Name change, incumbent futures in Rhode Islanders' hands
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Islanders on Tuesday are picking a president, deciding whether to return a U.S. senator and two U.S. House members to Washington, and passing judgment on a ballot measure that would shorten the state's official name.
They're also voting for candidates for the state Legislature, where Democratic House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello faced a strong challenge from Republican Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung.
More than 300,000 voters already cast ballots early or mailed them in, and elections officials cautioned that results for some races might not be knowable on election night because of expected tabulation delays.
The outcome of the presidential race was in little doubt in Rhode Island, where President Donald Trump lost to Hillary Clinton by more than 15 percentage points in 2016. Rhode Island has backed a Republican for the White House only four times in the modern era — twice for Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956, once for Richard Nixon in 1972 and once for Ronald Reagan in 1984.
The U.S. Senate race in Rhode Island pitted longtime Democratic incumbent Jack Reed against Republican challenger Allen Waters, a perennial candidate who mounted earlier unsuccessful campaigns for the state Senate and U.S. Senate in Massachusetts.
Reed, first elected to the Senate in 1996, is a senior member of the powerful Appropriations Committee and a ranking member of the Armed Services Committee. Rhode Island's other U.S. senator, Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, isn't up for reelection until 2024.
In the U.S. House, Democratic Rep. David Cicilline, one of Trump’s harshest critics in Congress, faced independents Frederick Wysocki and Jeffrey Lemire in his bid for a fifth term representing the 1st Congressional District.
Longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin, the first quadriplegic lawmaker to serve in Congress, was up against Republican former state lawmaker Robert Lancia in the 2nd Congressional District. If reelected, Langevin would start his 11th term in January.
The sole statewide referendum on the ballot asked voters to shorten the state's official name, “The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,” to drop the plantations reference. Supporters argue that it evokes the slavery era and offends at a time when the nation is wrestling with racial injustice.
The state Legislature is in firm Democratic control, but one of the most closely watched races pitted Mattiello — House speaker since 2014 — against Fenton-Fung, a GOP activist and the wife of popular Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, who twice ran for governor.
The western Cranston district backed Trump for president in 2016, and Mattiello squeaked out a victory by just 329 votes in 2018.
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