- Governor, stop.

I... (audience cheering and clapping) - No- - There's not a- - Can I respond to that?

- No, there's not a single city or town.

- I got to stop.

I gotta slow down.

- Mr.

McKee, let- - Respect this office.

I am the governor of the state of Rhode Island and you're disrespecting the court.

(audience cheering and clapping) When my opponent was disrespecting me, I felt as though it was really important to stand up on behalf of the people in the state of Rhode Island.

- I do need to defend myself.

And when the governor's saying things that are not true, I do need people to understand those truths.

- Welcome to "One on One".

I'm Ian Donnis.

The Democratic campaign for governor of Rhode Island is racing to a conclusion.

Governor Dan McKee has turned in aggressive debate performances as he tries to gain ground, but polls show challenger Helena Foulkes maintaining a solid lead.

Voting ends September 9th.

So what is the closing argument from each candidate?

We'll hear first from Foulkes and then a bit later, McKee.

Helena Foulkes, democratic candidate for governor, welcome back to "One on One".

- Thanks, Ian.

Good to be here.

- Give me 30 seconds on what is at stake and whether voters choose you or Governor Dan McKee in this primary election.

- Well, we're living in a state right now where people are really hurting.

We have the 50th economy in the country and yet we're the fifth most expensive place to be.

And so everywhere I go, people say they're ready for change.

They want a state where they can afford a house, where they can get a good paying job, and where healthcare works.

And so I'm working very, very hard and I hear the people.

I know we need change and I'm looking forward to leading people, but bringing people along because I think this is a moment where together we really all need to chart our future.

- There was a lot of sniping back and forth between you and Governor McKee during your recent Channel 12 debate.

You talked over each other.

Does this show what's wrong with politics?

- I think that it's a really critical time for the state.

And yeah, I don't necessarily love that format, but I do need to defend myself.

And when the governor's saying things that are not true, I do need people to understand those truths.

So I think it's important that I spoke about what's really happening.

For example, you know, the governor really likes to say that we have an amazing economy.

He likes to tout that there are 37,000 jobs he's created when in fact, if you look at the last two years using his same data source, we haven't created a single job.

So I think that truth matters.

- Okay, polls have consistently showed you with a double digit lead over Governor McKee, and front runners sometimes take it a little bit cautious.

Is there a major policy, political position on the risky side that you're willing to share right now that shows you're planning to govern boldly rather than playing it safe?

- Housing, housing, there's a really big difference between us and I want people to understand that difference.

- You've been saying that for a while.

- Yeah, I think it's the most important thing from Rhode Islanders and I want to be consistent about that.

I want people to understand the difference because we have a 30-year politician who has really done nothing around housing.

We are 50th in the country in housing production on a per capita basis.

His housing bond will only produce 600 housing units.

And I want to build 20,000 new homes and apartments.

That's a huge difference between us.

I'm feeling very excited and energized about people's reactions to it.

- Let me ask you about that, Helena Foulkes.

You want to fund your housing plan with revenue from the state so-called millionaires tax.

- Yes.

- If the legislature has other plans for that revenue or if that revenue falls short of expectations, do you have a backup plan to create housing without cutting vital state services?

- Well, I'll do everything I can.

There's not a single city or town in this state where a family making $100,000 a year could afford to buy a home or an apartment.

And legislators hear this too.

I think they want to come along with me and I'm sure I won't get everything I want, but I will do everything in my power to make sure that Rhode Islanders get access to great housing.

And it goes beyond money.

It goes to things like the bureaucracy that's in place.

In fact, for example, there's only one inspector in the whole state for a new elevator going into a new apartment building, and that jams things up.

There are a lot of examples like that that get in the way of new housing coming to market.

And so I want to break down some of those barriers.

I want to build modular homes, which is very exciting.

We could be at the forefront in this country.

I'll also bring a manufacturer here to help us build that and create good paying jobs along with using the millionaires tax, to your point, to create a revolving fund so that we can get loans out in the market and we can get more housing produced quicker.

- Why did it take until 2014 for CVS to take major action against dispensing opioids and impose new restrictions?

There was already widespread damage from the opioid crisis by then.

And why didn't the company act sooner?

- I think the company.

Look, the 2013 was the peak year, and this was a crisis that was happening all across this country.

There were a lot of factors that went into it.

And when I became president in 2014, I knew we had to take strong action.

So under my watch, we had an almost 40% reduction in opioids dispensed and we did more than anyone in the country.

You know there's not a single other pharmacy in this country that cut off doctors like CVS did.

