Kim Ahern won the Democratic nomination for attorney general Wednesday, The Associated Press said, in the closest statewide race on the ballot — and one that Newport County voters called the other way.
Ahern took 36.21% statewide, or 42,066 votes, to 33.04% for Keith Hoffmann, or 38,384, with all 39 communities reporting, according to unofficial results from the Rhode Island Department of State. The margin was about 3,682 votes. Joseph Solomon Jr. took 20.51% and state Rep. Jason Knight of Barrington 10.24%.
Newport went for Hoffmann, who was born in the city, giving him 44.02% to Ahern’s 39.69%. Jamestown backed him more decisively, 51.68% to 26.01%.
Ahern will face Republican Alan Gordon, who ran unopposed, in the Nov. 3 general election. The seat is open because Attorney General Peter Neronha is term-limited after two terms.
Ahern, 41, a Providence resident, served as a special assistant attorney general from 2010 through 2019 under three attorneys general — Patrick Lynch, Peter Kilmartin and Neronha — before chairing the state’s Cannabis Control Commission. She stepped down from that post in October 2025 and entered the race two days later. She is a graduate of Providence College and Roger Williams University School of Law and clerked for Rhode Island Supreme Court Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg.
She campaigned on confronting the Trump administration in court, framing the fight in personal terms around protecting the legality of her marriage to her wife, Jenna, and the freedoms available to their three daughters.
Hoffmann, 38, a Fordham Law graduate, ran on his record inside the office he sought to lead. He served as director of policy under Neronha and before that led the civil and community rights unit.
The four-way contest was the most crowded Democratic primary for attorney general in years, and the split reflected it: no candidate cleared 37%, and the top two finished within roughly three points of each other.
Unofficial results are from the Rhode Island Department of State and are subject to certification by the Board of Elections.
