RI special election results: Democrat Amo wins Congressional race

Gabe Amo will officially be the first person of color to represent Rhode Island in Congress.

As of 9:24 p.m. on Tuesday, Amo had 64.6% of the vote. His Republican challenger, Gerry Leonard, had 35.1% of the vote.

The Associated Press called the race for Amo at 8:10 p.m., followed quickly by WPRI.

In the special election for Senate District 1, Democrat Jake Bissaillon won with 82.5% of the vote. Republican Niyoka Powell had 16.7% of the vote.

Amo delivers victory speech

Like the night of his surprise primary victory, Amo was surrounded by family at The Guild brewery in Pawtucket on Tuesday.

But unlike the primary, when the room filled only after word of his imminent victory spread, the hall was packed with Democratic operatives and supporters expecting a coronation and chance to meet the state's next rising star.

Most of the state's top elected officials waited in the wings, from Gov. Dan McKee to Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos, who Amo beat in the congressional primary, to Secretary of State Gregg Amore, Pawtucket Mayor Donald Grebien and Newport Mayor Xay Khamsyvoravong.

"This campaign's journey started in April, but the journeys of so many people here in Rhode Island, the shared story I talked so much about along this campaign, began many generations ago," Amo said in his victory speech.

"Whether your ancestors came to Rhode Island in search of religious freedom, or came here as enslaved people, or came here for economic opportunity in the 20th century; whether they were Irish or Italian, Cape Verdean or Portuguese, West African, or from any place in between. The journey of so many Rhode Islanders and their families is one of great hard work, determination and resilience stand on the shoulders, and so many of them came before me to make this day possible."

Speaking to reporters, Amo said that one of the most moving moments in the campaign had been accompanying his mother, an immigrant from Liberia, to vote.

"Some of this you do in isolation ... But when you get to bring people along with you, including the person who birth with you, it is quite moving," he said.

With the election over, was he thinking about the historic significance of his win?

"I always think about that," Amo said. "But I also know that this was a job and this was a job interview in all aspects.  And so yes, I recognize that there is a historic nature. I stand on the shoulders of giants who came before me, Black and brown, men and women, folks of all sexual orientations."

"And so I know that there were trailblazers here and I have great respect for them, but I've now got to go and do the job of helping this government function at the federal level. And that is the highest form of service that I can provide."

Voters reject several bond questions

In perhaps the most surprising outcome of the night, voters in North Kingstown and North Smithfield overwhelmingly rejected bond questions.

Unofficial results showed that 62% of voters in North Kingstown rejected a $222 million bond for school construction and a new public safety complex, and 64% rejected a $25 million bond for an indoor recreation center.

In North Smithfield, 62% voted against borrowing $18 million to upgrade the town’s police station.

Meanwhile, in Middletown, a $190 school construction bond won by a narrow margin, with 51.5% of the votes. At one point in the counting, the difference between the two sides was as little as 41 votes.

School construction bond questions on the ballot in Barrington, Bristol, Cumberland, East Greenwich and Warren were on track to pass with wide margins.

As of 7:30 p.m., the Secretary of State’s unofficial turnout tracker indicated that over 73,000 people had voted in Tuesday’s special elections, including local elections for bond questions. (North Kingstown, which is not in the First Congressional District, had the highest turnout of any municipality.)

Of those who cast ballots, more than 51,000 waited until Election Day to vote.

The path to victory

Amo, Pawtucket native, previously served in the Biden administration. He will be filling the seat vacated by former U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, who announced in February that he planned to leave Congress and take a job at the Rhode Island Foundation.

Cicilline's unexpected departure led to a crowded primary election, since the district leans heavily Democratic. Amo managed to beat 11 other Democrats by successfully positioning himself as a moderate alternative to former state representative Aaron Regunberg, who was seen as the frontrunner in the lead-up to the September primary.

After the primary, the race became fairly sleepy and forgettable — no surprise in a deep-blue district.

Leonard, a former U.S. Marine Corps officer from Jamestown, campaigned as an old-fashioned Yankee Republican and presented himself as a more moderate alternative to the far-right members of the GOP who currently have an outsize influence in Congress.

Still, Rhode Island hasn't elected a Republican to Congress for nearly 30 years, and Leonard would have needed to pull off a remarkable upset in order to win the race.

Amo will be up for re-election again next year, since he won in a special election. "I got my running shoes on," he said. "We're ready to go. I think, in fact, it will help me having had this experience so recently to be able to convert that into, not just a campaign, but a governance that is about making things work."

Election officials urged to certify winner as quickly as possible

Word has gone out from Washington to Rhode Island to certify the winner of Tuesday's 1st Congressional District election as quickly as possible, so all votes are in place in the U.S. House of Representatives to avert a potential government shutdown.

The details were sketchy.

But two high-level state elections staffers told the Rhode Island Board of Elections to meet on Wednesday, Nov. 15 at the latest - even if some members cannot make it - to certify the winner in light of requests made by "the House of Representatives" to the board and the governor.

The board's lawyer Raymond Marcaccio put the stated concern this way: "The federal government may run out of money and ... they [may] close the business down of the government on the 17th ... We would want to have our new congressperson seated before then [to] do whatever the state needs to do before that time."

"There's a concern with the timing to make sure that the person can fly down, get sworn in, and then be able to vote on Friday," Deputy Secretary of State Rob Rock said.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday night, Amo said he didn't know when he would be sworn in.

"I'm hoping one of the phone calls I get tonight has in details on that," he said. "But my presumption is once there's a winner identified and, given what I'm told is a large margin, I actually haven't seen the numbers... that we could potentially have a decision from the speaker's office in the House soon. So my expectation is next week. That's what I've heard."

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Rhode Island election: Results for Congressional House race