And so it's always easy to Monday morning quarterback, and of course, I wish there was more we had done.

I meet people all the time who've been affected by the opioid crisis.

They don't particularly love this their family members becoming part of a political football, but it was a very trying time.

It was also really hard for the pharmacists.

And I also had to think about pharmacists who are at risk of losing their own license, having to make really difficult decisions about this is a valid prescription, but does in fact this patient need the medicine?

And then the last thing I would say, you know, we're a company that walked away under my leadership from cigarettes.

We were doing $2 billion a year in cigarette sales and we walked away from that.

- Let's talk about the jobs issue.

You mentioned that a little bit earlier.

It was more than two years ago when the percentage of Rhode Islanders who are working hit a high, according to the St.

Louis Federal Reserve, 65.2%.

In the time since that rate has fallen by two points, a significant amount.

In one of your ads, you talk about making Rhode Island a better place for children and grandchildren.

We know Rhode Island's struggled for decades with brain drain and young people leaving.

What will your approach be to building a more diverse economy if you become governor?

- Yeah, it's really important.

You're right, labor participation is down.

We haven't added a single job.

And when I'm meeting with Rhode Islanders, they want to make sure that everyone has access to a great paying job so they can afford to stay here.

So I have many elements, but I'll give you three examples of things I would do.

First, I want to make sure that every business that's here is adding jobs here.

And what I'm hearing from many business leaders is they are trying to add jobs in other states right now.

Massachusetts, for example, not for taxes, but because it's just easier to get things done in Massachusetts.

I met with a guy who has a company with 350 employees.

I said, "Where are you expanding?"

"Where are you adding jobs?"

And he said, "Massachusetts."

So I said, "When was the last time you heard from someone from commerce?"

He said, "40 years ago."

So I want to make sure we're out meeting business leaders, asking them, "What would it take for you to add good paying jobs?"

My old employer, CVS, 7,000 employees in the state, but they have 300,000 employees in the country.

So I want to ask them, "What would it take for you to add more jobs?"

That's number one.

Number two, I want to make sure it's much easier to start a small business in the state.

You know, and my example here is I met a guy who wanted to start a food truck business.

He said, "Helena, I have to go to 14 different state and local agencies to find all the permits and paperwork to start a food truck business."

You can go to Worcester, Mass, one-stop shop.

And then third, I want to lead into our greatest strengths.

We have great strengths around tourism.

We have great strengths about being the creative economy, which we can lead into.

I think we have a really strong beginning in life sciences where we need more leadership from the governor, but I think our greatest strength is the ocean economy.

And we have 400 miles of coast.

Narragansett Bay is so unique in terms of the speed with which it drops off and it becomes really attractive for a lot of companies who are coming here.

We have a great federal delegation that's adding more jobs, and I want to be a governor who's attracting even more businesses because these are where great paying jobs come.

- About 30,000 Rhode Islands face the loss of Medicaid due to changes from the Trump administration.

If you're governor, how would you address that?

- Well, it is so scary for people right now.

First of all, people are being kicked off of the Affordable Care Act because the premiums have gone up so much because of Trump, but you're right.

And this will really kick in in January because Trump was really sneaky about this.

He wanted it to happen after the midterms.

He's going to be using bureaucracy and challenging paperwork to kick people off.

So I want to do what I've done in my past at CVS and build a navigator system and really bring people, government workers and volunteers into the community where people are, where they trust people to make sure that we're helping them so they don't get kicked off.

Those would be things like engaging the faith-based community.

You know, a lot of people really trust their pastors and the folks in their churches.

I want to go into senior centers, adult daycare centers, places where people are, where they have trusted leaders, and I want to bring the resources there because you don't really want to go to a government agency to figure this out.

You want to be where you are and bring the support.

And that's the kind of work I've been doing for the last few years, but in particular, the last couple months, just meeting people in these settings and telling them, "We will be coming to you."

By the way, this work needs to be starting this fall.

I don't think enough is going on, but this is a crisis coming.

- We hear from advocates that ICE is still picking up people at Rhode Island courthouses.

If you're governor, would you enact any new measures to try and address that?

- Yeah, I think we have to.

We have to be on the forefront of the most aggressive things happening in the country to protect people from ICE.

I have a friend who was picked up on the courts, the state house, the court's steps just this past winter.

He's been here for 25 years.

He's had his three children here, a grandchild here.

He was going there to fill out the paperwork, which he's been in process for over a decade trying to get citizenship.

- What would you do about that?

