By PHILIP MARCELO, The Associated Press
Rhode Island resumed vote counting Wednesday after record turnout that delivered its four electoral votes to Joe Biden and returned all three of the state’s congressional Democrats to Washington.
Democratic House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello lost to Republican activist Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung, who outpolled him in a district in western Cranston that backed Donald Trump for president for a second time.
“While I wish last night’s outcome had been different, it in no way diminishes the privilege of serving in the House for so long. It’s been a good run,” Mattiello told supporters.
Rhode Islanders were also awaiting the fate of a referendum to drop a “Plantations” reference from the state’s official name. A similar measure was defeated a decade ago, but the campaign was resurrected earlier this year amid national anguish over racial injustice.
Republicans are vastly outnumbered in the state Legislature, but Fenton-Fung’s victory Tuesday is sure to trigger a power struggle among House Democrats.
The Rhode Island Democratic Women’s Caucus tweeted its support for state Rep. Liana Cassar, a Barrington Democrat first elected in 2018. The organization, which advocates for more Democratic women to run for elected office, said Cassar would “bring integrity” to the House chamber and a “fresh, honest perspective.”
But House Majority Leader Joseph Shekarchi, a Warwick Democrat who is Mattiello’s second-in-command, is expected to also seek the position, which is considered one of the most powerful in the state because of the House’s influence on the state budget. He didn’t respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday.
Fenton-Fung, a 39-year-old physical therapist and the wife of longtime Cranston Mayor Allan Fung — a popular two-time GOP gubernatorial candidate — had repeatedly called attention to scandals that have dogged Mattiello, including the money laundering trial of former campaign aide Jeffrey Britt.
More than 480,000 voters cast ballots, besting the state’s previous all-time high of more than 475,000 in 2008, when Democrat Barack Obama was elected president, according to preliminary tallies from Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea’s office as polls closed.
The office said the final voter turnout count would be higher as provisional ballots, mail ballots placed in drop boxes on election day and ballots cast by voters still in line after polls close were added to the overall count Wednesday.
Elections officials had cautioned that results for some races might not be knowable on election night because of expected tabulation delays following a surge in mail-in and early in-person votes due to coronavirus concerns.
The outcome of the presidential race was in little doubt in Rhode Island, where Trump lost to Hillary Clinton by more than 15 percentage points in 2016. Rhode Island has backed a Republican for the White House only four times in the modern era — twice for Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952 and 1956, once for Richard Nixon in 1972 and once for Ronald Reagan in 1984.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Jack Reed defeated Republican challenger Allen Waters, a perennial candidate who mounted earlier unsuccessful campaigns for the state Senate and U.S. Senate in Massachusetts.
Reed, first elected to the Senate in 1996, is a senior member of the powerful Appropriations Committee and a ranking member of the Armed Services Committee. Rhode Island’s other U.S. senator, Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, isn’t up for reelection until 2024.
In the U.S. House, Democrat David Cicilline, one of Trump’s harshest critics in Congress, defeated independents Frederick Wysocki and Jeffrey Lemire to win a sixth term representing the 1st Congressional District.
And Rep. Jim Langevin, the first quadriplegic lawmaker to serve in Congress, defeated Republican former state lawmaker Robert Lancia in the 2nd Congressional District to win an 11th term.
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Find AP’s full election coverage at APNews.com/Election2020.
