It was a dirty Republican Primary in the city of Cranston.

In the end, the incumbent mayor pulled out enough votes to secure his spot on the November ballot.

Late Tuesday night, all the votes were cast and most were counted as Cranston State Rep. