PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Rhode Island voters are choosing between Democratic incumbents asking for more time and Republican challengers calling for change.
Polls close at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Voters are deciding between Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo and Republican Allan Fung. Independent Joe Trillo could act as a spoiler.
Raimondo and Fung were their parties’ nominees in 2014. Raimondo won with 41 percent of the vote over Fung’s 36 percent, in a three-way race.
Raimondo, the state’s first female governor, is seeking a second term. Fung is the mayor of Cranston. If elected, he would become the state’s first Asian-American governor. Trillo is a former state lawmaker who left the Republican Party to run for governor as an independent.
Also at the top of the ballot, Democratic U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse faces Republican challenger Bob Flanders, a former state Supreme Court justice.
Rhode Island’s two representatives in the U.S. House, Democratic Reps. James Langevin and David Cicilline, also face Republican challengers. Voters will choose between Langevin, who’s seeking a 10th term, and Republican Salvatore Caiozzo, a retired businessman, and between Cicilline, who’s seeking a fifth term, and Republican Patrick Donovan, a stay-at-home father.
The hypercharged national political environment is expected to drive record turnout in some places. Forty-four percent of Rhode Island’s registered voters cast ballots in 2014. Sixty percent voted in the 2016 presidential election.
Rhode Island has nearly 790,000 registered voters, of which about 45 percent are unaffiliated, 42 percent are Democrat and 13 percent are Republican.
Question 1 on the ballot asks voters’ permission to spend $250 million over five years to help municipalities build new schools and renovate existing facilities as part of a 10-year plan.
In local races, one of Rhode Island’s most powerful politicians, Democratic House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello, is up for re-election in his Cranston district against a Republican rival that came close to beating him in 2016, Steven Frias. Democratic Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza faces independent Dee Dee Witman.
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For AP’s complete coverage of the U.S. midterm elections: http://apne.ws/APPolitics