- Well, there's more we need to do.

Some legislation passed this spring, and I'm really grateful to the legislature for doing that, but there's more we can do.

You know we, I want to make sure that ICE agents can't wear masks in this state.

I want to do anything I can do to protect the people because people are staying home right now.

It's affecting small businesses.

People are scared.

Businesses can't get some of the workers.

Restaurants aren't getting the visits.

This is affecting all of us.

- During a Channel 10 debate recently, you said that you would oppose restarting Rhode Island's truck toll program unless there could be a carve out for Rhode Island businesses.

This has been litigated in court and a federal judge said it's unconstitutional to charge Rhode Island businesses less.

What is your envisioned workaround for that?

- Well, I would just say the governor's had a couple years to work on this and nothing's happened.

And under my watch, I just don't think we need to put more of a burden on local businesses and consumers.

And so I will either find another way through it, just because the governor hasn't had it figured it out doesn't mean I can't.

And if I can't figure that out, we'll find other ways to drive revenue in the state.

I don't think the burden should be put on small businesses.

- A good government program question.

Governor Mckee's administration has opposed efforts to modernize the open records law, the access to Public Records Act.

If it's proposed as has been in recent years and you're governor, would you support that?

- 100%.

You know, everywhere I go, people ask me about transparency in the government in lots of ways.

Bridges and roads.

You know, we have 1200 bridges and roads in this state and 777 of them are in poor condition, but most people don't know it.

- Let me stop you there because we're really short on time.

- Okay.

- We'll close with a lightning round.

- Sure.

- Would you support a statewide ban on data centers?

- Yes.

- What current Rhode Island elected official do you most admire?

- I think Gregg Amore is doing a great job.

- Who is your preferred Democratic presidential candidate in 2028?

- Oh, I don't have one yet.

I think it's going to be fascinating to watch.

- Could you give us a handful of three who you would like to see run?

- It's really, I really think at some level a new person might emerge.

I don't know.

I think that there's some governors who are doing amazing work.

I would, I would say Andy Beshear, Josh Shapiro, Wes Moore but there are others and I'm going to be watching to see who emerges.

- All right, we've got to leave it there.

Democratic candidate for Governor Helena Foulkes, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you so much, Ian.

- Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee, welcome back to "One on One".

- Well, thank you, Ian.

Happy to be here.

- Give me 30 seconds on what is at stake in your campaign battle with challenger Helena Foulkes.

- Well, there's a lot at stake.

I mean, you have someone like myself that's been really working on behalf of working families for my whole career and very successfully bringing in jobs and doing that work on our schools.

And then you have a corporate executive actually you know, doesn't have any experience in government.

And I think in the last three debates, plus the chamber forum this week it's pretty clear that she's not prepared to be governor.

And I am, and I work on behalf of the people in the state of Rhode Island every day, and she worked in a way that was put profits over people, and that was pretty clear in the debates as well.

- There was a lot of sniping back and forth between you and Helena Foulkes during your recent Channel 12 debate.

You both, you both took turns speaking over one another.

Is that what's wrong with politics?

- No, I think that at that point in time when you know, there was one point in time where a very condescending, you know my opponent was, did it on the radio, told me to be quiet you know, in the middle of our talking and and then on the second debate, told me to stop it.

And then on the third debate, I just said, I'm not gonna put up with that because look, I am the governor of the state of Rhode Island.

I represent the people of the state of Rhode Island and any setting I deserve the respect.

So when my opponent was disrespecting me, I felt as though it was really important to stand up on behalf of the people in the state of Rhode Island.

- Governor, it's not a secret that the Washington Bridge is an issue in the campaign.

Why did your early news conferences after the closing of the bridge target an unrealistic completion date of 2026 when, as it turns out, we know that completion will not now happen until sometime around 2028?

- Well, first, no one's disagreeing when I made the right decision to keep people safe by shutting down the bridge, and I think that's the most important piece of the entire conversation on the bridge.

You know, we're pursuing a legal matter where the inspectors you know, should be held responsible, just like if you had a doctor that misdiagnosed.

And we're years ahead of Maryland in terms of rebuilding the bridge.

The first initial bids that went out, they were aggressive in terms of timeframe, but they also made sure that we had somebody to take down the bridge.

So we didn't lose anything by being aggressive, trying to get the best pricing and best timing possible for the people in the state of Rhode Island.

That closure there is causing people a great deal of you know, disruption in their lives, and we wanted to get done as fast as we can.

And we are.

We got the demolition contract out of that first go around on the bids.

