This is the thirteenth of a series column that will look at the history of all 50 States, all 5 territories, and the Capital and the influence history has on our
current political environments. The aim of this column is to capture that
our country is not just red or blue, but rather many shades in between.
Each Lower 48 state’s current political landscape can be traced back to
its early settlement and geography and its particular involvement in the
Civil War, the Industrial Revolution, and the Civil Rights Era.
Rhode Island – The Ocean State
Although the smallest state (by area) in the Union, Rhode Island has been a hotbed of political history, mirroring national patterns directly up to the present day.
Early History & Revolution
Rhode Island was established in 1636 by Roger Williams. Williams bought land from the Narragansett tribe after being banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his proponent views on religious freedom and separation of church and state. He called the area “Providence Plantations.” The name “Rhode Island” is said to have been a product of misunderstanding between Williams and Giovanni de Verrazzano, the latter of whom compared the area of Block Island to the Greek island of Rhodes. Williams is said to have thought Verrazzano was referring to Aquidneck Island, a much larger island more inland, and began calling the area “Rhode Island.”
Although Rhode Island was the last of the original Thirteen Colonies to ratify the Constitution – they refused to do so unless the Bill of Rights was included – it was actually the first colony to formally declare independence, doing so on May 4, 1776. Rhode Islanders’ attack on the British warship HMS Gaspee in 1772 was one of the first acts of war leading to the Revolution.
Rhode Island also passed the first abolition law in the 13 Colonies, as early as 1652, although enforcement was not present. By the time of the Revolution, Rhode Island’s slave population was nearly double that of any other New England colony. This was due to the port-heavy trade of molasses for the creation and sale of rum. Textiles would also dominate the state’s economy after the Revolution, as early as 1787, giving it reliance on the cotton industry. Due to its small size and dense population, Rhode Island quickly became a hub for manufacturing, immigration and education. The first textile mills were established in Pawtucket and Providence.
The state’s early populist tendencies were displayed in the short-lived Dorr Rebellion in 1841, in which a populist party was started by Thomas Dorr in protest of land-based voting. This allowed working-class, landless people to vote.
Civil War & Industrialization
Like the other five New England states, Rhode Island was a solid-red Yankee state fighting alongside Lincoln and the Republicans. Its early forms of Populism and abolition – it retains one of the earliest forms of school desegregation in 1866 – made it a perfect fit for the fledgling GOP. It would back the GOP in every election from 1856-1924, with 1912 being the only exception due to Theodore Roosevelt (R-NY) and William Howard Taft’s (R-OH) vote splitting, handing the Presidency and the state to Woodrow Wilson (D-NJ).
After the Civil War, the state experienced a boom like much of the Northeast and was the de facto center of the Gilded Age. Increased population growth spawned immigration to fill textile jobs, along with mass transit, urbanization, and manufacturing. Wealthy New Yorkers and robber barons used Newport as their summer havens to build mansions.
However, with the onset of the Roaring Twenties, the GOP would begin to lose its iron grip on the state. The state’s textile-dominated economy tumbled with the advent of Rayon, a synthetic silk, while Democrats began to create coalitions of working-class, Irish-Catholic immigrants. The state’s ancestral progressivism began to benefit the Democratic party and culminated in the 1934 “Bloodless Revolution.”
The 1934 election saw the GOP formally lose the bulk of its power in the Ocean State, as Democrats won a national landslide and with it, the Rhode Island House. Two close calls for the GOP in the state senate resulted in denial of certification by the Democratic lieutenant governor. Closed-door ballot reviews overturned the elections to the Democrats, and the party had won control of both chambers. Having established a trifecta, the party began purging the GOP from boards and commissions. The GOP rule in Rhode Island was over, and as the Democratic coalition flipped the state to Al Smith (D-NY) in 1928, it would steamroll into the 1930s into FDR’s New Deal fold.
