Gabriel Amo, a reasonable Democrat who served within the Biden and Obama administrations, received a raucous Democratic particular main election in Rhode Island’s First Congressional District on Tuesday, positioning him to change into the primary particular person of coloration to characterize the state in Congress.
Mr. Amo, who’s Black, beat out 10 different Democrats to win with about one-third of the vote within the deep-blue district with round 90 p.c of the votes counted, all however guaranteeing that he would succeed former Consultant David N. Cicilline, who stepped down in Might to change into the president of the Rhode Island Basis.
He’ll face Gerry Leonard, a former U.S. Marine who received the Republican nomination on Tuesday, within the normal election on Nov. 7 to find out who will serve out the rest of Mr. Cicilline’s time period.
The crowded main race was a tumultuous one throughout an in any other case quiet political summer season season, rocked by a collection of scandals throughout the sector and tensions amongst factions of the Democratic Social gathering. Due to a scarcity of impartial public polling and so many candidates dividing the vote, political observers had stated it was troublesome to foretell how the race would go.
Aaron Regunberg, a former state legislator and progressive who received help from Senator Bernie Sanders, impartial of Vermont, and Consultant Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, was broadly seen as having an edge over Mr. Amo going into Tuesday’s election. He captured a couple of quarter of the vote.
Mr. Amo started the race with little identify recognition throughout Rhode Island, however his marketing campaign was buoyed by greater than $600,000 in donations and help from tremendous PACs. Mr. Amo leaned into his skilled background, which features a stint serving former Gov. Gina Raimondo, now the U.S. secretary of commerce, within the Rhode Island State Home, and his upbringing within the Ocean State.
“The big reason I’m running is my story,” he stated in an interview final week. “I call it a Rhode Island story.”
Mr. Amo, 35, who grew up in Pawtucket, R.I., is the son of two West African immigrants. He often describes his private journey, from his days as a baby chasing after the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority bus to get to highschool to a profession during which he labored for 2 presidents within the Oval Workplace.
He made defending Social Safety and Medicare his high priorities throughout his marketing campaign, along with tackling gun violence, bolstering abortion rights and battling local weather change.
