Republicans run the show in Washington, D.C., these days, but the GOP remains on the margins in Rhode Island. The state hasn’t elected a Republican governor since 2006 and the party holds just 14 of 113 seats in the General Assembly. Back in 2022, Ashley Kalus got almost 39 percent of the vote as the GOP alternative to Democrat Dan McKee. But Kalus faced a handicap since she was a recent transplant to Rhode Island, and her share of the vote was similar to what a generic candidate might receive. Four years later, Kalus is more ensconced in the state and she continues to use social media posts to criticize the status quo. So is Kalus gearing up for another run for governor? What does she make of the Trump administration? And what is Kalus’ prescription for increasing GOP representation in Rhode Island? This week on Political Roundtable, I’m going in depth with former Republican candidate for governor Ashley Kalus.
TRANSCRIPT
This transcript has been edited for clarity
Ian Donnis: Ashley Kalus, get us up to speed. What have you been up to since you ran for governor in 2022?
Ashley Kalus: I have been living a normal life, I would say. I have been spending time with my children, building businesses, and really just enjoying doing the normal things that I enjoy doing. We were chatting, I just moved from Newport to Providence, which has been really exciting for me, and it adds a little bit of chaos right now, but I think ultimately, it’s the right decision for our family. So that’s kind of a big deal for us.
Donnis: You can make some news with us here right now. Are you planning to run for governor next year?
Kalus: I’m so disappointing and not making, I want to make news for you, but I really don’t know is the answer. I can say I’m very dissatisfied with the current slate of candidates, and I feel like it’s going to be a repeat of the last time, which wasn’t very satisfying to the voters.
Donnis: You seem to think more highly of the Democratic House Speaker Joe Shekarchi, then Governor Dan McKee, or Democrat Helena Foulkes, will it matter who the Democratic nominee is in terms of how you decide whether to run for governor?
Kalus: Yes, it does. I take people as they are, and I do support the housing policy that Joe has been able to get passed, and I, and I do like him, and he is not a criminal, which is a good thing in my assessment, and he hasn’t, doesn’t have the problems that those other candidates have.
Donnis: have, just, just to Be clear, Dan McKee and Helena Foullks have not been convicted of any crimes.
Kalus: Right, right. So let me explain the problems. So I mean, if you want me to, I find that those candidates are completely unacceptable and should be morally unacceptable to the Democrat party. I understand, as a Republican, it’s not my place to talk about their house, so I try to be respectful of that. But what you have is Dan McKee, who has just shown to be a failure in terms of the Washington Bridge, in terms of his conduct during contracting. And then you have Helena Foulkes, who is not an outsider and has never succeeded in anything in her career. I would not call her tenure at CVS, where she was the head of pharmacy, which caused a public health crisis, as a success. I wouldn’t call Hudson Bay that ended up going bankrupt as a success. And I also am concerned about the labor issues at Costco, so I can go through the list, and I don’t want to be negative, because there is a positive side to it, which is that we may have good choices, and I am not particularly partisan. I just want the right people for the job, and they may be nice people.
Donnis: Let me pause you there. We have an open invitation for Helena Foulkes to join us if she would like to, and we’ve had Governor McKee on our air as recently as this week.
Kalus: Hasn’t she turned you down twice or canceled on you twice?
Donnis: That is correct.
Kalus: I don’t cancel on you.
Donnis: We appreciate your being here. Are you aware of any other Republicans who are kicking the tires on a possible run for governor next year?
Kalus: You know I am not. I would encourage anyone that feels like they have the ability to contribute to run. The way that I see it right now is that there are really two parties, in my mind, and it’s not that traditional divide. It’s the individuals that are okay with the status quo, and there’s the opposition. I’m the opposition. I am not okay with our housing crisis, with our lack of progress on schools and our lack of progress with affordability, and also the sort of general policies that are not accomplishing the change that we need to have in Rhode Island. So it’s a very simple question in terms of, are you with the status quo? Are you with the opposition? Sort of, to quote the old labor thing, which side are you on? You have to pick a side.
Donnis: I want to take your temperature on a couple of national issues. This week, we saw how President Trump mobilized National Guardsmen in Los Angeles over the lack of consent from California Governor Gavin Newsom, as well as 700 active duty Marines. Do you think this is a precedent in which President Trump is going to be deploying the military against protests around the US?
Kalus: I don’t think so. I don’t understand so this is coming from someone who I had a business in Chicago during the 2020 riots, and generally, the reason a governor deploys National Guard is various reasons, but one is because the police force are unable to respond to normal calls like domestic violence calls. We had a time where we couldn’t open up our surgical facility because we weren’t sure that if there was an emergency we could get the care that was required. We couldn’t get an ambulance. We couldn’t get the police that we needed, so we just had to cancel surgery that day. So these protests do cause disturbances, and generally, the National Guard is required of us, just to keep the peace and also free up the police force. So I don’ know what went down where that wasn’t a normal solution to just have the governor call the National Guard out but, but when people are are rioting and the police force can’t take care of people and maintain public safety, that is the answer that needs to happen.
Donnis: Is it hypocritical for Donald Trump to have done this while at the same time pardoning people who assaulted law enforcement during the riot on January 6.
Kalus: Hypocritical. I’m sorry.
