Helena Foulkes wins Rhode Island governor race, becoming the state’s second woman governor
Democrat Helena Foulkes has won election as Rhode Island’s next governor, defeating independent Ken Block and Republican Aaron Guckian and completing a comeback four years after her first near-miss campaign.
Democrat Helena Foulkes has won election as Rhode Island’s next governor, defeating independent Ken Block and Republican Aaron Guckian in Tuesday’s general election.
The Associated Press called the race for Foulkes on Tuesday evening, and with 98.3 per cent of precincts reporting she held 57.5 per cent of the vote, against 28 per cent for Block and 13.2 per cent for Guckian, according to the Providence Journal’s results. Block conceded the race on Tuesday night, telling supporters he had called Foulkes to congratulate her.
Foulkes, 62, will become only the second woman to serve as Rhode Island’s governor, following Gina Raimondo, who was first elected in 2014. She will take office in January, succeeding the incumbent she defeated in the Democratic primary.
A former senior executive at CVS Health and the retailer Hudson’s Bay, Foulkes has never held elected office. She is also the granddaughter of the late US Senator Thomas J. Dodd and the niece of former Senator Christopher J. Dodd, giving her one of the most prominent political family names in New England even as she campaigned as an outsider to elected office.
Her path to the governor’s office ran through a decisive Democratic primary in September, when she defeated incumbent Governor Dan McKee by about 25 percentage points, carrying all 39 of the state’s cities and towns. She had lost narrowly to McKee in the 2022 primary, and she effectively never stopped campaigning after that defeat, entering the 2026 race with a head start and leading in every publicly released poll from that point on.
The general election was nevertheless described as hard-fought. Polls in the closing days showed Block, a 61-year-old software company owner who had left the Republican Party to run as an independent, closing the gap, and Foulkes outspent him by about 6.2 million dollars to about 383,000 dollars in 2026.
One late complication for Foulkes was news that CVS had agreed to pay 315 million dollars to settle a 2024 Department of Justice lawsuit alleging that the pharmacy chain had unlawfully filled medically unnecessary prescriptions for addictive opioid painkillers. The settlement, from her former employer, became a line of attack in the final stretch, though it did not prevent her victory.
Speaking to cheering supporters on Tuesday night, Foulkes said her victory reflected Rhode Islanders’ desire for change, for a more effective government and for leadership they can trust. The Democratic National Committee congratulated her on keeping the seat in Democratic hands, saying she would tackle the affordability crisis, expand access to healthcare, improve public education and bring down utility bills.
Rhode Island now faces a transition in January, when Foulkes will take over a state grappling with housing and childcare costs, education pressures and the same affordability concerns that dominated campaigns across the country in the midterms.
Her win also adds to the Democrats’ tally of governor’s seats on a night when the party flipped Georgia and held several other governorships, even as the overall battle for control of Congress remained unresolved while counting continued in other states.
More in USA
Photo: File:United States Senate Floor.jpg
USAAbdul El-Sayed becomes first Muslim elected to the US Senate after winning Michigan seat
Democrat Abdul El-Sayed has defeated Republican Mike Rogers to win Michigan’s open US Senate seat, becoming the first Muslim elected to the chamber in American history.
Photo: The dome of the United States Capitol (file image)
USADemocrats sweep both houses of Congress in midterm landslide, handing Trump a major rebuke
Democrats have won control of both the US Senate and the House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections, flipping seats in Texas, Kansas, Maine and other Republican-leaning states.
Photo: The Ohio State Capitol in Columbus (file image)
USAAmy Acton wins Ohio governor race, beating Vivek Ramaswamy to become first woman elected to the job
Democrat Amy Acton has defeated Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio, becoming the first woman ever elected governor of the state and the first Democrat to win the office in 20 years.