As Rhode Island inches closer to summer, primary-campaign season is starting to heat up.
The race for the Democratic nomination to be the next governor of Rhode Island is in full swing. Incumbent Gov. Dan McKee has trailed challenger Helena Foulkes, a former CVS executive, in recent polls. And the two are poised to slug it out ahead of the primary on Sept. 9. In a state that has elected all Democrats to statewide offices in recent years, winning the Democratic primary could go a long way in determining the next governor.
Ocean State Media political reporter Ian Donnis sat down separately with Foulkes and McKee to discuss their ideas for how to improve the state.
Interview highlights
On studies that suggest the Rhode Island economy has lost ground in recent years
Gov. Dan McKee: Look, there’s challenges. There’s no question about that. Rhode Island has always been the first in and last out of economic downturns. That’s not the case right now. We know that there’s other states that struggle a great deal more than we’re struggling right now. And the progress that we’ve made – bringing in companies like Amazon, bringing in companies like Anduril for the maritime defense (industry), bringing in companies like Organogenesis in the life sciences. Life science alone has doubled the amount of jobs since I’ve been (in office.)
Helena Foulkes: I just launched my policy around jobs in the economy and I call it Believe in Rhode Island. And the reason I call it that is I really do believe that we’ve got to invest in our greatest strengths and invest in our people.
From my perspective, our greatest strengths are the ocean economy. I’ve proposed $150 million ocean economy bond to invest in infrastructure to keep that going. But at the same time, I want to invest in our people so that they can get great-paying jobs in all of the sectors of the state. So for example, I’ve proposed a hundred-million-dollar career and technical education bond because I think the best way we prepare our kids for great futures is to give them the skills in high school for a really good-paying job. We have a lot of things going for us, but we’ve got to be investing in education to support our children and childcare.
On the 40,000 Rhode Islanders at risk of losing health insurance due to Trump administration cuts
McKee: We’re going to handle this in a way that makes sense...We’re fighting Trump every single day and our budget reflects that.
We increased the amount of money that they went to the Rhode Island Food Bank. We increased the amount of dollars that are going to keep about 20,000 people on the health exchange – that was approved; I proposed that. That was approved by the General Assembly.
We’ve also put more money into uncompensated care as a direct result of Trump removing health insurance from, as you say, thousands of people. We’re going to hit those who are really in need most, and I’m pleased that we’re going to keep 20,000 people on health insurance.
On how to improve Rhode Island’s public education system
Foulkes: Well, it’s very hard. I mean, if you look at Massachusetts, it took them 25 years to get where they are.
I believe the most important thing we’ve got to do is make sure that our principals and our teachers are really well supported. A lot of what I think we have done because of all the problems is we have put so much structure on top that we’re not allowing teachers to be the teachers that they can be. They bring great skills and expertise. We’ve got a tremendous amount of administrative overhead driving all of this. So I look forward to really focusing on this. We’re leaving a lot of kids behind and there’s so much more we can do to lift up education in this state.
