The Boston Globe32%
R.I. AFL-CIO makes no endorsement in governor’s race 27%
By Dan McGowan49% Edward Fitzpatrick34%
7/15/2026, 1:29:15 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 30 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Post Hoc (False Cause), and Availability Heuristic, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 21.2% saturation with 194 hits. Analysis detected 1,493 faulty-reasoning hits from 916 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 38.3% and a BS Rank of 27% (11,842 of 16,139 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 73.40% of the article peer group.
PROVIDENCE — The Rhode Island AFL-CIO on Wednesday announced it will make no endorsement in the 2026 governor’s race, delivering the latest setback for Governor Daniel J.
McKee.
The Rhode Island AFL-CIO, which represents 275 local unions and 80,000 workers, had endorsed McKee in the 2022 Democratic primary, in which he edged Helena Buonanno Foulkes by 3 percentage points.
But the organization will not back McKee as he faces Foulkes in a rematch in the Sept. 9 primary.
“The consensus is we don’t have a consensus,” Rhode Island AFL-CIO President Patrick Crowley said after the labor group’s executive committee met.
The Rhode Island AFL-CIO did endorse Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos as she seeks reelection in a crowded Democratic primary, and it endorsed Secretary of State Gregg M.
Amore.
The labor group did not endorse anyone in the Democratic primary for attorney general, and it tabled a vote for general treasurer “for possible action later.”
In a year when very little has gone right politically for McKee, this appeared to be the closest thing yet to a make-or-break moment for his reelection campaign.
It came less than a month after the Rhode Island Democratic State Committee issued no endorsement for the incumbent governor.
And it came after the Democratic committee in McKee’s hometown of Cumberland endorsed Foulkes over the governor, who served as the town’s mayor for 12 years and on the Town Council for six years.
Foulkes has consistently outraised McKee as they vie for support in the Sept. 9 primary.
And she has consistently led by double digits in the polls, including a University of New Hampshire poll released June 30 that showed Foulkes with 42 percent of the vote and McKee at 22 percent.
On Wednesday, Crowley said, “The polling had no impact on our decision.
We really talked about the relationship that we have had and the pros and cons.
We just couldn’t get to consensus.”
Crowley said the Rhode Island AFL-CIO aims to “speak as one voice as the labor movement.”
But he said affiliates are free to endorse whoever they want to endorse.
In fact, Teamsters Local 251 is expected to endorse McKee at an event at the union hall in East Providence on Thursday.
A media advisory described McKee as “a consistent partner to Local 251 and its members.”
And it noted McKee signed the Warehouse Worker Protection Act into law, making Rhode Island the seventh state to require employers to give warehouse workers clear, written descriptions of the tasks and quotas.
Also, as he left Wednesday’s meeting, Paul Valletta Jr., president of the Rhode Island State Association of Firefighters, told reporters that his union is supporting McKee.
Crowley said he could not remember the last time an incumbent Democratic governor had not received the endorsement of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO before a primary.
There was virtually no chance that the powerful coalition will back Foulkes, a former CVS executive.
So the actual decision before the group was whether to roll with the vulnerable McKee or stay neutral in a highly competitive race.
“We did not endorse her tonight,” Crowley said of Foulkes.
“We still have some matters that we want to clarify, and if she is the nominee after the primary, I know we will be sitting down and talking with her.”
Crowley said he wants to make sure that Foulkes “understands that the labor movement is an important part of the political process here in Rhode Island — and that our opinions, and the opinions of our members, hopefully will be listened to.”
On the Rhode Island Report podcast in March, Crowley said a poll commissioned by the Rhode Island AFL-CIO poll showed McKee with an “uphill battle” but a “narrow path” to victory.
Labor groups initially had questions about McKee in part because he was such a big proponent of charter schools, Crowley said.
But one of McKee’s first decisions as governor “was to put teachers at the front of the line” to get vaccinations during the pandemic so schools could reopen, he said.
“That was a big deal, and I think that started to open people’s eyes to the possibilities of what kind of governor he could be,” Crowley said.
Mckee has been a long-time advocate of charter schools.
As mayor of Cumberland, he backed the Blackstone Valley Prep charter school and championed the creation of “mayoral academies,” charter schools whose boards of directors are chaired by municipal leaders
But in June, McKee signed a bill into law that places a three-year moratorium on new charter schools and permanently lowers the cap on the total number in the state.
The bill was a major priority of public-sector teachers’ unions, who argued the funding situation at traditional public schools has become dire.
This was a crucial day for both McKee and Crowley.
For McKee, the reasons were two-fold.
His campaign is in desperate need of a boost after failing to secure the support of the state Democratic Party, but it also needs the money and resources that will likely come from such a prominent endorsement.
For Crowley, it was a debate over loyalty and math.
The next governor is going to have to work with him and the AFL-CIO no matter what, but the perception is that virtually every decision McKee has made has been aimed at this endorsement.
Dan McGowan can be reached at dan.mcgowan@globe.com.
Follow him @danmcgowan.
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com.
Follow him @FitzProv.
Analysis
Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.