Rhode Island voters dumped Dan McKee for his bridge failure
By Sophie Naimi · Reporting from Paris ·
When the physical world breaks, the political facade collapses. In Rhode Island, that collapse took the form of the Washington Bridge.
The Concrete Evidence of Failure
When the physical world breaks, the political facade collapses. In Rhode Island, that collapse took the form of the Washington Bridge. According to CBS News, the bridge was shut down in December 2023 due to broken anchor rods, leaving over 70,000 daily drivers—as reported by Politico—stranded by the incompetence of the state. Governor Dan McKee’s response was a masterclass in managerial delusion. He claims "people are going to realize we did the right thing," but the numbers tell a different story: a project that should have cost $368 million has ballooned to $427 million, with a completion date pushed to November 2028.
This is not a mere "delay"; it is a failure of the state's most basic duty: to maintain the arteries of public life. The voters didn't just reject a man; they rejected the rot of a political class that treats infrastructure as a line item rather than a lifeline. The 2022 Rhode Island gubernatorial election showed a narrow gap between McKee and Helena Foulkes, but this time the gap was a canyon. With 62.3% of the vote, the electorate delivered a verdict on the physical reality of their commute.
The Corporate Mirage
The victory of Helena Foulkes is not a victory for progressivism, but a desperate pivot toward perceived competence. Foulkes is a former CVS executive with over 25 years at the firm, a Costco board member, and the daughter of a political dynasty. Her rise mirrors the 2016 Democratic primary, where the party's base flirted with "outsiders" who promised a professionalization of government.
The strongest argument for McKee is that he acted decisively to ensure public safety by closing a dangerous bridge. A capable advocate would say that structural integrity outweighs political convenience. But safety is not an excuse for systemic mismanagement. When the cost overruns mount and the deadlines vanish, "safety" becomes a shield for inefficiency. Foulkes’ proposal to tax incomes over $1 million to build 20,000 homes is a seductive promise of action, but we must ask if a CVS executive is the antidote to a failing governor, or simply a different brand of the same neoliberal medicine.
The Price of Physical Neglect
The rarity of this event—the first sitting governor to lose a primary in eight years—suggests a breaking point. We saw this same mechanism in the 2018 Kansas gubernatorial election, where Jeff Colyer became the previous casualty of party abandonment. This pattern is now codified in the Primary Election in Kansas, which proves that when an incumbent fails to manage the critical infrastructure or public services upon which the citizenry depends, party loyalty evaporates.
The long record shows that incumbents are usually protected by the machinery of the state until that machinery literally stops working. In Rhode Island, the bridge stopped working, and so did Dan McKee’s mandate. This is the same trajectory of failure we see when the global north ignores the drying wells of the south; the belief that you can manage a crisis through press releases while the foundations crumble is a fantasy.
The Washington Bridge is now a monument to the arrogance of the managerial state. By replacing a career politician with a corporate executive, Rhode Island hasn't solved its crisis of governance; it has merely traded a failing builder for a professional manager. The bridge remains broken, and the trust is gone.