Democratic socialist David Morales is projected to oust Providence Mayor Brett Smiley (D) from a Tuesday primary, according to Decision Desk HQ. Morales, a state lawmaker, leads the incumbent by about 14 percentage points, per DDHQ. The primary results in Rhode Island mark another win for the Democratic Party's left flank, which has…
Page A2From§Eachthe midnight edition — 10 September 2026
THE COUNT
House Democrats denounce socialism; nine days later Rhode Island elects a socialist mayor, fires its governor
As it ran on the front
On September 1st, eight House Democrats crossed the aisle to help Republicans pass a resolution formally denouncing socialism and the DSA, 220 to 192. They did it, by their own account, because of midterm pressure — because Donavan McKinney had already knocked out a two-term congressman in Michigan on August 14th running as a democratic socialist, and because Rahm Emanuel had gone on Fox two days before the vote, on August 30th, to say the quiet part out loud: socialists aren't in the tent, let them run as a separate party. That was the memo. Nine days later, Rhode Island answered it in a language memos don't speak — a ballot.
The state's governor, Dan McKee, had been trailing in the polls since at least August 27th, when an Emerson/WPRI survey put him fifteen points behind former CVS executive Helena Foulkes. The story behind the poll was a bridge — the one closed since 2023, which a Times piece the same week as Emanuel's remarks said might be the thing that finally sank him. On Wednesday it did. Foulkes beat McKee 62.5 to 37.5 with most of the vote counted, and he became, by the Examiner's own count, the first sitting governor anywhere in the country to lose renomination in years. Same night, same state, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley lost to David Morales, a state lawmaker running as an open democratic socialist, by fourteen points.…
…(cont) So here's the gap the caucus needs somebody to explain to it. The House vote was sold as a rescue mission for exactly this kind of night — denounce the label, hold the seat, keep the base from wandering off toward the socialists. Instead the base spent that same week firing a sitting governor over a bridge and hiring the socialist for mayor by double digits. Nobody in Providence checked the resolution before voting. Nobody at the CVS counter did either.
The caucus keeps voting like the base is a problem to be managed from Washington. The base keeps voting like Washington is the problem. Every time that gap opens, it opens the same direction — toward the candidate closer to the ground and further from the memo. That's not a mood swing you wait out. That's a pattern with a date stamp on it, and the next primary already has one circled.
“Eight House Democrats spent September 1st telling Rhode Island what it wasn't allowed to vote for. Nine days later Rhode Island fired its governor over a bridge and put a democratic socialist in the mayor's office by fourteen points anyway. That's not a coincidence — that's the base grading the memo and failing it.”
“Look, the resolution wasn't anti-socialist, it was pro-message-discipline — did I say that? That's not — it was about protecting vulnerable seats in swing districts, that's all, purely defensive. And if Rhode Island Democrats want to fire their own governor over a bridge and elect a democratic socialist mayor, that's a state issue, it has nothing to do with national strategy. Nothing. Coincidence of timing.”
The receipts
Gov. Dan McKee (D-RI) on Wednesday lost Rhode Island’s Democratic primary to former CVS executive Helena Buonanno Foulkes, making him the first incumbent governor in years nationwide to lose renomination. Just before 9 p.m., Foulkes was leading McKee 62.5% to 37.5% with 80% of the votes counted, according to the Associated Press.
· This Governor Could Lose His Primary. A Bridge May Be to Blame. from the morgue, 30 Aug 2026
· Rhode Island governor trails challenger in new Democratic primary poll from the morgue, 27 Aug 2026
· "Mop Up Michigan": Donavan McKinney on Democratic Socialism, Corporate Money & His Primary Upset from the morgue, 14 Aug 2026
· Eight House Democrats vote to condemn and denounce socialism and the DSA from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
· Vulnerable Democrats vote to denounce socialism amid midterm pressure from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
· Rahm Emanuel shuts socialists out of Democratic tent: ‘Run as a separate party’ from the morgue, 30 Aug 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.