The abrupt closure of a crucial Rhode Island bridge in 2023 has cast a long shadow in the small state, driving traffic delays and fueling fury ever since.
It is also providing a dramatic backdrop for a close and heated primary showdown between Gov. Dan McKee, a Democrat seeking a second term, and Helena Foulkes, a former CVS executive who has sharply criticized the governor’s handling of the bridge saga.
Mr. McKee, 75, a former mayor and lieutenant governor, first assumed his post in 2021 when his predecessor, Gina Raimondo, was tapped by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to be the U.S. commerce secretary. He says that when an engineer revealed critical structural failures that could have caused the Washington Bridge in Providence to collapse, he took decisive action, putting public safety above his political future.
Ms. Foulkes, 62, who led the retail division at CVS, has alleged that the governor hid information about the bridge’s closure from the public, protected allies who should have been immediately fired once the structure’s risks were revealed, and added to costs and delays with politically driven decisions.
The governor has forcefully denied those claims and sought to turn voters’ attention to Ms. Foulkes’s leadership at CVS, asserting that she failed to do enough to stop the pharmacy chain from fueling the opioid addiction crisis. CVS agreed to pay $5 billion in 2022 to settle lawsuits over its role.
The race between the two Democrats is a replay of the primary in 2022, a year before the bridge was closed, when Mr. McKee barely eked out a win against Ms. Foulkes. This time, though, Mr. McKee is facing not just anger about the bridge, but a tide of national anti-incumbent sentiment.
A poll conducted this month by Emerson College showed Ms. Foulkes leading in their rematch by 15 points.
Experts said the race was likely to tighten as the primary, scheduled for Sept. 9, draws near. But Adam Myers, a political scientist at Providence College, said Ms. Foulkes’s apparent lead did not surprise him, given her strong showing four years ago and — fairly or unfairly — some voters’ inclination to blame Mr. McKee for the bridge closure and resulting traffic chaos.
Mr. McKee has maintained that his decisions regarding the bridge, which links Providence to its eastern suburbs, as well as to southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod, have been driven solely by the state’s best interest.
“I know there is a lot of frustration, and I accept it,” he said in an interview. “But in the end, people are going to realize we did the right thing.”
The state leans heavily Democratic; its last Republican governor left office in 2011. In the Republican primary, Elaine Pelino, a first-time candidate who describes herself as fully aligned with President Trump, has maintained a strong lead over Aaron Guckian, who ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 2022 and is more of a moderate.
The bridge drama began almost three years ago, when an engineer noticed irregularities. The subsequent discovery of critical failures in the 60-year-old westbound side of the bridge prompted its immediate closure; soon after, the state announced that it would be demolished and rebuilt, while the eastbound span was reconfigured to carry two-way traffic over the Seekonk River.
Mr. McKee faced criticism for keeping on the state’s transportation chief for more than two years after the closure. The state has sued more than a dozen companies that previously worked on the bridge, blaming them for failing to address its problems. The companies have argued in court that the state bore ultimate responsibility.
Mr. McKee stresses recent progress on the project, pointing to a $342 million federal investment in the work and describing it as ahead of schedule. . Demolition of the old bridge is complete and construction is underway on the substructure of the new bridge, scheduled for completion in 2028.
But voters like Artie Souza, 74, have yet to move on. Mr. Souza, a former Democrat who recently changed his status to unenrolled, and a retired truck driver from East Providence who commuted daily over the bridge, said he probably would have voted for Mr. McKee if not for the disruption.
“I’ll be nice and call it a fiasco,” he said. “Thank God I retired the year before. It took too long to fix, and he could have done better. He would be low on my list right now.”
Mr. McKee has emphasized his attention to working-class concerns, describing a record of new job creation and bigger investments in public education. His campaign has also emphasized Ms. Foulkes’s wealth and corporate ties, calling her an elitist who wants to “buy” the election. She ran the retail division at CVS, with 200,000 employees, from 2014 to 2018.
“I’m the governor for the people, and she’s the governor for corporate interests,” he said in an interview. “This is a very winnable race — the people know I’m one of them.”
Ms. Foulkes’s uncle is former Senator Chris Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut; Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, was her mother’s college roommate and is scheduled to appear at a rally with Ms. Foulkes in Providence on Sunday.
Ms. Foulkes has defended her record as a corporate leader. In a recent interview, she said CVS cut its dispersal of opioids by almost 40 percent during her tenure. She also criticized Mr. McKee for attacking her former employer, which is the largest corporation headquartered in Rhode Island. “People are upset he’s going to drive CVS away,” she said.
But Rhonda Pimentel, 61, an unenrolled voter from East Providence, was more upset by the possibility that Ms. Foulkes could have done more to stem the opioid crisis, which hit New England hard in the mid-2010s.
“I don’t like it,” Ms. Pimentel said. “I didn’t like it when it happened.”
Parked outside a supermarket after shopping, she said that she would reluctantly vote for Mr. McKee, despite her desire for “new blood,” because she did not feel that she could trust Ms. Foulkes.
Tony Soares, 57, an unenrolled voter from Providence, said he supported Ms. Foulkes because he thought she would get things done.
Standing on the riverfront in East Providence, where cranes towered over the bridge construction site and two-way traffic flowed steadily over the eastbound span, Mr. Soares said he did not blame Mr. McKee for the bridge’s failure.
Still, he said, it felt as if the governor should go.
“I think we’re in a time when everyone wants a change, a disruption,” Mr. Soares said. “She’s that disruption.”
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