(Updated at 2:45 p.m.)
PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island’s 2018 political campaigns may include a blast from the past.
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Learn MoreFormer independent Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee told Providence Business News Wednesday he is “90 percent” sure he will throw his hat into the Rhode Island’s 2018 U.S. Senate Democratic primary, looking to oust sitting Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. Chafee served in the U.S. Senate as a Republican from 1999 to 2006, when he lost his re-election bid to Whitehouse.
Chafee said the catalyst for his decision was based on three fundamental concerns he has with Whitehouse’s leadership.
While the majority of Rhode Island Democrats and independents supported Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the 2016 presidential election primary, said Chafee, at the 2016 Democratic National Convention Whitehouse “gave his support to Clinton … against the [vote of the] people of Rhode Island.”
Second, Whitehouse did not support a February bill put forth by Sanders, and a group of bipartisan senators, which would have forced a vote on the removal of U.S. Armed Forces from the conflict between a Saudi-led coalition and Houthis in Yemen.
The final reason Chafee cited for his decision to run was Whitehouse’s “lack of opposition” to a proposed Burrillville power plant “despite all his speeches about climate change.”
Per the R.I. Department of State, no filings for the Senate race can be made until June.
Emily Gowdey-Backus is a staff writer for PBN. You can follow her on Twitter @FlashGowdey or contact her via email, gowdey-backus@pbn.com.