All's quiet on the primary front this election season. What's happening?

In the battle for the soul of the Rhode Island Democratic Party , a temporary cease-fire is in effect across much of the state this election season.

The ideologically charged party primaries between progressive and moderate Democrats that set the tone of the last several state election cycles are fewer and farther between this year than they've been in decades.

There will be 19 contested General Assembly Democratic primaries on the Sept. 10 ballot finalized Friday, roughly half the number of primaries (38 and 40, respectively) in 2022 and 2020. (There are no Republican Assembly primaries this year, compared with three in 2022 and two in 2020.)

Political Scene looked through the last six state elections back to 2012 and could not find one with fewer than 23 primaries.

The secretary of state's office confirmed this was the fewest primaries not only since the General Assembly downsized in 2003, but since there were 16 in 1982, the year there were no Senate elections, according to a review of results by Deputy Secretary of State Rob Rock . (The 1982 Senate races didn't happen after a judge tossed the gerrymandered district maps drawn under Majority Leader Rocco Quattrocchi , inspiring a GOP campaign against "Rocco's Robots.")

This year, neither of Rhode Island's congressmen – both freshmen emerging from bruising first campaigns – face primary challengers. (Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse will have a Democratic opponent in Michael Costa .)

And the highest-profile mayoral race, in Cranston , does not feature a Democratic primary.

What's happening?

For starters, the wave of left-flank challenges to the Democratic establishment that began building from 2014 to 2016 and grew through former President Donald Trump 's election and to the COVID years appears to have crested in 2022 and begun to ebb – at least for the moment.

Several of this year's most hotly contested and closely watched Democratic primaries feature a role reversal, with recently elected progressive incumbents facing a more conservative challenger.

More: It's election season in Rhode Island once again. These are the storylines to watch.

There were relatively few General Assembly retirements this year, meaning fewer of the open-seat contests that typically draw a crowded field.

And one group that's had an outsize impact on recent campaigns is conspicuously absent: the Rhode Island Political Cooperative .

In 2022, the Co-op alone backed 25 candidates in General Assembly primaries, plus candidates for governor and lieutenant governor.

This year the Co-op slate features zero candidates.

Other progressive groups are soldiering on but face headwinds in a presidential election year that many Democrats – from socialists to blue dogs – are unexcited about.

"It definitely seems like the network of progressive groups that fielded candidates in previous years (of which the Co-op was front and center, but not the only member) has run out of steam," Providence College political science professor Adam Myers wrote in an email.

With the dearth of primaries, 57 seats in the 113-seat General Assembly, more than half, are going uncontested. (Typically around a third of seats go uncontested.)

Republicans recruitment wasn't amazing either. There are 43 general election contests.

What's going on with the Co-op?

Bursting onto the scene in 2019, the Political Cooperative was not the first progressive group to organize candidates against the state's Democratic machine.

And it wasn't the most well-financed or best connected.

But it was easily the most brash, colorful and ambitious.

"We're going to take over the whole [expletive] State House," Co-op co-founder and former secretary of state Matt Brown famously said in his gubernatorial announcement video in 2021.

Unlike other progressive groups, the Co-op held a taboo (if not outright prohibition) against members compromising or voting with the establishment. In 2020, then-Representative-elect Brandon Potter backed K. Joseph Shekarchi for speaker at a Democratic caucus and was purged from the Co-op by the time lawmakers had filed out of the Crowne Plaza ballroom.

The Co-op contested as many races in as many places as possible, even if it meant running political novices in tough districts or against other self-identified progressives.

The volume of candidates recruited from kitchen tables and between shifts at their day jobs helped drive the narrative of a grassroots revolution, but it was hard to sustain.

A number of lawmakers whom the Co-op helped elect parted ways as incumbents to pursue their own agenda and get legislation passed. Relations with other factions of the progressive movement became strained.

After the disappointing 2022 primaries, the Co-op was gripped by infighting. Brown left and was later denounced by former running mate Cynthia Mendes as part of a seemingly unrelated feud with Aaron Regunberg , the previous Rhode Island progressive to run for lieutenant governor.

Without Brown's money and connections, the group has been largely dormant.

But co-chair and former state Sen. Jeanine Calkin says it is not defunct.

"The RIPC is in the process of analyzing the current political landscape and looking at the 2026 elections," Calkin wrote in an email. "While the co-op is not formally running any candidates, many of our members are working on campaigns."

Does Calkin think the dearth of competitive primaries in Rhode Island this year is a detriment to Rhode Island voters?

"Yes absolutely. One of our goals is to hold elected officials accountable and pushing them on the issues," she wrote. "We feel our work over the last 6 years has done that – RI has passed legislation for a $15 minimum wage, passed protections on choice, passed a resolution in the RI Senate to support Medicare For All, and other progressive issues. When people challenge the status quo by running for office, good things can happen."

It's not 2016 anymore

Rhode Island progressives startled Democratic establishment leaders in 2016 when, with the help of the Working Families Party, Providence schoolteacher Marcia Ranglin-Vassell unseated House Majority Leader John DeSimone .

Ranglin-Vassell's campaign shared similarities with many of the successful progressive upsets of the period. They targeted older, conservative Democrats, many of them white, in urban districts that skewed younger with more residents of color and college students.

