Gabriel Amo won the Democratic primary for the House seat of ex-Rep. David Cicilline, who retired from Congress earlier this year.
The Associated Press called the race in a crowded primary less than an hour after the polls closed at 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Amo will face Republican Gerry Leonard in the general election on Nov. 7, but the Democrat is the heavy favorite to win Rhode Island’s comfortably blue 1st Congressional District.
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Amo, the son of Ghanaian and Liberian immigrants, served under President Joe Biden as deputy director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and as special assistant to the president, where he was a liaison to local governments. He also previously served in the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs as a liaison to governors and state elected officials under former President Barack Obama.
He had the endorsement of Ron Klain, Biden’s former chief of staff, as well as the Congressional Black Caucus and former Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), who held the seat for almost two decades.
Two other lawmakers attracted much attention during the primary: former state Rep. Aaron Regunberg and Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos.
Regunberg ran as the progressive candidate in the race, having been endorsed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Meanwhile, Matos, the first Dominican American in the country to be elected to statewide office, had the backing of the campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
While 20 candidates filed to run for the Democratic seat, only 12 appeared on the ballot, with one of those, Don Carlson, suspending his campaign in late August after local news reported that he had made romantic overtures to a student while working at Williams College. After originally denying the report, Carlson later admitted it was true.
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Cicilline, at the time in his seventh term, stepped down from his seat in June to run the Rhode Island Foundation. He served on the House Judiciary Committee and was a House impeachment manager for former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial.
“For more than a decade, the people of Rhode Island entrusted me with a sacred duty to represent them in Congress, and it is a responsibility I put my heart and soul into every day to make life better for the residents and families of our state,” Cicilline said in a statement. “The chance to lead the Rhode Island Foundation was unexpected, but it is an extraordinary opportunity to have an even more direct and meaningful impact on the lives of residents of our state.”
