Father of the Constitution James Madison described Rhode Island as ruled by "wickedness and folly" in which "All sense of character as well as of right have been obliterated."
Rhode Island's first 2 governors after ratification (Anti-Federalist leader Arthur Fenner and Henry Smith) were both nominees of the Country Party.
[11] Many of these "Anti-Jacksonians" or "Adams Men", such as Asher Robbins and former Governor Nehemiah R. Knight,[12][13] represented the state in Congress before the formation of the Whig Party in 1833.
Whigs Lemuel H. Arnold, Elisha Harris, Henry B. Anthony, and William W. Hoppin were also Governors of Rhode Island during this time.
[19] After failed attempts to change the system from within, the Dorrites held a convention for the newly formed "People's Party", which drafted a new constitution that enfranchised all white men after one year's residence.
Charterite defenders, including Dorr's own father and uncle, suppressed the attack and the Dorrites retreated to the village of Chepachet to hold another People's Convention.
[20] Despite their victory, the Charterite General Assembly ultimately drafted and adopted the current Rhode Island Constitution in September 1842, which extended voting to all free men (of any race) who owned property or could pay a $1 poll tax.
[25] The first 14 Republican Party Presidential candidates, beginning with John C. Frémont in 1856, won Rhode Island's electoral votes during this era.
[28] There, he participated in the First Battle of Bull Run and, despite the Confederate victory, was offered a commission as Brigadier General, which he refused, opting to remain Governor of Rhode Island.
[34] Also during Davis' first term, the current boundary line with Connecticut was established, revised election laws were passed which made voter fraud more difficult, and orphanages were regulated by the state.
As both a Civil War veteran and a member of the state's "economic elite", Brayton was easily supported by the majority of Rhode Islanders, and is credited with helping many candidates into office, including Sen. Aldrich, who would later become one of the most prominent U.S.
The Depression is generally cited as the primary reason for the fall of Republicans in Rhode Island, transitioning to a period of Democratic dominance which continues today.
[45] In 1938, many Republicans, led by gubernatorial candidate William Henry Vanderbilt III, was elected into office, including retaking control of both houses of the General Assembly.
The most notable of these was former Governor Green, who successfully ran for Senate in 1936, and served there until 1960, finally retiring in ill health at age 93, the oldest Congressman in history at the time.
Pastore retired from his post as governor upon winning a special election to replace McGrath in the U.S. Senate, where Pastore would serve until 1976, where he was famously involved in a 1969 Senate hearing on the funding of PBS in which famous public TV host Fred Rogers testified successfully against President Richard Nixon's proposed PBS funding cuts.
Other notables included: 12-term Rep. Aime Forand, who proposed the first bill for the program that eventually became Medicare; Rep. John E. Fogarty, who became a national political leader on medical research as a longtime member of the House Appropriations Committee; 14-term Rep. Fernand St. Germain, Rep. Forand's successor, who was involved in passing legislation that would ultimately be blamed for the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s–1990s.
Chafee had previously served three two-year terms as governor in the 1960s; his administration was celebrated for championing public transportation and environmental conservation, but ended in a surprise reelection loss to Democrat Frank Licht after Chafee both reversed his anti-income tax stance and had to lessen his campaign efforts due to family matters.
Sundlun immediately closed 45 banks and credit unions due to the collapse of the RI Share and Deposit Indemnity Corporation (RISDIC) under DiPrete.
Sundlun became a champion of improving infrastructure and tourism, working across the aisle with controversial Providence Mayor Buddy Cianci (who would also later do time in prison for "racketeering conspiracy", i.e. running the city of Providence as a criminal enterprise) to support the building of or improvement of key infrastructure such as the Rhode Island Convention Center, Quonset Air Museum, T.F.
The work of the Cianci and Sundlun administrations launched what became known as the city of Providence's "Renaissance" period in which infrastructure, the arts, and the economy were all booming.
Sundlun lost the 1994 Democratic primary to strongly liberal State Senator Myrth York, who was then defeated by Republican Lincoln Almond by a slim margin of 47–44% in the general election (third-party activist Robert J. Healey won 9%).
The Assembly also overrode Carcieri's vetoes of bills to legalize medical marijuana and make progress on LGBT civil rights issues.
Former State Attorney General Sheldon Whitehouse defeated Chafee by a margin of 53.5–46.5% in an election that was part of a national swing to a Democratic majority in both houses of the U.S. Congress.
In the 2010 gubernatorial election, there were four major candidates: State Treasurer Frank T. Caprio for the Democrats, John Robitaille for the Republicans, former Sen. Lincoln Chafee as an independent, and businessman Ken Block, who had founded the Moderate Party of Rhode Island in 2009 to advocate for meaningful political, economic, and educational reform.
The Moderate Party's founding involved a court battle for official recognition that ended in the overturning of several laws that made it much easier for third-party and independent candidates to gain ballot access in elections beginning in 2010.
Shortly after taking office in 2011, Taveras discovered that he had inherited over $180 million in debt that Cicilline had largely hidden from the public through what was described by Providence City Council Finance Chairman John Igliozzi as "illusory revenue, borrowing and other tricks.
In 2014, Governor Chafee, having officially joined the Democratic Party in 2013 and facing massive unpopularity and likely primary challengers, chose not to run for reelection.
The primaries in both parties were hotly contested: on the Democratic side, venture capitalist and State Treasurer Gina Raimondo, perceived as a fiscally center-right frontrunner, defeated Providence Mayor Angel Taveras and Clay Pell (grandson of the late Sen. Pell) after unions and other liberals divided almost evenly between the 2 more liberal challengers, while on the Republican side, Moderate Party founder Ken Block left his own party to run as a Republican, only to be defeated in the primary by conservative Cranston Mayor Allan Fung.
Even the Republican nominee for Mayor, Dan Harrop, urged citizens to vote for his Democratic opponent Elorza, citing concerns that Cianci would not have the city's best interests at heart.
In August 2018, Tony Jones was appointed to the North Kingstown School Committee making him the first-ever Moderate in public office.