Morgan, a Republican, says she would fight for her constituents and she’s trying to capitalize on issues like inflation and immigration. But Whitehouse has vanquished a series of rivals since first winning his Senate seat by beating Lincoln Chafee, a Republican at the time, in 2006. When former state Supreme Court Justice Robert Flanders ran against Whitehouse in 2018, the race was called in about five minutes on election night. So is pursuing the U.S. Senate the best use of Morgan’s time and energy when Republicans struggle to increase their presence in the General Assembly? Why does she consider herself a better choice than Whitehouse? And what does Morgan, a former chairwoman of the Rhode Island Republican Party, have to say about the presidential contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump? This week on Political Roundtable, I’m going in-depth with U.S. Senate candidate Patricia Morgan.
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Donnis: Welcome back to The Public’s Radio.
Morgan: Thank you.
Donnis: We know how Republicans have struggled to increase their representation in the General Assembly. Considering that, why does it make more sense for you to make a long shot run against Senator Whitehouse rather than seeking re-election in the legislature where you’ve proven popular with voters in your district?
Morgan: I think our country’s in trouble. I think the last four years have put a lot of challenges on Rhode Island families. And I think they’re ready to have the kind of representation that they need in Congress. When I was looking at it this year, I just felt, as hard as I was fighting in the General Assembly for what I call the little guys, everyday Rhode Islanders, that most of the really bad policies were coming from the federal level. And so, that’s where I think I should be. That’s where I should be, so that I can affect those larger policies that are really crumbling the financial security of so many people here in Rhode Island.
Donnis: Back in 2006, when Senator Whitehouse wound up first winning his seat, there were conservative groups like the Club for Growth that contributed significantly to one of the Republican candidates in the primary, Stephen Laffey. This time around, it seems like those conservative groups have not really made any major contributions to your campaign. What does that tell us?
Morgan: They’re really focused on the battleground states and Rhode Island is not a battleground state. I think we know that. Unfortunately Rhode Island is small and it’s often forgotten, but I won’t forget it. I’ll make sure that it has a seat front and center on those policies that really affect the lives of Rhode Islanders. They deserve to have a comfortable and prosperous life. And that’s what I want to have for them.
Donnis: What makes you a better choice for the voters of Rhode Island than Senator Whitehouse?
Morgan: I think my policies will help us bring the cost of electricity down, the cost of food down, the cost of gasoline down. All of those things are really hurting the budgets, the family budgets of every family in Rhode Island. When I go to the grocery store, and I know you go to the grocery store too, It’s mind boggling to me that just a few years ago, I could go in and buy everything I needed for two weeks for about 60 or 70 bucks, and now it costs over 200. I live alone. I can’t imagine what it’s like for families who have to feed a bunch of children and buy clothes for them and get them ready for school. So, those are the kinds of things that I am sure I have a good idea of how to fix them. and, and that’s what I want to do. You understand when our electric rates, you know, our electric rates in Rhode Island are the second highest in the country. Second highest by a large margin over what the average American is paying for electricity. So not only are our families suffering paying these electric bills, this last summer was the first time I got an electric bill that was $349 and then $354 for a month. That’s the first time ever. My electric bill isn’t going down. Nobody’s electric bill is going down. But in Rhode Island, when the electricity is high, when our utilities are high, our heating or cooling costs are high, it also affects businesses and that affects jobs, right? Why don’t, why don’t companies want to come to Rhode Island? Because the cost of doing business here is so high, and one of those costs is utilities, is our electric grid. Businesses use so much more electricity than homes do.
Donnis: Let’s move on and talk about another issue that you’re targeting, which is immigration. You have a billboard up, I believe it’s on Interstate 95, saying “Close the border.” We saw how earlier this year, Donald Trump short circuited a compromise measure on immigration. Seemingly he thought passing that would be a political minus for him. And there hasn’t been a major immigration overhaul since the Reagan administration more than 35 years ago. So doesn’t this show that Democrats and Republicans share responsibility for shortcomings in the immigration system?
Morgan: You know, that law that was a compromise, I don’t know how they came up with it, would have codified all of the bad policies that we’ve seen over the last four years.
Donnis: But it had some conservative support, including from the Border Patrol Union.
Morgan: Oh, well, they were going to get a raise out of it. And honestly, I’m not taking a slap out of the CBP because they’ve been really working very hard down there under very difficult circumstances. But you don’t codify that 5,000 illegal immigrants can come in every day. You don’t make it law that you can have a fast track to a citizenship. And that’s what that bill did. It was, it was just wrong on so many levels. There is H.R.2 that the House of Representatives passed that is much more considered, legislation that really would have fixed some of the problems that are out there. It would have put the Remain in Mexico policy back in place. Just different parts of it. It’s been sitting in the Senate for, what, a year now? And the Senate won’t take that up because it’s controlled by the Democrats. So there are real solutions out there. I agree with you. I think both sides have to start talking to one another and come to something that really is good policy. But that bipartisan bill that Langford negotiated, it was not. It would have only made law all of the bad policies that have led to 10 to 12 million people coming into our country over the, you know, in the last three and a half years.