We had to knock down the bridge before we could build a new bridge, and then we had a world-class contractor in place, bridge builder, six months before the bridge was knocked down.

So I think that a lot is being made of that schedule by my opponent, and it's misleading in terms of the fact that we got what we needed, we got somebody to knock down the bridge and now we're far ahead of Maryland, which my opponent said we were far behind them.

- Let me hold you there.

A November 2025 legislative hearing revealed how the state was relying on outside contractors for major construction projects to ensure the integrity of each other's work.

How come your administration didn't act sooner to change that policy?

- Well, first of all, that policy was working.

And when I came into office, there was a contract in place to repair a bridge that ultimately we found was not repairable.

So we're holding those inspectors accountable.

My opponent has been very wishy-washy on whether she would actually hold those inspectors accountable.

We're going to recover millions of dollars for the taxpayers.

And so look the process was working and it was not called to my attention until the bridge was, I was asked to shut down the bridge, which I did shut down the bridge.

- But doesn't the failure of the bridge and the need to close it on an emergency basis, doesn't it show that having contractors ensure the integrity of each other's work, doesn't that show that there were, that did not really offer enough oversight for the state?

- Well, there's oversight from the Federal Highway Department.

There was oversight from a congressional delegation that brought the funding in.

It was a situation where I would have to be you know, it was impossible to actually read that, Ian.

That project was well on its way on a repair before I got there.

The voters are going to understand this.

The voters are going to understand as soon as I was asked to shut down a bridge to keep them safe, I did.

No one in the administration did that.

And then I made sure that we have a contract in place to build that bridge quicker and safer than Maryland right now, which I was closed down at the same time.

So the people in this election are going to understand that I kept people safe and that I made sure that we got a contract in place and we're holding people accountable, that the inspections were wrong, and I kept people safe.

And my opponent, during the same time, when she was an executive at CVS, she didn't keep people safe.

So there's a big distinction between the two.

- We've got a lot of ground to cover, Governor, so I'll stop you there.

Let me ask you about housing.

You've touted your record on housing, but as we know, the median price of a home is almost a half million dollars out of reach for many, many people.

Why is not your state not put into place more efforts to address the problem in a way approaching the scale of the challenge?

- Ian, there's no governor that's put more effort into the housing than I have.

$250 million went immediately into the APRA funds to build more inventory.

$120 million bond last time, in the last 2024, another $120 million, which my opponent was not actually going to even support because she has a house of cards plan that doesn't work on housing.

We've provided over 8,300 housing units since I've been governor.

That's a record that has not been achieved since the early 1980s.

So we have a great record on housing, and we are responding to a problem by building more inventory.

In Providence alone, they built over 2,500 started a completed 2,500 units.

My opponent has a plan that is actually not going to activate any housing by using a millionaire's tax that won't come in till probably the April of 2028.

She won't be in the ground until probably sometime in 2029, so say she's going to build 20,000 units.

And the money that we're using on the millionaire's tax is going towards stuff that Trump has caused us big problems on, whether it's her childcare issues, the SNAP issues, the healthcare attack that's going on by Trump.

We're putting the millionaire's tax to actually accommodate a real need that the Trump administration's brought our way.

And yet my opponent is going to use that money.

And so how, what she going to connect you know, eliminate the child tax credit that we just put in, the first child tax credit in the history of the state of Rhode Island.

- Governor, according to the St.

Louis Federal Reserve, the recent high percentage of Rhode Islanders who are working came in June 2024, more than two years ago at 65.2%.

That rate has fallen by two points since then.

How do you square that with your description that jobs are growing in Rhode Island?

- Well, the jobs are growing in Rhode Island, so the fact of the matter is that we've had a growth since... First of all, we recovered the jobs that were lost in the pandemic faster than Massachusetts has.

Massachusetts has not even recovered on the jobs they lost during that timeframe.

- But the labor force participation rate has fallen by two points in the last two years.

- We have the lowest, the longest, second longest unemployment rate under 5%.

We're into 57 months with a 5% or less unemployment rate.

That's only happened once.

And we go just a few more months, we'll have the longest stretch of unemployment under 5% in the history of the state of Rhode Island.

So we are putting people to work and over 8,000 jobs have been added, and we can show you the proof.

Since I think it was like 2023, over the last three years, about 8,000 jobs were added.

And companies are coming in at a rapid rate in our maritime defense, whether it's Saab or Anduril, I'm going to be at Anduril later today with jobs coming in.

