Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island’s incumbent Democrat senator, defeated challenger Michael Costa in the state Democratic primary.
In the Rhode Island Republican primary, State Representative. Patricia Morgan defeated Raymond McCay for the nomination.
Both Rhode Island Representatives Gabe Amo (D-R.I. 1) and Seth Magaziner (D-R.I. 2) ran uncontested in their Democratic primaries. Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.) will be up for reelection in 2026.
Whitehouse, who was first elected to the Senate in 2006, led the race with 85% of the vote against Costa, an investment manager for several not-for-profit organizations.
Close to 80,000 Rhode Islanders voted in the primary election, or around 10% voter turnout, according to the state’s Voter Turnout Tracker.
This year’s state primary saw a relative dip in voter turnout compared to previous years. State primaries saw 11.8% turnout in 2020, 19.8% turnout in 2018 and 8.9% turnout in 2016, according to the Department of State’s Elections and Voting Division.
Whitehouse and Costa could not be immediately reached for comment.
Whitehouse will now face Morgan in the general election on November 5. Morgan won 61.5% of the vote in the Republican Senate primary
In 2018, Whitehouse defeated Republican Senate nominee Robert Flanders with 61.4% of the vote, according to Ballotpedia.
Ken Hopkins, Cranston’s incumbent mayor, won a highly contested Republican mayoral primary against State Representative Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung (R-Cranston), WPRI projected. Hopkins won 58.8% of the vote and will face Democrat City Council Member Robert Ferri in November.
The state's primary was held alongside those of Delaware and New Hampshire. The results were announced shortly before the 2024 Presidential debates between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Tom Li is a Metro editor covering the health and environment and development and infrastructure beats. He is from Pleasanton, California, and is concentrating in Economics and International and Public Affairs. He is an avid RIPTA passenger and enjoys taking (and criticizing) personality tests in his free time.