Donnis: You live in West Warwick, so you don’t, you get to avoid the Washington Bridge most of the time. If you were running the state, how would you, what would you do differently on that issue from how Governor McKee and RIDOT Director Peter Alaviti have handled it?
Morgan: You know, I believe there was a report in 2015. It was an engineering report that said the Washington Bridge was in trouble. So for a couple of governors now, nobody has paid attention to that report. And somehow by ignoring it, we’ve made it better. We’ve known for a long time that there were danger signs on the Washington Bridge. There was a lot of danger, there were a lot of warnings on how DOT was being run, and at the federal level, we just ignored them. We knew those engineering reports were out there. We knew that one of their contractors had dumped poisonous or chemically, what, contaminated soil. But nobody did anything. Where is the oversight? We give states billions of dollars, they waste it, and then we say, well, not our job to look after it. I think it is our job to look after it. I think it is our job to demand that we have something like an Inspector General on every project. If we’re giving a billion, the taxpayers deserve a billion dollars worth of value.
Donnis: Let’s talk a little bit about the presidential race. The Republican candidate Donald Trump says he would absolutely pardon the January 6th rioters. Do you support him on that?
Morgan: I don’t know at this point. I mean, listen, I’m running for the United States Senate. I’m not running for president. I’m running because I want to affect the lives of people in Rhode Island. I think that’s what they want to hear about. I am going to run, I am going to vote for Donald Trump. And when I’m senator, I will listen to the evidence out there. I will dig deeper. But let’s talk about what people care about, which is their lives here in Rhode Island.
Donnis: Well, sure. But at the same time, this presidential election is very important. I don’t think anyone would deny that. And Democrats point to, they call Donald Trump an outlier. They point to how he lies about Haitian immigrants, talking about how they allegedly ate pets in Ohio. He’s praised the dictators who lead Russia and China. He’s the only president in American history to oppose the peaceful transfer of power. How would you explain why he has support from somewhere upwards of 40 percent of American voters?
Morgan: Because while he was president, our lives were better. Our economy was better. People were coming off the sidelines. People who hadn’t worked in years were coming off the sidelines. And it was all demographics. I don’t care who it was. If people wanted a job, if they wanted to make their lives better, they could. Our country was at peace or relative peace. I would guess we were still in Afghanistan at that time, but no new wars were started. We weren’t, we weren’t draining our military. There was not chaos at the Southern border. There was programs put in place.
Donnis: Well, the uptick in immigrant crossings did start under Trump.
Morgan: That’s right, and then he put the Remain in Mexico program together. He got the Mexican government to close their southern border. The flow of immigrants was going down. Was it ever completely stopped? No. But policies were put in place, Title 42. All of these things were instituted while he was president.
Donnis: We’re short on time.
Morgan: And those were problems that were really hurting our country and they are back and they are back way more. I mean, inflation, they say it’s 20. I think it’s more like 40 from what I hear and read from economists. The inflation bite to our dollar, our dollar is worth 40 percent less over the last four years. That doesn’t make our lives better.
Donnis: We’re short on time. Patricia Morgan. I want to get one more question in. You are a staunch supporter of Israel. The situation seems tragic on both sides. We see how tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed. Has the U S done enough to try to minimize the death of civilians in this conflict?
Morgan: You know, my understanding from everything I read is that Israel has done everything possible to minimize the loss of civilian life. Unfortunately, Hamas likes to hide behind their own citizens. You know, they have lost this war. A responsible government would surrender, but they keep going. I mean, they’ve lost. Why aren’t they surrendering? Why isn’t the, why isn’t the world telling them, “You must surrender. You have lost this war. Stop allowing, you know, this carnage in your, in your country.”
Donnis: I need to stop you there because we’re out of time.
Thank you so much for joining us. Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, State Representative Patricia Morgan of West Warwick. Thank you.
Morgan: Thank you.
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With a fresh appointment by Governor Dan McKee, the Rhode Island Ethics Commission once again has a full slate of commissioners. The commission is not without critics, although some observers believe the panel does its level best. What is clear is that the commission is on a much more even keel than during a major imbroglio almost a quarter-century ago. You can read more about that in my TGIF column, posting around 4 this afternoon at thepublicsradio.org/tgif and on what used to be known as Twitter @IanDon.
That’s it for our show. Political Roundtable is a production of The Public’s Radio. Our producer is James Baumgartner. I’m Ian Donnis, and I’ll see you on the radio.
