by Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current
August 28, 2026
At 47 years old with nine years in elected office, Sen. Dawn Euer is hardly the most seasoned lawmaker in a chamber where many members are retirees with multiple decades in their seats.
But her Democratic primary opponent — her first since winning office in a 2017 special election —insists it’s time for fresh blood and fresh ideas in the seat representing Newport and Jamestown.
“I’ve heard no new ideas coming from the incumbent,” said Angela Lima, 45, who served three terms on the Newport City Council ending in 2024.
Yet the labor-endorsed challenger’s campaign focus on affordability and equity — in housing, education, healthcare and environmental sustainability — rings very similar to Euer’s.
Euer led legislation in many areas Lima says she wants to tackle. Euer sponsored the landmark decarbonization mandates of the 2021 Act on Climate Law, the 2022 Let RI Vote Act to expand voter access and ballot-casting methods, and a 2024 law protecting Rhode Island healthcare providers who provide reproductive and gender-affirming care from civil or criminal lawsuits from other states where these practices are not allowed. A private practice attorney and former chair of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, on which she still serves as a member, Euer was heavily involved in negotiations over high-profile gun safety legislation, and, during the 2026 session, the bill amending the statute of limitations on sexual abuse claims against institutions like the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence that is now law.
“That’s something that’s helping real people, bringing justice to victims and helping people heal,” Euer said of the two-year window for otherwise time-barred sexual abuse claims to be filed.
Even longer than her list of legislative wins is her to-do list. Euer named more protections for Rhode Island Energy ratepayers, preventing the company from recouping legal fees and repaving costs from customers, as two priorities she wants to bring back after her attempts were unsuccessful in 2026.
She’s also guarded against attempts to weaken enforcement standards and penalties for landlords who fail to comply with registry and lead certification requirements meant to address childhood lead poisoning. A series of bills introduced, but not passed, in the 2026 legislative session would have reduced the requirements or weakened the penalties for noncompliant landlords.
Asked what policy differences she has with Euer, Lima repeated her own, three-pronged campaign message.
“My campaign is very simple: It is can you eat, are you safe, do you have somewhere to live?” she said.
My campaign is very simple: It is can you eat, are you safe, do you have somewhere to live?
– Senate District 13 Democratic challenger Angela Lima
Lima, who works as chief of government relations for the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island, is much clearer on her personal distinctions from Euer. A first-generation citizen, a queer, Black and Asian woman who bought her home in Newport’s North End with help from a first-time homebuyer assistance program via RIHousing, Lima sees herself as a better representation of the district’s diverse constituency.
“She ignores the most vulnerable,” Lima said of Euer, alleging the incumbent has been “unresponsive” to voters, herself included.
Euer refuted the allegations.
“I’ve been working hard for my constituents to deliver results for the district,” she said, also defending her working-class background. “The experience I have is like the experience of so many Rhode Islanders, working more and more and not able to keep up.”
Euer rents a home in Newport’s Broadway neighborhood. She still has student loan debt, according to her 2025 financial disclosure form with the Rhode Island Ethics Commission.
Euer lives in Newport’s Broadway neighborhood. She still has student loan debt, according to her 2025 financial disclosure form with the Rhode Island Ethics Commission.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, a Jamestown resident and Euer’s constituent, cited her outreach to the community as a strength. Euer is the only state legislative candidate to win Neronha’s endorsement.
“I really respect her work and her integrity,” Neronha said in an interview. “She is somebody that I turn to when I need outside reality checks on things like energy policy.”
I’ve been working hard for my constituents to deliver results for the district.
– Sen. Dawn Euer, a Newport Democrat
Lima is among the 33 Democratic legislative candidates, most with contested primaries, backed by the influential Rhode Island AFL-CIO. The 80,000-member labor federation has supported Euer in the past, though not always with a formal endorsement, said Patrick Crowley, AFL-CIO president.
Crowley said Lima “represents the values of the labor movement,” but declined to elaborate.
Asked about her stance on the charter school moratorium signed into law by Gov. Dan McKee in June — a top priority for teachers unions — Lima, paused, asked for the question to be repeated, and then could only describe her general support for education and the public school system.
Despite not getting the AFL-CIO endorsement, Euer voted for the three-year ban on new charter schools.
Euer characterized the AFL-CIO’s endorsement of her primary opponent as “petty politics,” linked to a leadership feud in the upper chamber during late Senate President Dominick Ruggerio’s battle with cancer, and after his death in April 2025.
Crowley declined to comment.
But Euer welcomed Lima as a challenger on the Sept. 9 ballot.
“I think everybody should have a challenger,” said Euer, who has run unopposed in every primary since the 2017 special election. “Competition is healthy. For me, it has helped me to be a better senator, to be better at campaigning.”
The winner of the primary is unopposed in the Nov. 3 general election.
Rhode Island Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Rhode Island Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Janine L. Weisman for questions: info@rhodeislandcurrent.com.
