# Rhode Island U.S. Senate 2026 > [!success] Primary result — September 9, 2026 > **Jack Reed (D) 76.8%** (98,343) over Connor Burbridge 13.4% (17,159) and Luis Daniel Muñoz 9.8% (12,483) — well above his 61% August polling. **Raymond McKay** was effectively unopposed for the Republican nomination after Allen Waters left to run for mayor of Providence as an independent. > November: **Reed vs. McKay**, Solid D. > > **The night's actual story was the governor's race on the same ballot:** Helena Foulkes defeated incumbent Gov. Dan McKee, making McKee the first sitting governor in any state to lose a party primary since 2018. Reed's 77% on the same ballot is the control case — 2026 is not simply anti-incumbent weather. ## Snapshot [[Jack Reed]], 76, won renomination to a sixth term on **Wednesday, September 9** with 76.8% — the safest Democratic Senate seat on the 2026 map behaved exactly as expected, and the two underfunded challengers from his left took 13.4% and 9.8% between them. The primary is on a Wednesday because the General Assembly moved it in late April to avoid setting up polling places the day after Labor Day — the second calendar change to this date (HB 7049 had already shifted it to September). Reed's August polling had him at 61–65% in the primary — he beat it by more than ten points — and 52–34 over [[Raymond McKay]], now confirmed as the Republican nominee. Every forecaster rates the seat Solid or Safe D and none has moved it all cycle. ## Incumbent - **[[Jack Reed]]** (D) — senator since 1997; U.S. Representative (RI-02) 1991–1997. West Point graduate and former Army Ranger captain; ranking Democrat on Senate Armed Services (chair 2021–2025). Re-elected 2020 with 66.6%. Turns 77 on November 12, nine days after the general — if re-elected he would be 83 at the end of the term, which makes this seat part of the Senate age conversation even though nobody is running against him on that ground with any money. See [[Gerontocracy]]. ## Democratic primary (September 9, 2026) — RESULT | Candidate | Votes | % | |---|---|---| | **Jack Reed** (incumbent) | 98,343 | **76.8** | | Connor Burbridge | 17,159 | 13.4 | | Luis Daniel Muñoz | 12,483 | 9.8 | Three candidates were on the ballot: - **Jack Reed** — incumbent. Raised $4.2M through June 30; $3.64M cash on hand. - **Connor Burbridge** — 31-year-old elder-care grant writer from East Providence who co-runs a tree nursery in Smithfield; five years as an Army Reserve battalion HR officer; first-time candidate running as a "New Deal Democrat" (billionaire tax, universal long-term care, public power, cutting aid to Israel). $18,752 raised; **$4,130 cash on hand** as of August 20. - **Luis Daniel Muñoz** — 41, Central Falls native, medical-school graduate and technology consultant; ran for governor in 2018 and 2022. Omitted from the Wikipedia and Ballotpedia candidate lists but on the ballot per WPRI and the state's candidate roster. | Poll | Date | Reed | Burbridge | Muñoz | |---|---|---|---|---| | Pell Center / Salve Regina (LV) | Aug 17, 2026 | 61 | 12 | 4 | | UNH (LV) | July 2026 | 63 | — | — | | UNH (323 LV) | Apr 16–20, 2026 | 65 | 15 | — | ## Republican primary (September 9, 2026) - **Raymond McKay** — **the nominee**, effectively unopposed. Former RI GOP State Central Committee member and former president of the Rhode Island Republican Assembly; lost the 2024 Republican Senate primary to Patricia Morgan 64–36. $163,438 raised, $2,745 cash on hand. Rhode Island Current treats him as the presumptive nominee. - **Allen Waters** — the 2020 nominee, who lost to Reed 66.5–33.4. Left the Senate race to run for mayor of Providence as an independent. ## General election Reed vs. [[Raymond McKay]] plus independent **Michael Bahry**, a Salve Regina lecturer who launched June 8. UNH's April general-election test: **Reed 52, McKay 34**, 12% undecided. Rhode Island has not elected a Republican senator since 1930. No debate has been announced. ## Ratings history - Cook Solid D · Sabato Safe D · Inside Elections Solid D — unchanged all cycle. ## Key dates - 2026-07-13 — filing deadline - 2026-09-09 — primary (Wednesday) - 2026-11-03 — general election ## Intel notes - **The Armed Services succession is the real story.** Reed at 83 in 2033 keeps the Democratic defense-committee line in one man's hands through a period when the party's military posture is being rewritten; the bench behind him (Shaheen retiring, Warren on Banking) is thin. Watch for any mid-term retirement signal after November. - **Burbridge is a measure of how little a left challenge costs to mount and how little it buys**: $4,130 in the bank against a five-term incumbent still produced 12–15% in polling, which is roughly the ceiling the Democratic left has found against institutional incumbents everywhere it has tried this cycle except where the incumbent was already wounded. - **Calendar drift**: Rhode Island has now moved this primary twice. The Wednesday date is a one-off, but it is worth noting as part of the national pattern of states nudging primaries later. ## Related KB entities - [[Jack Reed]] — incumbent and nominee - [[Raymond McKay]] — Republican nominee - [[Gerontocracy]] — the age frame ## Content leads - **Blog**: skip unless Reed signals a mid-term exit. - **Data**: Senate Armed Services Democratic succession map, post-Reed. ## Sources - [Rhode Island Current — "Mission impossible": young progressive takes on Jack Reed (Aug 26, 2026)](https://rhodeislandcurrent.com/2026/08/26/mission-impossible-young-progressive-takes-on-jack-reed-in-democratic-primary/) - [WJAR — Officials prepare for September primaries (Aug 17, 2026)](https://turnto10.com/news/local/rhode-island-officials-prepare-for-primary-elections-in-september-aug-17-2026) - [WPRI — Meet the candidates: Luis Daniel Muñoz](https://www.wpri.com/news/local-news/community-focus/meet-the-candidates-dr-luis-daniel-munoz-for-us-senate/) - [Wikipedia — 2026 RI Senate election](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_Senate_election_in_Rhode_Island)