Helena Foulkes touts new ideas, voices and attitudes in second run for RI governor
Tim Yean
Managing Editor
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – When Nancy Pelosi became the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2007, Helena Buonanno Foulkes said that for her mother, it was one of the top ten days of pride in her life.
Now, Foulkes will be trying to match up to that level of pride this coming Wednesday in her bid for the Democratic nomination for Rhode Island governor.
The former CVS executive and Hudson’s Bay CEO sat down with Anchor TV Interviews the week before Primary Day in a last-minute opportunity to convince Democrat voters that she is the change the state needs, and leave in the dust a 2022 primary loss in which she fell to the incumbent McKee by about 3,000 votes.
Foulkes told Anchor TV Interviews that the current administration is not doing enough for Rhode Islanders of all ages to keep housing costs down and maintain a healthy economy.
“I do want to make [Rhode Island] a great place,” Foulkes said. “But I know it’s not working for enough people.”
She added that she has talked to a lot of people that say they won’t vote in the primary because they think it doesn’t affect their livelihoods.
“That really hurts me,” Foulkes said when talking about those who decided not to head to the polls. “I think with my background, I can do so much for working families.”
On higher education, Foulkes focused on her plans to create opportunities outside of higher education, such as in the trades by building up Career and Technical Education programs. On the Hope Scholarship of Rhode Island College, which provides students’ last two years of their degree tuition-free granted they work in the state, she said she opts to take a step back and look at where improvements could be made.
“I need to be hearing from [college students] to help me understand what that looks like,” Foulkes emphasized. “Making sure we have great graduation rates, that students here are supported, to be able to afford school, but also get a great job afterwards.”
For public schools and incentivizing teachers to work in the state, Foulkes cited mental health support for students as being a need for attention, and improving starting pay for teachers, which she says lags behind Massachusetts and Connecticut’s starting salaries.
“The starting salary in those two states is $20,000 more than the starting salary in Rhode Island,” Foulkes exclaimed. “We’ve got to make sure that we’re focused as much on our young teacher as all [teachers] and creating a pipeline where those teachers want to stay here.”
In the discussion around the state’s relationship with Washington, D.C., Foulkes said she wants to collaborate with fellow New England governors in combating President Donald Trump’s “bully” administration.
“I think the most effective way you push back against a bully is you have people you’re standing with, you’re not alone,” Foulkes said. “I want to team up even more with the other governors in New England. We have some amazing Democratic governors and I look forward to working with them even more to make sure we’re pushing back on Trump.”
In an effort to combat the administration on taking away Medicaid from Rhode Islanders, calling for Medicaid navigators to assist people in filling out “complicated” paperworks that pushes them away from applying.
“I’ve done this in my past, we should be doing this now,” said Foulkes. “Leveraging the faith-based community, leveraging senior daycares, just places where people trust the folks working there, where we can show them how to do the paperwork and we don’t let them get kicked off.”
When asked on extending an “olive branch” to Governor McKee, regardless of the outcome of Primary Day’s results, she said she would be willing to work with him, and if she were to lose, endorse him.
Referencing her prior loss to McKee in 2022, Foulkes says that her biggest lesson that she learned after was to listen to more people’s stories, the defeat presenting an opportunity for her to be aware of the current situations Rhode Islanders face.
“I showed up at places where people least expected me to be and I listened,” Foulkes replied. “I’ve been so moved by the people of this state who really, really love being here. They think about their children, their grandchildren. They say, ‘gosh, you know, this is an amazing state, but it needs to be better for all of us.’ So I think that has made me a better candidate, but more importantly, I think it’ll make me a better governor when I win, I really do.”
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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