Donnis: Hypocritical in the sense that he did not call on the National Guard or other military forces to intervene. He essentially let the riot play out at a time when law enforcement was under siege and was being assaulted in the US Capitol.
Kalus: I mean, I’m asked about the LA riots, so I would say is, like, somebody needed to get additional people there. Generally, it’s the governor. I’m also a states rights person, so I would say, like, I would feel, usually it’s the governor that does that because it protects the police because they get hurt. So the thing that I am focused on is somebody needed to be there to protect the protesters. You have to also keep this in mind, and maybe this is the UMass, sort of like, you know, I was very into community organizing and protesting all through my college years, but you have to keep the protesters safe as well in one of those events, and that’s the responsibility of organizers, and so that force, while it can seem to be aggressive, doesn’t need to be, because those organizers have a responsibility to keep people’s children safe, and there are bad actors that get involved.
Donnis: Let me stop you there, because we have a lot of ground to cover. Just let’s leave this with a yes or no. Was it wrong for President Trump to pardon the rioters who assaulted law enforcement?
Kalus: I mean, if it’s framed that way, it’s not something that I would do.
Donnis: Let’s come back to the state issues, which you say you’re more interested in. Jobs and the economy. You talk about the status quo, not getting it done. What do you think should be different, done differently on jobs in the economy?
Kalus: So we need to differentiate ourselves. So we can talk about regulations, but we need different ideas. So one way that we can grow the economy, and this also feeds into the healthcare crisis, which is really my concern, and also kind of my area of expertise. I worked in health care for almost my entire career, is we need to find a way to expand health care. One way that we can do that, I’m going to get to the economy, because you’re like, what does this have to do with the economy? Is that we can become the Delaware of telemedicine, and change the way that we license doctors and the way that we think of how health care is provisioned throughout the country. And what that would look like is, if you have a license somewhere else in the country, Rhode Island can expedite a telemedicine license, and you can treat patients not only in Rhode Island, but around the country. Would there be some objection to this, absolutely, but we can be a leader in this space, and with that, we can get a lot of licensing income from those doctors who are applying. And we can also start an industry and bring telemedicine companies to Rhode Island. That’s one way that we can do with what we have.
Donnis: As far as the status quo goes, we hear Republicans sometimes criticize Democrats and say they have ownership over any shortcomings in the state, because they’ve been running it for so long, but the GOP has just not been competitive as an alternative party. The last Republican here was elected governor in 2006. Republicans hold only 14 of 113 seats in the General Assembly. Why is the Republican Party in Rhode Island failing to capture the support of Rhode Islanders?
Kalus: I mean, I would ask you that question, why are we not competitive? I mean, I think that the ideas are good. I focus on policy. My telemedicine idea will expand healthcare and create a whole new economic industry in Rhode Island. My idea on housing, the one that Dan McKee laughed about how many units I can have, we now have a housing bond, and we can use that to allow individuals to build ADUs, homeowners to build ADUs at a low interest rate. And I believe if we put that in the hands of Rhode Island and work with cities and towns to come up with an acceptable ADU, which deals with parking privacy and the normal concerns. We will build more housing stock.
Donnis: ADUs are accessible [accessory] dwelling units, and the state did expand the ability to develop those.
Kalus: But let’s do it in a way where people are empowered themselves. I believe that Rhode Islanders, if they have an access to low interest loans, they can build ADUs on their property at an affordable rate, and they will be able to do so. We can’t wait years and years and years for development projects. We have an emergency, and I think a lot of the policy right now is not meeting the moment. Some of it’s really, really good, but it’s eight to 10 years out, and you can’t do that in a crisis.
Donnis: We’ve heard a lot for years about the problem of income inequality in America. Liberals or Democrats seem to say that a lot of this should be changed through tax policy. Conservatives or Republicans say it should be developed through more business growth. What do you think should be done to address this in Rhode Island?
Kalus: I mean, I think business growth. You know, that’s the right line. I think that we need to grow the economy. I don’t think the I mean, it depends on what type of tax structure you think of. I have always been, I don’t think non-productive income that comes from investments should be taxed at a lower rate as productive income. But that’s also because of my sort of labor history, it just doesn’t make sense to me. So my idea on tax policy does not align with the traditional Republican policy. But I also don’t think that we can continue to raise taxes and not deal with the fact that we’re not delivering services. As a person, I’m okay for paying more if I’m getting value. And the real issue in Rhode Island is that people, and I don’t feel like I’m getting value for what I’m paying taxes for, and I think a lot of that comes down to a competent delivery of services and programs and policies that are targeted in that work. And you also can’t do things like rig bids. You have to have a government that has some checks and balances to control things, so that government is run ethically and in a way that there are checks and a one party system, even if it’s just all Republicans is really, really bad for a state.
Donnis: I’ve got to stop you there, because we’re out of time. Thank you so much for joining us. 2022 Republican candidate for governor, Ashley Kalus.
Kalus: Thank you so much.
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The new state budget proposal was cobbled together with some nips and tucks and a heightened emphasis on healthcare. You can read more about that in my Friday TGIF column, posting by 4 this afternoon on X, Threads, Bluesky, Facebook and at the publicsradio.org/TGIF. That’s it for our show. Political Roundtable is a production of The Public’s Radio. Our producer is James Baumgartner. Our editor is Jeremy Bernfeld. I’m Ian Donnis, and I’ll see you on the radio.
