In an interview with the Globe, Kalus said she has not decided whether to run again. But Kalus noted she did not announce until March in 2022 and indicated she could self-fund her campaign again after spending $4.8 million in 2022.
Kalus criticized McKee for his handling of the Washington Bridge closure and Foulkes for her role as a CVS executive in the opioid crisis. “Helena and Dan, they are two sides of the coin of incompetence,” she said. “What they have in common is they want to hold other executives responsible for their behavior but they refuse to take responsibility themselves.”
Kalus said that, like Foulkes, she would fire Department of Transportation Director Peter Alviti Jr. if she becomes governor. “Governor McKee’s refusal to dismiss Alviti — and his inability to drive a faster resolution — reflect a failure of executive leadership,” she said.
On social media, Kalus praised McKee for attacking Foulkes over the opioid crisis. “Looks like McKee finally grew a McPair,” she wrote.
Last year, Kalus donated $2,000 to House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, a Warwick Democrat who is now also weighing a run for governor. “I don’t want to say he has an obligation to jump in, because no one does,” she said. “But he would be much better than either of the two options.”
During the 2022 race,, McKee labeled Kalus a carpetbagger, noting she’d registered to vote in Rhode Island earlier that year after spending several years in Florida and Illinois. She and her husband, a wealthy surgeon, moved to Rhode Island after their business was awarded a COVID-19 testing contract.
Kalus said she moved into a house in Providence in the spring, and is renting out the home she owns in Newport. She said she spends part of the year in Florida, where she owns three homes, including investment properties. She said lived in Providence when her husband attended Brown University medical school, and they wonder why they ever left.
Senator Jessica de la Cruz, 44, a North Smithfield Republican, has been the Senate minority leader for three years.
De la Cruz said he has not decided whether to run for governor. “I am considering all options because so many people have asked me to run,” she said. “I have to do my due diligence.”
First elected to the Senate in November 2018, de la Cruz said she has found being a state legislator “very rewarding.” She said, “I am not necessarily ready to leave the Senate, so it’s a weighty decision for me.”
She said she will have to decide “fairly soon” because she’d have to identify a potential replacement and raise money for a gubernatorial campaign. She has $64,526 in her campaign account.
Rhode Island has not had a Republican governor since Donald Carcieri served from 2003 to 2011. “We know it’s not purely money because if it was we’d have Governor Kalus at the moment,” she said. “I underestimated how important it is to have someone who is a Rhode Islander or who has been here for an extended period of time.”
But de la Cruz noted Trump did better in Rhode Island in 2024 than 2020. “In Rhode Island, the pendulum has swung so far to the left, and it has to begin to swing the other way,” she said.
De la Cruz has advocated for the creation of a state inspector general’s office and she said it was smart of Foulkes to back the proposal in her campaign announcement. “I would love to have her come and testify in front of the Senate,” she said.
But de la Cruz said Foulkes bears some responsibility for the opioid crisis because of her role at CVS. And she criticized McKee’s handling of the Washington Bridge closure, and said, “He is not responsible for the bridge’s failure, but he is responsible for his response to the bridge’s failure. And his response has been less than stellar.”
Aaron Guckian, 49, of East Greenwich, lost the 2022 lieutenant governor’s race to Democrat Sabina Matos, who received 51.2 percent of the vote while Guckian received 43.1 percent.
Guckian said he is considering running for governor, lieutenant governor, or treasurer in 2026.
When interviewed on Sept. 11, he said it wasn’t the time to criticize potential rivals. “It’s not the day to be smearing each other,” he said. “It’s a time for reflection and prayer for the people lost in 9/11 and for Charlie Kirk’s family.”
Guckian is now executive director of the Rhode Island Dental Association. He previously worked as a development officer for the Rhode Island Foundation, and as special assistant to Carcieri.
He said his Dental Association experience has shown him the importance of improving reimbursement rates for medical and dental care in Rhode Island, plus the importance of attracting and retaining talent in the full range of medical professions.
Guckin also emphasized the need to improve the tax structure for the middle class and to provide support for child care. He said he worked as a public school music teacher for two years in North Kingstown, and said artificial intelligence could help relieve teachers from the burdens of administrative work, helping them focus on classroom instruction.
He has $2,176 in his campaign account.
Elaine Pelino, 71, of Smithfield, filed a notice of organization with the state Board of Elections on July 16. This would be her first campaign, and she hasn’t reported any campaign funds yet.
“I don’t know a guy,” Pelino said. “I am running as a common sense Republican candidate. I want to keep the overhead low and our enjoyment high.”
Pelino said she grew up in Providence and became a cheerleader for the NFL’s Houston Oilers. She moved to Los Angeles and wrote comedy films, including writing and starring in “Vinnie and Angela’s Beauty Salon and Funeral Parlor.” And in 2011, she became publisher and editor-in-chief of Tigress Magazine, a free publication for the “fierce, one-of-a-kind woman.”
Pelino’s campaign website calls for creating “a DOGE-type department/inspector general office to investigate all state spending, and she will demand transparency on monies funded, i.e., Department of Transportation’s allocations for roads and bridges.”
Pelino also calls for “merit-based hiring,” describing herself as a “formidable opponent of DEI and quotas.” And she said she would ”work with ICE and other federal officials to remove illegal felony offenders and illegal welfare abusers from the state.“