Kat Bourgault
Anchor Contributor
Rhode Island is one of the safest blue states in the country. Yet, in the 2024 presidential election, it mirrored the nation’s historic shift to the right. Kamala Harris won Rhode Island by just 13.6 points, which is an unusual margin for a safe blue state. Rhode Island has not voted for a Republican president since the landslide GOP victory in 1984.
There are a few different explanations for this, one being by the historical swap-out where Harris had just 107 days to secure voter support. The Harris-Walz campaign also struggled to properly address the pain of Americans living through a post-COVID economy, which many voters associate closely with the Biden administration. Although the administration took measures, like the Inflation Reduction Act, to ease these hardships, public sentiment still connected their economic struggles to the current leadership.
Rhode Island saw a local shift to the right with multiple Republican victories seen throughout the state. Donald Trump also made gains in all 39 of Rhode Island’s cities and towns since 2020, sounding the alarm bells for the DNC. This shift within one of the bluest states in the country reflects the broader trend we’re seeing nationwide.
Though we saw this shift, Rhode Island still has many protections enshrined in its Constitution and laws that protect vulnerable communities, and a woman’s right to choose. This shift within the state is on trend with the rest of the country, which means the state is not an outlier. Voters also rejected Question 1, which would allow for a constitutional convention to be held, leaving said protections embedded for at least another ten years.
One of the initial reactions on the RIC campus was a Letter to Immigrant Students, signed by 60+ faculty members, emphasizing their support for students with precarious legal status.
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