Once the pragmatic mayor of Rhode Island’s second-largest city, Fung is now giving the GOP its first competitive Ocean State race in years with a brand of New England centrism that many in his party believed was already extinct. A Fung win in a district that Joe Biden carried by 13 points in 2020 would be the kind of electoral earthquake that could force national Democrats to reckon with glaring weaknesses that may go beyond a toxic midterm cycle.
And he’s not alone: Fung is among a small cadre of centrists looking to revive the mantle of New England Republican in the House. They’re largely running away from Trump and social conservatism, hitting their Democratic opponents on record-high prices and betting that inflation worries over everything from home heating oil to fertilizer will resonate in the region’s mix of tiny blue-collar cities, wealthy suburbs and family farms…
Instead, the former mayor’s platform is largely a single-issue focus on inflation. And he’s not the only one using that playbook, betting that an unpopular Biden White House has pissed off enough independents — who make up the majority of New England’s voter rolls — and even Democrats to put the GOP within striking distance here.
“I’ve heard moderate Democrats say numerous times that the Democratic party has left them,” said Logan, a top GOP recruit who’d also be one of the region’s first Afro-Latino representatives. “That’s where a moderate Republican is providing an alternative.”
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