New polling reveals that the Republican Party may soon capture a U.S. House seat in Rhode Island where the voters last voted Republican more than 30 years ago.
Allan Fung, the former Mayor of Cranston, Rhode Island – and first mayor with Chinese ancestry in the state – dominates Democrat challengers according to a new poll conducted by The Boston Globe and Suffolk University.
The poll shows Fung at least five points ahead of the nearest likely Democrat challenger, with the Republican receiving 12% more of the vote than the weakest Democrat opponent included in the poll. Should he win the seat, Fung’s victory will be the first time Republicans managed to win in Rhode Island second district since 1988.
Rhode Island’s second district House seat has been held by Democrats since 1991. The last Republican to win in Rhode Island’s second district was Claudine Schneider, who won the 1980 election and held the seat until she retired to run for the U.S. Senate in 1990.
She did not win her bid for Senate, and her former district has voted reliably Democrat since 1990. Democrats have held the seat since 1991.
Fung recently celebrated the poll on Twitter, and received support from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).
It’s time to go ALL IN with ALLAN! Donate today: https://t.co/GNpANE6xCg! pic.twitter.com/fYyIfJV8Wo
— Mayor Allan Fung (@AllanFungRI) June 27, 2022
“While the Democrat candidates for RI-02 fight over who would best continue their party’s failed agenda of record inflation, surging crime, and a crisis on our southern border,” wrote the NRCC in a statement, “Rhode Island voters are signaling they want an end to one-party Democrat rule.”
Fung was the Republican nominee to become the state’s governor in 2014 and 2018, and was Mayor of Cranston from 2008 until 2021. Term limits prevented Fung from running again in 2020, and the candidate he endorsed later won the race.
Much of the support for Fung may be better seen as intense animosity toward Joe Biden and the Democrats, notes The Boston Globe.
“In the 2nd District, only 34 percent of voters said they approve of the job President Joe Biden is doing,” the outlet reported. “71 percent said they don’t think he should run for reelection.”
Rhode Island’s second district is currently held by Democratic Rep. Jim Langevin, who surprised Democrats earlier this year by announcing he would not seek reelection.
