According to a new poll, Rhode Island Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea continues to hold her lead over incumbent Gov. Dan McKee as the Democratic primary for governor enters its final six weeks.
An internal poll released by the Gorbea campaign found her leading the pack of Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls while notching a lead of 5 percentage points over McKee, a former lieutenant governor who took over the Rhode Island governorship in March 2021 to replace Gina Raimondo, whom the Senate confirmed as President Joe Biden’s commerce secretary. The poll comes as McKee has retaken the lead in the fundraising haul for the race ahead of the Sept. 13 primary election.
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The poll found Gorbea notching a 27% to 22% advantage over McKee among likely Democratic voters. Former CVS executive Helena Foulkes came in third with 14%, and former Secretary of State Matt Brown scored 7%. Some 22% of voters were undecided. The poll was conducted by Lake Research Partners from July 25 to July 27 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.38 percentage points.
A prior poll conducted in June has similarly pegged her with a 4-point edge over McKee, eclipsing him 24% to 20%. Recent financial disclosures revealed that McKee had captured the financial lead among his Democratic rivals with $1.2 million cash on hand by June 30, compared to Gorbea’s $786,000 cash on hand by the same time frame, WPRI reported. Foulkes, who had the lead in March, had $692,000 as of June 30, per the outlet.
McKee began airing TV ads last month as he seeks to fend off stiff competition from Gorbea, who has worked to brandish her liberal bona fides ahead of the primary election. In recent weeks, Gorbea has criticized McKee for not doing enough to push the state legislature to lift the state ban on abortion coverage for recipients of Medicaid and touted her environmentalist policies.
Although McKee was lieutenant governor, this is the first election he’s running for his own gubernatorial term.
Gorbea had announced her candidate to helm the Ocean State in May 2021, shortly after Raimondo departed the post. Rhode Island limits its governor to two consecutive four-year terms in office, so Raimondo would not have been eligible to compete for a third term in office this cycle.
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McKee has been endorsed by the state Democratic Party. He had been subject to speculation that he did not get on well with Raimondo partly due to the pair’s lack of public coordination during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state. Ultimately, they came together during the transition. So far, she has not issued an endorsement in the primary race.
Rhode Island is a heavily Democratic state, and the party’s nominee is expected to have an advantage over the Republican nominee, who also will be determined in the Sept. 13 primary.
