Newport City Councilor Xay Khamsyvoravong won his home city by nearly three to one Wednesday, and it was not close to enough.
Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos won the Democratic nomination for a second full term statewide, taking 37.23% of the vote — 42,568 votes — with all 39 communities reporting, according to unofficial results from the Rhode Island Department of State. Khamsyvoravong finished second with 26.35%, or 30,130 votes, a gap of 12,438 votes.
Providence City Councilor Sue AnderBois took 17.34% statewide, former state Sen. Cindy Coyne 13.24% and Ross McCurdy 5.84%.
In Newport, the order was reversed and the margin was lopsided. Khamsyvoravong took 58.58% of the vote, or 1,588 votes, to Matos’ 21.17%, or 574. Coyne took 9.37% in Newport, AnderBois 8.78% and McCurdy 2.1%.
He also carried Jamestown, though by less: 40.13%, or 567 votes, to 26.47% for Matos.
The gap between the local and statewide results is the story of his campaign. Khamsyvoravong entered the race in March as the best-funded candidate in the field, picked up the endorsement of the Rhode Island Association of Democratic City and Town Chairs in June and widened his cash lead through the summer. What he could not do was convert that into name recognition in the population centers up the bay, where Matos has run statewide twice.
Turnout may not have helped him either. Newport recorded about 20% turnout, with 3,034 ballots cast out of 14,972 registered voters. Jamestown, which had a contested town council primary on the ballot, turned out at 35%.
Khamsyvoravong, 41, a director at PFM Financial Advisors, was first elected a councilor at-large in 2022 and was chosen by his colleagues to serve as mayor. He was re-elected to the council in 2024, and his council term runs through the end of this year. He built his campaign around primary care and the cost of living, opening it with a “Pancakes and Primary Care” roundtable at an IHOP near the East Providence line.
Matos advances to the Nov. 3 general election against Republican John Loughlin, who ran unopposed. She won 37% in a five-candidate field, meaning nearly two-thirds of Democratic primary voters chose someone else.
She was appointed lieutenant governor in April 2021 by Gov. Dan McKee, becoming the first Afro-Latina to hold the office, and won a full term in 2022 with 47% in a three-way primary. Her campaign had been shadowed by the collapse of her 2023 congressional bid, when forged signatures were found on her nomination papers. Two campaign workers were later convicted; Matos was not charged.
National Democrats moved quickly to consolidate behind her. Delaware Lt. Gov. Kyle Evans Gay, who chairs the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association, congratulated Matos Wednesday night and called her personal history — immigrating from the Dominican Republic, working her way through Rhode Island College and rising from the Providence City Council to become the first Afro-Latina to hold statewide office in Rhode Island — the story of the state itself.
Gay credited Matos with taking on grocery chains and surveillance pricing and pushing for affordable housing, and cast the November race in national terms, saying Loughlin would be a “rubber stamp” for the Trump administration in Rhode Island. Loughlin, a former state representative and longtime WPRO radio host, has not responded to the characterization.
Matos survived a night that ended McKee’s career. Newport voters broke hard against the governor, giving Helena Foulkes 65.5% to his 34.5%; in Jamestown it was 72.57% to 27.43%. Foulkes won statewide with 62.39% to McKee’s 37.61%, the first time since 1994 that a sitting Rhode Island governor has lost a primary.
Unofficial results are from the Rhode Island Department of State and are subject to certification by the Board of Elections. Statewide figures reflect returns as of Wednesday evening.
