Rhode Island’s 2nd congressional district hasn’t elected a Republican since 1988. Democratic Rep. James Langevin has been in the seat since he was elected back in 2000 but he’s retiring at the end of this term. That set up a race between Republican Allan Fung, who has been the mayor of Cranston, RI for a decade and Democrat Seth Magaziner who has been the state’s treasurer since 2015. Given the history of this seat, you might thing this would be an easy win for Magaziner but some recent polls suggest that’s not the case.

A new poll has found Republican Allan Fung with a lead outside the margin of error for the first time in the race for Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District, buoying GOP hopes of picking up a blue-state seat next month.

The new Boston Globe/Suffolk University survey of 422 likely voters in the 2nd District finds Fung at 45% and Democrat Seth Magaziner at 37%, with 13% undecided and 5% backing independent William Gilbert, who will appear on the ballot as “Moderate.”

This follows a poll last week which found Fung leading by six, but because of the small sample size that was just within the margin of error.

Republicans remain positioned to win a congressional race in Rhode Island this fall for the first time since 1992, but Democrats still have a shot at holding the seat, an exclusive 12 News/Roger Williams University poll released Thursday shows.

The survey of 254 likely voters in Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District finds Republican Allan Fung at 46% and Democrat Seth Magaziner at 40%, with 9% of voters undecided and 4% supporting independent candidate Bill Gilbert, who will appear on the ballot as “Moderate.”

Fox News has a story up today about Fung and some of the help he has been getting to get to this point in the race.

Fung is getting some high-profile help on the campaign trail. As he shook hands with festival goers for an hour, Fung was joined by one of the most recognizable faces in the GOP – former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate who remains one his party’s most effective communicators…

Christie touted that “he’s kind of guy who has principles. People know what he stands for. But he also has a great heart, and he reaches out to everybody who needs him.”

Christie is not the only major Republican to come to Rhode Island on behalf of Fung. House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy, who is in line to become House speaker if the GOP wins back the majority, joined Fung in August. National Republican Congressional Committee chair Rep. Tom Emmer also trekked to Rhode Island to help Fung. Additionally, the House Leadership Fund, the top super PAC aligned with Republican leadership in the chamber, has shelled out $1 million so far this cycle to boost Fung.

Fung’s opponent, Seth Magaziner, has been trying to cast him as an extremist but Fung rejects that characterization.

While national Democrats label Fung as an extreme Republican, he has repeatedly noted that Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer recently said “I was not an extremist.”

“The message isn’t working because I trust the people of the state of Rhode Island, and they know my track record 12 years as mayor. We’ve done the right thing.” He touted that his “message is resonating,” and claimed “that’s why they’re just throwing everything at the wall. Nothing’s sticking.”

This isn’t over until it’s over but Fung has a real shot at being one of the five seats the GOP needs to flip in order to take control of the House.

🇮🇹 We’re all one big RI family celebrating at the Columbus Day Festival on Federal Hill! 🇮🇹#FungForCongress 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/6mQxgTwcSn

— Mayor Allan Fung (@AllanFungRI) October 10, 2022

Here’s a local news report on the race.