Republican U.S. Senate challenger Patricia Morgan inserts her ballot into a voting machine at Wakefield Hills Elementary School in West Warwick at around 8:15 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Laura Paton/Rhode Island Current)
U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Republican challenger Rhode Island Rep. Patricia Morgan both voted in person at a school on Tuesday morning before each embarked on a full day of campaigning.
But similarities between the two candidates end there.
Whitehouse, 69, joined his wife Sandra to vote at Rogers High School in Newport at 8 a.m., one hour after the polls opened. Rhode Island’s junior senator and his wife are among the 15,312 residents eligible to vote in Newport in Tuesday’s general election. The high school had the highest in-person voter turnout among the city’s nine polling locations during the morning hours, with citywide in-person turnout approaching 11% as of 11 a.m.
Whitehouse easily won reelection in 2018 with 61.4% of the vote. He is a progressive Democrat and strong supporter of renewable energy while Morgan has opposed investments in the offshore wind industry. He maintains the largest campaign war chest of any candidate in Rhode Island with $2.2 million on hand compared to Morgan’s $62,000, according to the most recent finance reports filed with the Federal Elections Commission.
But Morgan, 74, has recently benefited from out-of-state super PAC money that has paid for commercials airing during NFL and college football games. The boost came from Roosevelt Society Action, which had at least $200,000 to spend in Rhode Island. A recent poll from the University of New Hampshire Survey Center found that Morgan had a small lead over Whitehouse among male voters but Whitehouse had a very large lead among women.
Morgan cast her vote at Wakefield Hills Elementary School in West Warwick at around 8:15 a.m. and gave an interview to WPRI TV after voting, saying she was feeling “apprehensive obviously but good.”
“I’ve done everything I can to get my word out to the people of Rhode Island and I hope they will make me senator,” Morgan told WPRI. “I’ll make their lives better.”
A total of 3.050 voters had cast ballots in person in West Warwick as of 11 a.m., according to the RI Voter Tracker.
Morgan waved to passing motorists for a short period before heading to a scheduled campaign meetup at Pilgrim Senior Center in Warwick with Republicans Sen. Anthony DeLuca, who is seeking reelection to his District 29 seat, and Marie Hopkins, a candidate for the District 21 House seat.
Morgan represented the House District 26 seat from 2011 to 2019 and then returned to the General Assembly in 2021 after an unsuccessful run for governor. She lost the 2018 Republican gubernatorial primary to Allan Fung who went on to lose the general election to Gina Raimondo. Morgan is one of nine State House Republicans, but has not caucused with the party since her return.
In an interview after voting, Whitehouse urged younger voters to make their voices heard in this election. “I hope that there’s a big turnout among young voters that sends a strong message about making a difference,” he said. “I have high hopes for winning nationally and my fingers are crossed.”
Whitehouse chatted and posed for pictures with Democratic state legislators campaigning for reelection, Sen Dawn Euer and Rep. Lauren Carson, outside the high school.
When asked about any worries for the day, Whitehouse admitted to a few concerns, given the potential for the election to flip the slim majority the Democratic Party has in the U.S. Senate over to Republican control.
“I’m worried about holding the Senate and the chaos of another Trump term,” he said. “But I feel pretty good about Rhode Island.”
Whitehouse headed next to the Beechwood Senior Center in North Kingstown with subsequent morning stops scheduled in East Greenwich, Warwick and Cranston. He planned to watch election results at a Rhode Island Democratic Party event at the Graduate Hotel in downtown Providence.
Morgan planned to watch election results coming in at a party at the Cowesett Inn in West Warwick.
Laura Paton and Janine L. Weisman contributed to this report.
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