The Rhode Island governor’s race is still highly likely to be settled in September’s Democratic primary, but Ken Block’s decision to run as an independent in the November election has added a familiar wrinkle to the state’s political landscape.

Independent or third-party candidates played significant roles in gubernatorial elections in 2010, 2014, and 2018 before Democratic Governor Dan McKee’s blowout victory over Republican Ashley Kalus four years ago.

👉 In 2010, Lincoln Chafee, who had previously been a liberal Republican in the US Senate, was elected governor as an independent by running to the left of Democrat Frank Caprio and Republican John Robitaille (Block was a Moderate Party candidate that year). Chafee became a Democrat while in office, but didn’t seek reelection.

👉 In 2014, Bob Healey earned 21.4 percent of the vote as the Moderate Party nominee, finishing third behind eventual winner Gina Raimondo and Republican Allan Fung. Healey famously reported spending just $36 on his entire campaign, capitalizing on the political fame he earned from a longstanding effort to eliminate the lieutenant governor’s office and solid debate performances.

👉 In 2018, former Republican state representative Joe Trillo won just 4.4 percent of the vote as an independent candidate, but he played an outsize role in the race because he was a thorn in the side of Fung, who was trying to unseat Raimondo. Trillo, an unabashed supporter of President Trump, essentially ran a kamikaze campaign to prevent Fung from becoming governor.

The bigger picture: Block, who has run for governor in the past as both a Moderate and Republican, won’t bring with him the union support Chafee had, the quirkiness of Healey, or the single-minded fury of Trillo.

But he’s not a nobody anymore.

Block is a proven disruptor in Rhode Island politics who occupies rent-free space in the minds of McKee, House Speaker Joe Shekarchi, and other members of the Democratic establishment. He also can make a legitimate argument that he’s done more to take on Trump than any Democrat not named Peter Neronha. Block wrote an entire book about his experience investigating the Trump campaign’s bogus election fraud complaints in 2020.

The question is whether there’s an appetite for Block beyond highly engaged cynics (think talk-radio callers and social media commenters who distrust Democrats but aren’t obsessed with Trump). 

Block’s best path to the State House would seem to be for McKee to squeak through his Democratic primary against Helena Foulkes but somehow remain broadly unpopular among Republican and independent voters. Then again, Chafee’s success in 2010 included pulling Democratic votes away from Caprio (Chafee won Providence by 20 points), something Block may be unable to replicate.