Just like that, a brand new political year is here, with all the promise and challenge of trying to make gains on thorny issues.
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1. STORY OF THE WEEK: If all other things were equal, closing the projected $100 million deficit facing Rhode Island for the fiscal year starting July 1 would be a walk in the park, relative to prior budget holes. But the Trump administration cuts pose a massive X factor of uncertainty as the Ocean State starts the new year, especially when it comes to Rhode Islanders’ access to healthcare. For now, it’s unclear when the state may get more clarity on how federal cuts will manifest here. “I think it’s evolving, I think it’s changing, it’s being reviewed and interpreted,” House Speaker Joe Shekarchi told me this week after the opening legislative session of 2026. “To the best of my knowledge they have not issued a lot of regulations around it yet, so we are waiting for federal guidance.” Of course, this is an election year, and Gov. Dan McKee has a chance to burnish his case for re-election during his State of the State address at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Shekarchi will watch from the rostrum in the House chamber as he continues to ponder the question of whether to join McKee and Helena Foulkes in the Democratic primary for governor.
2. STATE OF THE STATE: Gov. McKee is clearly no fan of President Trump, but the two men face a similar challenge: making their skeptical constituents think things are better than they think they are. A significant hurdle for McKee is how voters’ views of the Washington Bridge situation are baked in and based on firsthand experience. The governor nonetheless has a chance on Tuesday to make his pitch. In one change from the past, McKee has already signaled his support for a millionaire’s tax, and it would not be a surprise if he proposes a half-billion or so of bond issues to invest in Rhode Island’s future. For her part, Foulkes released a statement sketching her budget priorities (without explaining how to get these done): Address the RI healthcare crisis; tackle rising costs; hold state leaders accountable for the Washington Bridge failure; return Providence and Central Falls School Districts to local control; end pay-to-play politics with ethics, campaign finance, and lobbying reform. In related news, the RI ACLU announced that protesters will have access to the Statehouse rotunda during this year’s State of the State address,
3. REALITY CHECK: New year, persistent problems. Rhode Island’s structural deficit means ongoing deficits will greet lawmakers as they return to the Statehouse every January. The state remains in the early innings of trying to make headway against crises involving housing and healthcare. And amid talk of a new way of funding public education, efforts to improve public schools have yielded little progress after decades of rhetoric.
4. STATE OF THE NATION: Minnesota and federal officials are no longer cooperating on the ICE shooting investigation. In Providence, hundreds of people gathered to protest the killing of Renee Nicole Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer.
5. AFTERMATH: Brown University this week unveiled a healing and recovery effort known as Brown Ever True. “There is no playbook for what we have been through as a community,” Brown President Christina Paxson wrote in a message to the campus community. “There is no single source of truth for how any of us should heal. No ‘one path’ to begin again, or ‘right way’ to find peace, solace and joy. But we are Brown — the enduring strength of our caring and supportive community has long been a hallmark of who we are. Ever true.” The response to last month’s shooting will include heightened security and closing portions of the Barus & Holley Building where the attack took place. In related news, the man responsible for the attacks showed no remorse for his actions, in recordings made shortly before he killed himself.
6. THE GOP FUTURE: RI GOP Chairman Joe Powers announced this week he is leaving the post, effective Jan. 15, after about two years on the job. As it stands, Republicans hold 14 of 113 legislative seats, 10 in the House of Representatives and 4 in the Senate. Allyn Meyers of Tiverton, who ran a losing bid against state Sen. Wally Felag (D-Warren) in 2024, has indicated his interest in the gig. In a post on Facebook, he touted his leadership of the chairs’ caucus in working with colleagues to raise funding and enhancing the party’s footprint in Newport, Middletown, Central Falls, Cumberland, East Providence and Woonsocket. Ken Naylor Jr., head of the Rhode Island Young Republicans, said he’s had encouraging conversations while considering pursuing the GOP chairmanship: “I’m proud of the work we’ve done with the Rhode Island Young Republicans,” he said via email. “I’m thankful for the people who believed in the mission and helped move the organization forward over the last few years, in a state Democrats treated like a playground for too long – and it’s time to put an end to that. The RI Young Republicans took public stands with discipline and purpose, focused on recruiting members and candidates, and delivered a record fundraising year. That experience reinforced something I already believe: parties win when they are organized, consistent, and willing to show up year-round. I’ll be making an announcement about my decision to run for chair in the near future.”
