- Ted, welcome back.

It's good to see you.

It has been an intense month in the world of politics, to say the least.

Of course, we had the big presidential debate, and then here in Rhode Island we had the state-wide primary where voter enthusiasm has been pretty low.

- Yeah, these state-level primaries in presidential years, Michelle are never big turnout drivers, at least, or rarely, maybe I should say, because there aren't any big state offices on the ballot unless there's a big U.S. Senate primary or something like that.

This year was no exception.

Turnout was a little over 10%, so not many voters showed up.

And again, I can't really blame them because there wasn't much in most places to draw them out to the polls.

- Well, one place where voter turnout was relatively strong was in Cranston.

There were eight contested races, including that bitter Republican primary for mayor between incumbent Ken Hopkins and challenger, State Representative Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung, who of course we saw campaign alongside her husband, former mayor, Allan Fung.

There was a lot of talk about this race, a lot of publicity, but in the end, the election was not that close.

- No, it was not.

You're right.

There was lots of talk about the enduring power of the Fung name after Allan Fung's success in the mayor's office, but Hopkins won pretty easily and he got nearly 60% of the vote in the Republican primary.

And that was, despite, Michelle, there was this bizarre late-breaking story about a car that he took possession of but hasn't paid for three years later and there's a lawsuit filed.

It was messy.

Clearly that didn't make a big impression on the voters in the Republican primary.

- Reporters caught up with both candidates after the results were counted.

Let's hear what they had to say.

- I obviously have real concerns what's happened with the car and that entire, what I would call fiasco, at the moment.

So before I throw my support behind anybody, I really wanna see how that plays out over the next days and weeks.

I really, I mean, look, I took out the speaker in 2020, and again, I thought this whole race would be a little bit more about the corruption of what's gone on at City Hall.

- Isn't that a shame that you have to do that on a night like this?

There's no corruption.

There's none whatsoever.

And that's exactly who she is and that's why she lost because that resonated with the people of Cranston who know that I'm an honest guy and I'm a hardworking, genuine guy that loves this city.

- Ted, so clearly there are some hard feelings in Cranston.

- For sure.

And so the question now is, can the Democratic nominee for mayor, Robert Ferri, who's on the city council in Cranston, can he make this a real race?

You know, Republicans have been very successful in Cranston over the last half century.

A statistic I like to cite is that since 1963, when JFK was president, Republicans have held the mayor's office in Cranston for all but six years.

- Wow.

- That gives you a sense of the how dominant they've been.

But Ferri's allies think that he can capitalize on that car story we were talking about before.

He thinks that could have some legs.

He's raising a lot of money, he has a big fundraiser with other prominent Rhode Island Democrats coming up.

And they also do wonder if these bitter feelings out of the Republican primary could give him an opening with some of those Republican voters.

We'll see.

- Yeah.

We're also watching the race for mayor in Woonsocket, where city council president, John Ward, and incumbent, Christopher Beauchamp, have both advanced to the November election.

Okay.

Let's turn now to another race for U.S. Senate.

No surprise, he Sheldon Whitehouse won the Democratic primary.

He'll be facing Republican state representative, Patricia Morgan.

We heard from both of them that night on what voters can expect if they are elected come November.

Let's take a listen.

- I know it's broken and I'm not gonna paper it over.

Sheldon likes to pretend that everything he's done is good for Rhode Island and it's just the opposite.

It's just the opposite.

It's hurt us.

- I have a lot of work left to do.

I think that particularly sitting on the finance committee where we can make the tax code honest and serve working families again instead of billionaires.

- Ted, the big question is, how competitive of a race can Morgan make this?

- Yeah, look, I never want to rule out a surprise in politics, of course, but you know, like when we were talking about Cranston, I do like to look to history and Republicans haven't won a U.S. Senate seat in Rhode Island since 2000 when Lincoln Chaffee succeeded his father, John Chaffee, and the last time a Republican who wasn't named Chaffee won a Senate seat in Rhode Island was 1930.

So it gives you a sense of just how hard it is for a Republican to win one of these Senate seats in the state.

And then of course, you know, Whitehouse, while he can be a polarizing figure, his poll numbers have always been solid.

He's raised millions of dollars and this is a presidential election year, which means there's gonna be that higher turnout we usually see on the Democratic side.

So, you know, Morgan is gonna try to make it a race.

She's been putting out a lot of press releases.

We know she's an aggressive campaigner, but she's very much the underdog.

- And we should stress here the fact that she will not be returning to the General Assembly, a Republican, and also Fenton-Fung, who's currently in the State House, that's two fewer Republicans who are in the General Assembly on the House side, - And they only have nine seats.

So that's two seats they're giving up, at least incumbents, where the Democrats have a shot at picking them up.

So yeah, there is a loss for the Republicans with these two going for higher office.

- A lot to watch over the next few months.

Thanks so much, Ted.

- Good to be here.