to spread around. Let's say we have 200,000 people buying insurance. If a small number of people have really expensive problems, our rates go higher. If we were in a regional health insurance marketplace – which I'd like to propose with all the New England states – and we created a pooled health insurance marketplace, we might have eight million without Massachusetts. We could have 14 to 15 million with Massachusetts people. In there, we can spread the risk around and the costs should come down. I'm thinking way outside the box. I'm thinking way outside our borders to solve some of the really bad problems that we have at this point.
On the prospect of 30,000 Rhode Islanders losing Medicaid coverage
Block: One of the best ways to begin preparing for it is to look at how we're spending money now and identify places where we're not spending money where it has the impact that we need it to be having. We have a $15 billion budget, $5 billion on Medicaid. Let's just focus on Medicaid. I don't know when the last time was we just did a careful look to make sure that every program that we are sponsoring with Medicaid is having the intended outcome, that the people receiving whatever is happening are happy with it, that the providers are happy with it. And where we can identify programs that maybe should have been defunded some time ago, we should consider it so that we can put that money to use on other things.
On how to bring accountability to the Rhode Island Department of Transportation
Block: I think you have to start with accountability through the management layers. I'm not going to say I'm going to fire every manager who's there right now, but I'm going to talk to them very carefully, and we're going to understand where it went wrong and where we need to make changes. The agency failed at its mission and I see that as a failure of management more than anything else.
As I talk to the employees at DOT – a lot of them reached out to me over the years – I understand more and more this isn't a problem with the guys who wear the neon on the roads. This is absolutely, number one, a managerial problem and the answer is to make managerial changes wherever you have to, to fix it.
On why he’s running as an independent candidate
Block: I've been looking for a political home and I hadn't found it until I decided to run as an independent. (It’s) very difficult to practice politics in the middle from either party. The party system doesn't work for me. I am the most centrist person you're going to meet. I'm the least ideological person you're going to meet. Someone with those two main character traits (doesn't) really slot into either political party. It's a problem that a lot of people have at this point.
The parties are getting more extreme that you have to compromise your views more and more to win a primary. Without a primary here, I am positioned perfectly to appeal to voters on both sides of the political spectrum, and I have support across the political spectrum. This is what gives me the chance to truly win this race and to help the people of the state with the problems that they have seen gone unsolved for way too long.