Since 1928, the state has only voted for Republicans four times, all in landslide elections: 1952 and 1956 for moderate Dwight Eisenhower (R-KS), 1972 for Richard Nixon (R-CA) in his 49-state sweep, and 1984 for Ronald Reagan (R-CA) in his 49-state sweep.
World War II changed the state’s economy from textiles to shipbuilding. The Navy was the state’s largest employer, cultivating a vibrant defense industry with it. After the war, Providence hemorrhaged population, as nearby smaller cities of Cranston and Warwick doubled in size. Suburbia would go on to charter the state’s politics, although Providence was not as politically distinct from the suburbs at the time. The defense sector would mostly abandon the state in the 1970s, setting it on a path of economic uncertainty to the present day.
Economic tumult throughout the 20th Century has contributed to Rhode Island’s fiscal problems as of late. The state has struggled with high cost of living, tight business regulations, budget deficits, and poor infrastructure. Governor Gina Raimondo (D) became Biden’s Commerce Secretary in 2021. Upon her exit from the governor’s mansion, Rhode Island was dead last in terms of economic development out of all 50 states. However, the state ranks 15th in residents with a Bachelor’s degree and 15th in median household income as of 2019.
Today, tourism, finance, education – dominated by the Ivy League’s Brown University – and business make up the economic profile. CVS and Citizens Bank moved their headquarters to Rhode Island in the 1990s.
Current Political Leanings
Since Rhode Island has been reliably and intensely Democratic for most of the 20th Century, it would appear that it’s off the table entirely for Republicans. Surprisingly, it’s one of the more optimistic New England targets for potential competition from the GOP, although it won’t happen overnight.
The state has not voted for a Republican since Reagan in 1984, and that was by a narrow 3-point margin. This is the last time wealthy Newport County, Bristol County and Washington County (South Kingston) – all in the southern portion of the state – backed the GOP. Providence County has not voted for the GOP since Nixon in 1972, also the last time a Republican carried every county in the state. Lyndon Johnson’s (D-TX) crushing 80.9% margin in 1964 is the last time a presidential candidate has won such a large portion of the vote in any state. The GOP would not win a county in the state until Donald Trump flipped Kent County (Warwick) in 2016.
In 2000, Al Gore (D-TN) won the state handily over George W. Bush (R-TX). Gore scored a 30-point margin, winning well in the coastal urban areas, as well as the inland suburban and rural communities. Rhode Island would prove to be immovably Democratic until 2016, when Hillary Clinton (D-NY) won the state by just 14 points, relatively low compared to 30+ point margins for her predecessors. Trump also flipped fourteen municipalities, nine of which stuck with him in 2020. Although Biden improved upon Clinton’s margin in 2020, the display of townships remaining Republican show that the national urban vs. rural, coastal vs. inland divide has even taken root in one of the nation’s bluest states.
Despite Democrats being on their longest winning streak on the presidential level – 9 consecutive elections – the GOP most recently held a Senate seat here in 2007, from the notable Chaffee political dynasty. Republicans have not held the Class II Senate seat since 1937 and have not held both seats since 1935.
The state has not sent a Republican to the House since 1992. In 2022, former Cranston mayor and 2014 & 2018 gubernatorial candidate Allan Fung (R) gave state Treasurer Seth Magaziner (D) a close contest in the state’s Second Congressional District, the less blue of the two, encompassing those Republican inland towns. Internal polling had him leading the entire race, but he came up five points short on election day.
The state has not elected a Republican governor since Donald Carcieri was re-elected in 2006, however the GOP have produced close contests since then.
That said, the GOP contesting this state soon is not off the table. The state has a relatively high non-college educated white-working class population, 51% of the state. Rhode Island’s population has continued to decline, almost costing it one of its four electoral votes after the 2020 Census. If party loyalty remains stagnant, Democrats probably don’t have to worry about the state, but the GOP has certainly dug their heels in and created a nice floor of about 40%. A major shift would need to materialize on the local level; Democrats have continuously controlled the state legislature since 1959.
True to its history, a uniquely populist and pragmatic brand of politics is what will carry the GOP over the line here, eventually.
