Sen. Dawn Euer turned back a challenge from former Newport City Councilor Angela Lima on Wednesday, carrying both communities in Senate District 13 in the only contested legislative primary on the Newport ballot.
Euer took 63.33% in Newport, or 1,489 votes, to Lima’s 36.67%, or 862, according to unofficial results from the Rhode Island Department of State. In Jamestown the margin was wider: 73.59% to 26.41%, or 1,145 votes to 411.
It was Euer’s first primary since she won the seat in a 2017 special election to succeed former Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed.
Lima did not leave empty-handed. She finished first among eight candidates on the Newport ballot for the District 13 Senatorial District Committee, taking 17.37% and 1,424 votes — ahead of every endorsed member of the slate. She placed third in Jamestown with 13.06%. Seven seats were available, and she won one.
The Senate race was unusual in that it did not divide along ideological lines. Both candidates campaigned as progressives on housing affordability, health care access and education, and Lima, when asked about policy differences, largely restated her own priorities rather than drawing contrasts. Her case was generational — that after nine years the seat needed new ideas.
Euer, 47, an attorney in private practice, sponsored the 2021 Act on Climate decarbonization mandates and the 2022 Let RI Vote Act, and pushed a 2024 law shielding Rhode Island providers of reproductive and gender-affirming care from out-of-state lawsuits. She is a former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and still sits on it.
Lima, 45, represented Ward 1 for three terms before declining to seek a fourth in 2024. She is chief of government relations for the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island and had labor backing in the race. On the council she worked on stormwater infrastructure and equitable development zoning, and pushed for the installation of Rhode Island’s first Pride crosswalk.
The contest also cut across existing Newport alliances. When Lima stepped down in 2024, she endorsed Ellen Pinnock to succeed her in Ward 1 and Stephanie Smyth for an at-large seat. Both later appeared among the hosts of Euer’s campaign kickoff fundraiser.
Turnout in Newport was about 20%, with 3,034 ballots cast out of 14,972 registered voters. Jamestown turned out at 35%, with 1,764 ballots cast out of 5,079 registered voters, driven by a contested town council primary.
That Jamestown contest produced the night’s other upset. Six Democrats ran for five council nominations, and the only candidate without the party endorsement, Nicholas Insana, finished fifth with 852 votes — 56 ahead of endorsed incumbent John Preece, who placed sixth with 796 and misses the November ballot. Marisa Quinn led the field with 1,216 votes, followed by Richard Smith with 1,041, Mary Glackin with 1,020 and Kirstin Reveron with 908.
Elsewhere on the Newport County ballot, no incumbent drew a primary opponent. Rep. Lauren Carson was unopposed in Newport’s District 75 with 1,470 votes, and Rep. Marvin Abney took 866 votes in the Newport portion of District 73. Sen. Louis DiPalma was unopposed in District 12, drawing 289 votes from the single Newport precinct in his district. In Jamestown, Rep. Alex Finkelman was unopposed in District 74 with 1,315 votes.
The general election is Nov. 3.
Unofficial results are from the Rhode Island Department of State and are subject to certification by the Board of Elections. Election day and early voting were complete as of Wednesday night; mail ballots were still partially reported.