So the points that are being made by my opponent are misleading and it doesn't hit the ground in terms of where we live today.

Think about that, Ian.

Five, under 5% for 57 months in a row, we're putting people to work, building things in a rapid way, and we have private investing coming into our state that we've never seen before.

And clearly when my opponent was on the EDC board she did nothing in a 10% unemployment rate.

- Governor, I- - I come in on the tail end of the COVID and actually have created an economy in the state that is really working for the people that live here.

- Governor, as you know, about 30,000 Rhode Islanders will lose Medicaid in the coming year due to efforts by the Trump administration.

If you win reelection, how would you address that?

- Well, we've already addressed it.

My budget puts dollars in that's going to help 20,000 people stay on their health insurance.

And so we're already ahead of the game in terms of making sure that we're addressing the SNAP issues.

We tripled the amount of money went to the food bank and because of the SNAP issues that were come on.

My opponent has nothing that is actually addressing this issue.

In fact, she actually caused problem for the Medicaid when she served on a reinvent Medicaid program in the former administration, and across the board cut hospital funding and nursing home funding, and then about $85 million of reductions on Medicaid.

I'm the one who put the largest reimbursement rate on Medicaid in the history of the state, and also aligned our Medicaid rates with our Medicare rates for the first time in the history of the state of Rhode Island, put $500 million into the hospital, saved two hospitals at Fatima and Roger Williams by finalizing the financing that needed to be done.

So let's- - In terms of the hospitals, wasn't it really Attorney General Peter Neronha who played the leading role in making that happen because he helped to create an escrow fund.

If that had not been created, those two hospitals would've gone bankrupt.

- Yeah, but we're talking about hospitals that went bankrupt, right?

The two hospitals were in bankruptcy.

We're in court in Texas.

I called in the speaker, this president, and the attorney general into my office more than one time, three times, and then I finally made the call.

Are you going to put the 18 million dollars in for the backstop that they need to make sure that they can move ahead?

If they do, I'll sign it.

But during the biggest snowstorms in the state of Rhode Island, my opponent's never managed a snowstorm.

She has no experience in government.

I was managing a snowstorm and we were, our chief of staff was putting, who was a bond counsel in his legal career, was putting the finishing touches on a finalizing the complicated financing that actually allowed that project to happen.

So there was multiple people who played a role, but no one played a stronger role in making sure that those hospitals are open, and that's why UNAP, the Nurses Association, are endorsing my campaign because they know there's 2,400 jobs that I helped save and thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of visits for healthcare that were needed and that those hospitals closed, that would've been a big problem for the state of Rhode Island.

- Briefly, Governor, if you're doing as good a job as you say, why do poll respondents give you low approval ratings?

- Well, first of all, the facts of the issue are right there.

Education alone, right?

We are making progress on our education.

We will meet or exceed Massachusetts levels, which means we'll be the very best in the country by end of 2030.

Just ranked eighth in terms of high schools in the entire country.

- Governor, I need to stop you there.

We're gonna close with a lightning round.

Brief answers, please.

Would you support a statewide ban on data centers in Rhode Island?

- Yeah, I'm not in favor of the data centers.

So a ban right now, it would have to come in a way that we're not burning our energy costs and not putting too much pressure on our resources to actually move forward with that.

- What current Rhode Island elected official do you most admire?

- Yeah, so I think that it's in the, I really do admire Gregg Amore.

I think that he's doing a really good job fighting Trump on this, all these election issues standing side by side with him, making sure we're protecting people's rights and ICE not coming in and infringing on us.

So yeah, I think that Gregg is a good person at that spot to actually address this voting issues that we need to protect, and I'm there standing with him.

- We're coming up to 2028.

Who is your preferred Democratic presidential candidate?

- I hope it's a governor.

I don't have a choice, but I hope it's a governor because I think it would be very important to have a governor, and just as important to have a governor here that has been a mayor that understands the municipality issues as well as I do, and making sure that we're opening 21 learning centers throughout the state of Rhode Island.

So yeah, I hope it's a governor and let's see who steps forward and actually gets the support.

- Rhode Island Governor, Dan McKee, thank you so much for sitting down with us.

- Okay, thank you for the invitation.

- Thanks for watching "One on One".

I'm Ian Donnis.

You can find all of our past interviews on the Ocean State Media YouTube channel.

You can also listen to "One On One" wherever you get your podcast.

And if you love Rhode Island politics, sign up to receive my free TGIF column in your inbox every Friday at oceanstatemedia.org/tgif.

We'll see you next week.

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