7. ON THE RISE: State Rep. Marie Hopkins (R-Warwick) was the lone House Republican to vote for the budget last year – a decision she based on the amount of healthcare in the spending plan. Hopkins lost to Democratic Rep. Camille Vella-Wilkinson by 38 votes in 2022, and then vaulted into the seat when CVW decided not to seek re-election in 2024. During an interview this week on One on One, Hopkins said she was motivated to run in part by concerns that her daughters might leave Rhode Island due to better economic conditions elsewhere (they decided to stay). Asked how the experience of serving as a state lawmaker compares with what she expected, Hopkins said, “I was anxious and I didn’t know what to expect. You have some notions of what it’s gonna be, and of course that’s never what it is, right? So we went up there and I found I’m not going to be a great change maker. I’m going to be part of a system. And in some essence, not to be negative, but in some ways you’re a cog in a very big machine. You’re not the machine, right? So I (was) determined to be the best cog I could and do the best work possible. I found that despite the differences of ideology, there’s an incredible sense of camaraderie, and I didn’t expect that. That was the most wonderful, formative epiphany for me was, ‘Wow, they are cohesive. They are working together.’ Not that they agree on every issue. There’s plenty of infighting. You’ve seen it, you know, but a lot of cohesion. So that was a surprise. It was a pleasant surprise.” Sen. Victoria Gu (D-Westerly) also joined me on One on One, to talk about AI and other issues.
8. JANUARY 6TH: As the fifth anniversary of the attack on the Capitol was marked this week, Democratic U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner issued a statement to say in part: “Five years ago today, more than 2,000 insurrectionists violently attacked the United States Capitol and the law enforcement officers sworn to protect it. On this solemn anniversary, we must not allow anyone to rewrite the history of what happened. January 6 was a violent attempt to overturn the peaceful transfer of power and deny the American people the right to choose our own leaders. President Trump fanned the flames of the riot by lying about the outcome of the election. Our country can only survive as a democracy as long as our leaders put the will of the voters ahead of their own electoral self-interest.” Magaziner’s Republican opponent, Victor Mellor, used X to say, “January 6th needs to be remembered for why it happened. Regarding the how, the DOJ is currently investigating the illegal government involvement and its cover-up. Yes, the 2020 election was stolen. That in itself wasn’t why millions of Americans rallied in DC. It was the blatant corruption at both the state and the federal level. Accountability has to happen. Our corrupt government and its media accomplices destroyed and bankrupted America’s Mayor Rudy Giuliani and many other America-loving patriots…”
9. LOCAL MOTION: A coalition of transit groups presented data this week linking cuts to RIPTA’s budget with a significant decline in ridership. As Ben Berke reports, “The coalition attributes the drop to the budget deficit that the governor and legislative leaders left for RIPTA at the end of the last legislative session. In response to the budget deficit, RIPTA implemented the largest service reduction in the agency’s 59-year history in September 2025, affecting 45 of the 63 routes in the system. Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said the slimmer budget was aimed at ‘right-sizing’ the transit agency.”
10. RI POLI-MEDIA PEOPLE ON THE MOVE: Former RI Gov. Gina Raimondo told an interviewer that she doesn’t want to be a CEO and remains open to running for president, adding, “I think it’s a job that I would know how to do.” …. Joe Pratt, who served as CoS during Raimondo’s time as state treasurer and later led the Boys & Girls Club of Newport County, is now senior advisor to the president/CoS at Rhode Island College …. Alex Lucini is now government relations director for the National Education Association Rhode Island …. Alex Nunes, a former reporter and editor with Ocean State Media known for his coverage of coastal access issues, has signed on as executive editor with the Westerly Sun …. State Rep. Chris Paplauskas (R-Cranston) has a new gig as deputy chief of staff for Cranston Mayor Ken Hopkins …. Carolyn Jackson is the new president/COO for Kent Hospital. She was previously CEO of an Encompass Health rehabilitation hospital in Braintree, MA.
11. LOCAL FLAVOR: Bit by bit, more of old Rhode Island slips away. The latest instance involves Loui’s Family Restaurant, “an eccentric greasy spoon in the shadow of Brown University, (which) was a melting pot of Ivy League students, artists, cops, truck drivers and anyone else who might be hungry for a 5 a.m. meal.” Give a listen to Ben Berke’s sound-rich story to get a last virtual bite of pancakes.
12. VENEZUELA: Stephen Kinzer, a former Latin America correspondent for The New York Times who is now a senior fellow at Brown’s Watson Institute, spoke with NPR’s Steve Inskeep about the U.S. move to oust and prosecute Nicolas Maduro. Excerpt: “All empires distinguish themselves from all other empires. Each empire wants to think, ‘We do it differently. We’re not there for our own greedy purposes. We are there to help the local people.’ This is a great form of self-deception. But in the long run, these are all interventions aimed at assuring American control over resources and markets. So that runs against the natural anti-imperialist instinct that has been inbred into Latin Americans over many centuries. Whole generations of Venezuelan kids have grown up admiring Simon Bolivar. Why? Because he resisted foreign influence over Venezuela. So this is still a volatile situation.”
13. MOTHER OCEAN: Ocean State: Rhode Island’s Wild Coast premieres tonight on Ocean State Media. Luis Hernandez spoke with filmmaker Tomas Koeck about the project.
14. KICKER: It’s a Wonderful Life, the 1946 gem from Frank Capra, stands up to repeated viewings, particularly in an era likened by some to a new Gilded Age. But did you know that the husband and wife scriptwriters who worked on the film vacationed in Little Compton? And that George Bailey and Mary Bailey are buried in the church cemetery on the town common. Pamela Watts has more on how a small Rhode Island community is connected to the beloved movie.
