Helena Buonanno Foulkes is back for round two. The former CVS Health executive announced Tuesday she’s running for Rhode Island governor in 2026, setting up a rematch with incumbent Democrat Gov. Dan McKee — the man who beat her by just three points in the 2022 primary.
Foulkes, 61, a onetime Goldman Sachs banker turned CVS power player, is gambling that four years later voters are ready for change. But McKee, 73, wasted no time sharpening his knives. Within hours, his campaign dropped a digital ad and microsite blasting Foulkes’ corporate résumé, tying her to the opioid crisis that has devastated Rhode Island families.
“Under Helena Foulkes’ leadership, CVS Pharmacy put profits over people, ignored red flags, and cashed $173 million in secret payments from opioid makers,” the McKee campaign charged. “She got rich while Rhode Islanders buried their loved ones.”
Foulkes brushed past similar attacks in 2022, but this time she’s also facing fire from the right. Ashley Kalus — McKee’s GOP challenger three years ago and a possible candidate again — torched Foulkes as a “corporate raider” who left wreckage at CVS, Hudson’s Bay, and Rhode Island’s failed 38 Studios fiasco.
“Her campaign isn’t a bid for leadership; it’s a liquidation sale for the state of Rhode Island,” Kalus said. “Voters deserve better than another well-connected insider cashing out at our expense.”
McKee, who first took office in 2021 after Gina Raimondo bolted for Washington, is seeking his second full term. The 2026 Democratic primary is shaping up as a bare-knuckle brawl, with Foulkes betting voters are ready to dump the old guard, and McKee and Kalus both eager to paint her as Rhode Island’s corporate villain-in-chief.
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