Less than 10 percent of Rhode Island’s state legislative primaries are contested in 2024

Rhode Island has 20 contested state legislative primaries on September 10, 2024, the lowest since Ballotpedia started tracking in 2010. That amounts to 8.8% of all possible primaries for the state’s legislature being contested in 2024.

All of the state’s contested state legislative primaries are Democratic primaries—there are no contested Republican primaries. This is the lowest number of contested primaries for both parties since Ballotpedia started tracking.

Ballotpedia defines a contested primary as one where there are more candidates than the number of nominations available.

In an interview with The Boston Globe’s Edward Fitzpatrick, Common Cause Rhode Island’s John Marrion said multiple factors could contribute to the lower number of contested primaries, “There are systemic barriers to running for office that include access to money and access to the supporters you need to run a good campaign,” he said.

Marrion said he believes public financing for campaigns and an independent redistricting process—instead of the state’s legislative redistricting process—would foster more competition.

All 113 seats of the General Assembly are up for election in 2024 and there are a total of 179 candidates running, the lowest since 2014. Among those running are 138 Democrats and 41 Republicans. This is below average for both parties. From 2010 to 2022, the average number of Democrats running was 147.6, and the average number of Republicans running was 54.7.

A total of 104 incumbents are running for reelection in the primaries, and among them, 13, or about 12.5%, are facing primary challengers. That is the lowest number of contested incumbents since Ballotpedia started tracking.

Rhode Island has had a Democratic trifecta since 2013. Since 1992, the state has had 15 years of Democratic trifectas and no Republican trifectas.