Democrat Helena Buonanno Foulkes will be Rhode Island's next governor. The Associated Press projected Foulkes the winner on Tuesday night, November 3, 2026 — Ocean State Media posted the call at 8:39 p.m. Eastern, 39 minutes after Rhode Island's polls closed — defeating independent Ken Block and Republican Aaron Guckian in Providence and across the country's smallest state. Foulkes, 62, a former CVS executive who has never held elected office, will become only the second woman to govern Rhode Island when she takes office in January. Her beaten rival Block had already telephoned her to concede by the time the call was posted, and gave his concession speech at 9:01 p.m. All election-night figures are unofficial until Rhode Island election officials certify the results.
The count behind the call was one-sided from the first returns. In the Associated Press tally Foulkes's 201,558 votes were about 57.6 per cent of the votes counted for the office, against Block's 97,667 (about 27.9 per cent) and Guckian's 46,294 (about 13.2 per cent), with the remaining votes split between independents C. Reynolds (2,000) and Jasjit Gotra (1,629) and 1,078 write-ins. Decision Desk HQ also recorded the race as decided, at 8:42 p.m. Eastern. A University of New Hampshire poll released on Sunday had pointed the same way, putting Foulkes at 55 per cent, Block at 34 per cent and Guckian at 8 per cent.
Speaking to cheering supporters at the Graduate Hotel in downtown Providence at 9:21 p.m., Governor-elect Foulkes said her victory reflected Rhode Islanders' desire for change, a more effective government and leadership they can trust. “We have to earn your trust,” she said. “I feel a deep responsibility, and I am going to work every single day on your behalf.” She told the crowd voters had made a choice about the kind of state they wanted Rhode Island to become, and reflected that she believed her late mother was looking down on her.
Source: Ocean State Media live updates — Foulkes victory speech, Graduate Hotel, Providence, 9:21 p.m. ET
First, she beat her own party's governor
Foulkes's road to the governor's office ran through one of the rarest results in American politics: she took the nomination away from a sitting governor of her own party. In the September 9 Democratic primary she defeated Governor Dan McKee by 62.5 per cent to 37.5 per cent, carrying all 39 of Rhode Island's cities and towns. McKee — whose popularity fell after the westbound Washington Bridge in Providence was abruptly closed over safety problems in 2023, and whose replacement project drew public anger over its cost and pace — became the first sitting Rhode Island governor to lose a primary in 32 years, and the first governor in any U.S. state to lose a party primary since 2018. In her primary victory speech Foulkes said: “Tonight, we may have won the Democratic primary for governor, but let me be clear about what happens next: You will have a governor for everyone.” McKee promised in his concession to work with her on a smooth transition.
It was also a rematch four years in the making. Foulkes first ran for governor in 2022 and narrowly lost that Democratic primary to McKee, who had taken office in 2021 when Governor Gina Raimondo left to join President Biden's cabinet. Before politics, Foulkes spent 25 years at Woonsocket-based CVS Health — one of the few large public companies headquartered in Rhode Island — rising to president of its retail pharmacy division, CVS Pharmacy, from 2014 to 2018, and then served as chief executive of the Canadian retailer Hudson's Bay before leaving in 2020. She is the granddaughter of former Connecticut U.S. Senator Thomas Dodd and the niece of former Senator Chris Dodd.
Source: The New England Signal — Foulkes biography (WPRI, Boston Globe reporting); AP primary report
McKee and other rivals attacked Foulkes's CVS record, questioning her handling of the opioid crisis while she led the pharmacy division — an allegation she disputes. Foulkes has argued that CVS reduced its opioid dispensing by 40 per cent while she was president of CVS Pharmacy. CVS agreed in 2022, after she had left the company, to pay $5 billion to settle nationwide opioid lawsuits without admitting wrongdoing. The exchange defined the primary, and Guckian and Block returned to questions of trust and competence in the general election.
What she has promised to do with the office
The Democratic National Committee's congratulatory statement set out the agenda her party expects her to run. DNC Chair Ken Martin said that as governor Foulkes “will tackle the affordability crisis head-on while expanding access to healthcare, improving public education, making housing and childcare more affordable, bringing down utility bills, creating good-paying jobs, supporting small businesses, and investing in communities across the state.” Her Republican opponent Guckian, who finished third, has worked as executive director of the Rhode Island Dental Association, as a development officer for the Rhode Island Foundation and as a special assistant to the state's last Republican governor. Block, who ran as an independent problem-solver, told his supporters in conceding to stay involved in politics even without holding office.
The rest of Rhode Island's night
Foulkes's win topped a Democratic sweep of the state's big races. Senator Jack Reed was projected by the AP to win re-election to a sixth term, defeating Republican Raymond McKay and independent Michael Bahry. In the U.S. House, Representative Gabe Amo won re-election in the 1st District and Representative Seth Magaziner won a third term in the 2nd District. Democrat Kim Ahern was projected to become the next Attorney General, Secretary of State Gregg Amore was re-elected unopposed, and in Providence, 28-year-old Democrat David Morales — who had beaten the incumbent mayor in the September primary — was projected to become the youngest mayor in the city's history.
Source: Ocean State Media live updates — Reed, Amo, Magaziner, Ahern, Amore and Morales calls, Nov. 3, 2026
For this site's readers, Rhode Island matters out of proportion to its size because of where it sits: Providence stands on Interstate 95, the main East Coast freight corridor, and the I-195 Washington Bridge crossing is the route trucks use across the city toward Massachusetts and Cape Cod. The bridge whose closure helped end Governor McKee's career is a working highway problem, not an abstract one — its replacement's cost, pace and lane closures will be one of the first files on Governor Foulkes's desk, and Punjabi-American truckers running the New York–Boston corridor feel every closure on that route. Her wider promises on utility bills, housing and small-business costs land in a state where many immigrant families run exactly those small businesses.
What happens next
Counting continues on the remaining ballots — the AP count already covered an estimated 93.82 per cent of the expected vote — and Rhode Island election officials will canvass and certify the result, converting Tuesday's projection into the official record. Foulkes takes office in January 2027, succeeding McKee and becoming the state's second woman governor after Gina Raimondo, who was first elected in 2014. Her first tests are the ones she named herself: rebuilding trust in a state government voters told pollsters they found ineffective, delivering the bridge replacement, and producing a first budget that matches the affordability promises — health care, housing, childcare, schools and utility bills — on which she and her party campaigned.
Source: Associated Press results and certification process; DNC statement on the Foulkes agenda