Rhode Island's Democratic governor lost his own party's primary by a 25-point margin, the first sitting governor anywhere in the country to be denied renomination since 2018.

Helena Buonanno Foulkes, a former CVS executive, defeated incumbent Gov. Dan McKee in Wednesday's Democratic gubernatorial primary, leading 62% to 37% with 80% of the vote counted just before 9 p.m., the Washington Examiner reported. The rout was not a surprise. Foulkes held a 38-point lead in pre-election polling, and McKee carried a 24% approval rating, one of the lowest of any governor in the nation.

McKee's defeat makes him the first sitting governor in any U.S. state to lose a party primary since 2018, and the first Rhode Island governor beaten in a primary in more than 30 years. It also adds his name to a growing list of incumbents ousted during the 2026 primary season, a pattern that has cut across party lines but hit Democratic officeholders with particular force.

A bridge collapse sank McKee's standing

The single biggest weight around McKee's neck was the Washington Bridge, a critical span that was abruptly closed over structural safety concerns in December 2023 and remains under reconstruction. The closure created punishing commute times for Rhode Islanders, and public frustration with the project's cost and pace followed McKee into the primary. AP News reported that the controversy dogged McKee throughout the campaign.

McKee tried to defend his record. In a statement, the governor argued he had acted decisively:

"The Washington Bridge was a disaster. I shut it down to keep us safe, secured federal funding and we're on pace to complete the bridge ahead of schedule."

Voters did not buy it. The margin told the story more plainly than any rebuttal could.

Foulkes, for her part, framed the race as a referendum on an insular state government. She told supporters during the campaign that ordinary Rhode Islanders felt shut out:

"People feel like state government just works with a powerful few. They don't think it's working for them."

Foulkes came back four years after a narrow loss

Wednesday's blowout was a rematch. In 2022, Foulkes placed a close second behind McKee in a five-way Democratic primary, losing by only a few percentage points. She spent the intervening years building name recognition and watching McKee's approval crater. By the time the 2026 cycle arrived, the outcome was never really in doubt.

McKee himself was never elected governor in the traditional sense the first time around. He was elevated to the office in 2021 after then-Gov. Gina Raimondo left to become President Biden's Commerce Secretary. He won a full term in 2022, but that narrow primary victory over Foulkes foreshadowed the vulnerability that finally caught up with him.

The trend of Democratic voters rejecting their own incumbents is not confined to Rhode Island. In Missouri, Wesley Bell crushed Cori Bush's comeback bid in that state's Democratic primary, another sign that the party's base is willing to punish its own.

Providence's mayor fell the same night

McKee was not the only Rhode Island Democrat shown the door on Wednesday. The mayor of Providence also lost his reelection bid in the same primary, Breitbart reported, signaling a broader voter rejection of Democratic incumbents across the state. When two top officeholders in the same small state get tossed on the same night, voters are sending a message that goes beyond any single bridge project.

Nationally, the pattern has been hard to miss. In New York, Brad Lander ousted Dan Goldman in a Democratic primary, continuing a cycle in which the party's own voters have turned on sitting officeholders with increasing regularity.

In her victory speech, Foulkes struck a unifying tone, or tried to. Fox News reported her remarks to supporters:

"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's concession was brief and subdued. He acknowledged the loss without excuses:

"This is something that I think is difficult to deal with, but we just got to hold our heads high."

Democrats keep eating their own, and the reasons keep piling up

McKee's defeat fits a pattern that Democratic leaders would prefer to ignore. Across the country, Democratic primary voters have grown increasingly willing to fire incumbents who fail to deliver results, or who simply become liabilities. In Pennsylvania, Democrats turned on Sen. John Fetterman after leaked texts exposed a pattern of dodging constituents, another case of the party base losing patience with its own.

What makes McKee's loss stand out is the sheer scale of it. A 25-point defeat is not a close call or a protest vote. It is a repudiation. Rhode Island is a small, deep-blue state where a Democratic governor should be able to coast to renomination. McKee could not, because his record, particularly on the Washington Bridge, gave voters a concrete, daily reason to be angry.

Just The News noted that McKee is now the first sitting governor anywhere in the country to lose a primary in eight years, a distinction that underscores how badly he misread his own electorate. The last governor to suffer that fate was in 2018, and the rarity of the event makes McKee's failure all the more striking.

Foulkes will now carry the Democratic banner into the general election. Her Republican opponent has yet to draw significant national attention, but in a state as blue as Rhode Island, the primary was always the main event.

Internal Democratic tensions have surfaced elsewhere, too. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez faulted her own party for shielding President Biden from a real primary challenge, a complaint that reflects the same restlessness now playing out in state-level races across the country.

When your own voters reject you by 25 points, the problem is not messaging or timing. It is governance. Rhode Island Democrats decided their governor was not up to the job, and they did not need Republicans to tell them so.