Dan McKee emphasizes ‘glass half-full’ perspective in re-election bid for governor
Tim Yean
Managing Editor
Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee sees a parallel between his situation and the 33rd President of the United States, Harry S. Truman.
Both were in the second-highest roles of their respective situations. Truman became president at the tail-end of World War II; McKee became governor amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Truman claimed an underdog victory over Thomas E. Dewey in his bid for a full term in 1948. Will Dan McKee replicate that underdog story in his re-election bid come Primary Day?
The sitting governor took the time to sit down with Anchor TV Interviews in a last-minute opportunity to make his case to voters and secure the Democratic nomination over primary rival Helena Foulkes, in which McKee prevailed by just over 3,000 votes in 2022’s primary.
Governor Dan McKee sees Rhode Island’s situation as a glass half-full, with the state continuing to make progress instead of losing ground.
“[We've] got more to fill up the glass,” McKee said.
McKee argues that a win for Foulkes would take away the progress that his administration has made throughout his five years as governor.
“The way I’m looking at it right now is that I’m pushing a boulder up a hill,” McKee told Anchor TV. “And if you take my hands off it, that boulder’s going to roll down a hill.”
McKee said that throughout Foulkes’ campaign, the former CVS executive and Hudson’s Bay Company CEO has been unnecessarily negative on the state’s progress and has not recognized the improvements that the governor has brought to the state.
“It really disturbs me to be in a campaign where my opponent continues to trash everything about the state of Rhode Island, including its schools, and not recognize anything I’ve said during this interview that has really positioned us in this place that we’ve never been before, and we have the ability to grow from that point.”
Education took center stage throughout the interview as the governor highlighted new additions in each of Rhode Island’s major public institutions, from the RI Promise and Hope Scholarships of the Community College of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College to the University of Rhode Island’s number one public university ranking in New England.
In particular, with Rhode Island College, the governor noted the new life science building and a future cybersecurity building on campus as a showcase that the McKee administration is focused on improving higher education.
“Rhode Island College is in a lot better shape today than when I went into office,” McKee emphasized. “Rhode Island College was really struggling.”
Asked about the Providence Public School District handover back to the city, the governor looked at improved graduation and attendance rates and new/renovated schools in Providence as reasons that the return to city control was warranted.
“Now it’s up to a new set of leadership to take us up to the next level, and I’m confident that’s going to happen.”
Nationwide, McKee says that his strategy in the Rhode Island-Washington, D.C., relationship is better suited to support Rhode Islanders, working with President Donald Trump when possible but also pushing back when necessary. He contrasts to Foulkes’ position, in which he believes that she holds a sense of superiority over others, and that if Foulkes applied her level of rhetoric to the President the same way she did to McKee during the campaign and debates, it wouldn’t work out.
“This is the way Helena Foulkes thinks: she thinks she’s better than you, and she thinks she’s better than me,” McKee said. “The way I was growing up, you’re no better than me, and I’m no better than you. And I [apply that] whether I’m meeting with the President of the United States or meeting with different local laborers that are rebuilding this state.”
In other statewide races, the governor has thrown his support to current incumbents, highlighting Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos, with whom the governor highlighted an improved relationship as compared to his relationship with Gina Raimondo when she was in the governor’s office.
“[Raimondo and I] rarely spoke, rarely was in the same company,” McKee remembers. “I’ve made an effort, and so has Lieutenant Governor Matos, to make sure we meet on a regular basis.”
In his own race, the governor, despite polls showing the latter, is optimistic in his chances of obtaining the nomination and his second term, as implied in his response as to whether he is willing to work with Foulkes post-primary, no matter the outcome.
“Well, I expect that she’ll be working with me,” McKee confidently replied. “Because I’ll be winning this campaign.”
Early voting runs until Sept. 8 at 4 pm. The primary election for both Democrat and Republican parties is Wednesday, Sept. 9. Find your polling place at vote.ri.gov.
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