United States Senate election in Rhode Island, 2026 (September 8 Republican primary)

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U.S. Senate, Rhode Island
Democratic primary Republican primary General election
Election details
Filing deadline: June 24, 2026
Primary: September 8, 2026 General: November 3, 2026
How to vote
Poll times: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Voting in Rhode Island
Race ratings
Cook Political Report: Solid Democratic DDHQ and The Hill: Pending Inside Elections: Solid Democratic Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Democratic
Ballotpedia analysis
U.S. Senate battlegrounds U.S. House battlegrounds Federal and state primary competitiveness Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2026
See also
U.S. Senate, Rhode Island U.S. Senate • 1st • 2nd Rhode Island elections, 2026 U.S. Congress elections, 2026 U.S. Senate elections, 2026 U.S. House elections, 2026 Alabama U.S. Senate raceAlaska U.S. Senate raceArkansas U.S. Senate raceColorado U.S. Senate raceDelaware U.S. Senate raceGeorgia U.S. Senate raceIdaho U.S. Senate raceIllinois U.S. Senate raceIowa U.S. Senate raceKansas U.S. Senate raceKentucky U.S. Senate raceLouisiana U.S. Senate raceMaine U.S. Senate raceMassachusetts U.S. Senate raceMichigan U.S. Senate raceMinnesota U.S. Senate raceMississippi U.S. Senate raceMontana U.S. Senate raceNebraska U.S. Senate raceNew Hampshire U.S. Senate raceNew Jersey U.S. Senate raceNew Mexico U.S. Senate raceNorth Carolina U.S. Senate raceOklahoma U.S. Senate raceOregon U.S. Senate raceRhode Island U.S. Senate raceSouth Carolina U.S. Senate raceSouth Dakota U.S. Senate raceTennessee U.S. Senate raceTexas U.S. Senate raceVirginia U.S. Senate raceWest Virginia U.S. Senate raceWyoming U.S. Senate raceSubmit

A Republican Party primary takes place on September 8, 2026, in Rhode Island to determine which Republican candidate will run in the state's general election on November 3, 2026.

Candidate filing deadline	Primary election	General election
June 24, 2026	September 8, 2026	November 3, 2026

Heading into the election, the incumbent is Jack Reed (Democrat), who was first elected in 1996.

A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election.

Rhode Island utilizes a semi-closed primary system. Unaffiliated voters may vote in a party's primary without affiliating with that party. Voters that are affiliated with a party at the time of the primary election may only vote in that party's primary. State law also says: "Whenever an unaffiliated voter participates in a party primary, their party affiliation shall remain unaffiliated."

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

This page focuses on Rhode Island's United States Senate Republican primary. For more in-depth information on the state's Democratic primary and the general election, see the following pages:

• United States Senate election in Rhode Island, 2026 (September 8 Democratic primary)
• United States Senate election in Rhode Island, 2026

Candidates and election results

Note: The following list includes official candidates only. Ballotpedia defines official candidates as people who:

• Register with a federal or state campaign finance agency before the candidate filing deadline
• Appear on candidate lists released by government election agencies

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. Senate Rhode Island

Raymond McKay and Allen Waters are running in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate Rhode Island on September 8, 2026.

		Candidate
		Raymond McKay
		Allen Waters

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	There are no incumbents in this race.
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Candidate profiles

There are currently no candidate profiles created for this race. Candidate profiles will appear here as they are created. Encourage the candidates in this race to complete Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey so that their profile will appear here. You can ask candidates in this race to fill out the survey by clicking their names below:

• Raymond McKay
• Allen Waters

Voting information

See also: Voting in Rhode Island

Ballotpedia will publish the dates and deadlines related to this election as they are made available.

Campaign finance

Name	Party	Receipts*	Disbursements**	Cash on hand	Date
Raymond McKay	Republican Party	$54,185	$49,003	$5,520	As of September 30, 2025
Allen Waters	Republican Party	$0	$345	$1,544	As of March 31, 2025
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2026. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). * According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." ** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election.

Ballot access

The table below details filing requirements for U.S. Senate candidates in Rhode Island in the 2026 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in Rhode Island, click here.

Filing requirements for U.S. Senate candidates, 2026
State	Office	Party	Signatures required	Filing fee	Filing deadline	Source
Rhode Island	U.S. Senate	All candidates	1,000	N/A	6/24/2026	Source

See also

• United States Senate election in Rhode Island, 2026 (September 8 Democratic primary)
• United States Senate election in Rhode Island, 2026
• United States Senate Democratic Party primaries, 2026
• United States Senate Republican Party primaries, 2026
• United States Senate elections, 2026
• U.S. Senate battlegrounds, 2026

External links

Suggest a link

• Search Google News for this topic

Footnotes

[show]

Rhode Island's current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Jack Reed (D)

Sheldon Whitehouse (D)

Representatives

District 1

Gabe Amo (D)

District 2

Seth Magaziner (D)

Democratic Party (4)

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Super PACs/Organizations

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