Rhode Island 2020 Election Results

Rhode Island held its general election on November 3, 2020, deciding 113 legislative seats. No chamber changed party control.

Highlights

• Democrats kept lopsided control of both chambers, but voters removed the most powerful Democrat in the State House: Speaker Nicholas A. Mattiello (D) lost his own Cranston seat, forcing the chamber's first new speaker since 2014.
• Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung (R), wife of Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, defeated the speaker by about 18 points in House District 15. She had pointed to controversies of his tenure, including the money-laundering trial of a former campaign operative. The Boston Globe called the result a seismic shock to a State House system with the conservative Mattiello at its top. Within days, House Majority Leader Joe Shekarchi (D) lined up enough support to succeed him.
• Republicans also took back House District 26, where Patricia Morgan (R) unseated Rep. James Jackson (D) by about 9 points. Morgan, a former GOP state chairwoman and 2018 gubernatorial primary candidate, was what The Public's Radio called the party's best hope to put a Democratic seat back in the Republican column. Democrats offset one of those losses in Lincoln, where Mary Ann Shallcross Smith (D) won a three-way race for House District 46 over Rep. John W. Lyle, Jr. (I), a former Republican who still caucused with the GOP, and Republican John J. Cullen (R).
• In all, 3 seats changed hands and 3 incumbents lost, all in the House; the Senate's partisan split did not move. Beyond the flips, 2 House races finished inside two points, with Rep. Bernard Hawkins (D) holding House District 53 over Brian Rea (R) by fewer than 100 votes and Edward Cardillo (D) keeping the open House District 42 for Democrats by about 115 votes. Another 65 seats drew only one candidate.
• Voters approved Question 1, removing "Providence Plantations" from the state's official name. The amendment trailed in Election Day voting and passed narrowly once mail ballots were counted, a reversal from 2010, when voters rejected the change overwhelmingly.

Legislature

• House (75 seats): 66 D, 9 R before the election, 65 D, 10 R after; control stayed with Democrats.
• Senate (38 seats): 33 D, 5 R before the election, 33 D, 5 R after; control stayed with Democrats.

Legislative races

Ballot measures