In more recent years, as formerly Republican suburbs have turned blue, progressives have also targeted affluent coastal areas with lots of highly educated voters.

At this point, most of the low-hanging electoral fruit has been picked.

As the Co-op's 2022 results showed, running left-wing campaigns in the purple suburban districts of Cranston, Warwick, Johnston or the Blackstone Valley isn't easy.

Finding good candidates and campaign managers to take on those races is also tough, especially in years where Democrats aren't particularly united or energized.

As Providence College's Myers explains, "Many of the conservative Dems who faced primary challengers in previous years are not facing any this year (obviously, Senate President Dominick Ruggerio is an important exception). Yes, the legislature has drifted left some, but the relatively low number of left-wing challengers to more conservative Democrats this year seems like the bigger factor."

With the Co-op out of action and the Democratic Socialists of America Rhode Island having sworn off the Democratic Party , the job of backing progressive candidates this year will largely fall back on groups like the Working Families Party of Reclaim Rhode Island. Working Families is so far backing two primary challengers – Kelsey Coletta in Johnston and Giona Picheco in Cranston – while defending three incumbents: Potter and Pawtucket Reps. Cherie Cruz and Jennifer Stewart .

"As RI Working Families Party continues to make year-over-year gains at the State House, some corners of the establishment are looking to send a message in 2024 by propping up challengers to WFP candidates," Zack Mezera , Working Families RI coordinator, said about the different flavor of this year's campaigns.

Mezera said additional WFP endorsements could come over the summer.

Reclaim organizer Dan Denvir said progressive activists in Rhode Island don't currently have the capacity to organize widespread political campaigns and policy-specific legislative efforts. (Reclaim, which will be campaigning in some primaries, is focused on organizing a state tenants union.)

“Progressive proposals like rent control are popular. But we lack electoral infrastructure to recruit and run a sufficient number of candidates who will champion those ideas," Denvir wrote. "And we urgently need something both bigger and more basic than more candidates: we need grassroots groups that organize large numbers of working-class Rhode Islanders."

Of the Co-op, Denvir said its "refusal to collaborate with other Democratic lawmakers and Matt Brown’s quixotic gubernatorial ambitions" were problems, but that the group produced some "great legislators."

Leftward march

In some ways, the low number of primary challenges is a symptom of Rhode Island progressive success.

The state Democratic Party, like the national party, has moved left over the last decade on a whole host of issues.

In 2014, the state had just legalized gay marriage, the minimum wage was $8 an hour (it will be $15 in January) employers were not required to provide paid sick leave and state law did not recognize a woman's right to abortion.

It was easier to make the case that the legislature, with pro-life, pro-Second Amendment Democrat Nicholas Mattiello as House speaker was to the right of voters in many districts than it is with Shekarchi and Majority Leader Chris Blazejewski in charge.

There's a very good chance this lull in contested primaries could be temporary, especially if Republicans retake the White House and Democratic political engagement spikes the way it did after Trump's 2016 victory.

Races to watch

There may be fewer contested Assembly primaries this year, but there should still be plenty of intrigue. Here are seven races worth following:

• House 9 in Providence. Two years ago Rep. Enrique Sanchez unseated three-decade incumbent Anastasia Williams , one of the most colorful lawmakers Smith Hill has ever seen. Now Williams is back for a rematch against DSA-backed Sanchez, a leftist who has not been shy about breaking with leadership. Santos Javier has also made the ballot.
• House 16 in Cranston. Now with WFP support, Potter faces a challenge from Joe Graziano , an employee of Secretary of State Gregg Amore . Potter reportedly did not endear himself to Ruggerio with his vocal opposition to the latest bills to help Bally's casinos.
• House 42 in Johnston. The Cardillo family feud is back. Two years ago Rep. Edward Cardillo took 41% of the vote on the way to beating nephew Dennis Cardillo Jr. after a testy campaign and a three-way race. The non-Cardillo candidate in the race, WFP's Colletta, came in second, with 36%. All three are on the ballot again this year.
• House 51 in Woonsocket. Rep. Robert Phillips was planning to run for mayor, then thought better of it this spring. But by that point City Councilman Garrett Mancieri had set his sights on what would have been the open House seat and is not getting out of the race now that Phillips wants his seat back.
• House 58 in Pawtucket. Progressive Rep. Cherie Cruz is seeking a second term and battling City Hall to get there. Cruz has clashed with Mayor Donald Grebien over Morley Field, and Grebien is backing a challenge against her from Elizabeth Moreira , a former city employee. (Grebien faces a long-shot challenge of his own from Camron Segalla .)
• Senate 4 in North Providence and Providence. Ruggerio has twice beaten progressive challenger Lenny Cioe and is the clear favorite in this latest rematch. But the 75-year-old Senate president has been battling cancer and missed much of the last legislative session, so politics watchers will be interested to see how vigorously he campaigns.
• Senate 28 in Cranston and Providence. The retirement of longtime Sen. Josh Miller has drawn the most crowded primary field of the year. Those vying to replace him are: Lammis Vargas , Darrell Brown , Melissa Carden , Bernice Morris and John Croke .

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: All's quiet on the primary front this election season. What's happening?