Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee said Wednesday it is “very likely” he’ll enter the Democratic primary race for the state’s U.S. Senate seat against the same man who ousted him 12 years ago, according to local media.
Chafee is considering a Senate bid after polls indicated incumbent Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., was slipping in job approval ratings, per WPRI.
Chafee also said that Bernie Sanders fans have continued to hold a grudge against Whitehouse for his endorsement of Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to the report.
“Their motivation was that Sheldon Whitehouse had voted for Hillary Clinton at the Democratic convention even though almost every city and town in Rhode Island had supported Senator Sanders in our Democratic primary for president,” Chafee told WPRI.
Chafee’s statements mark a change since he suggested in 2017 that he was thinking about running for governor again.
Chafee, 65, clinched the governor’s mansion as an independent in 2010 but joined the Democratic Party in 2013 while still in office.
He then launched a failed campaign for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.
Chafee previously served in the U.S. Senate from 1999 to 2007 as a Republican.
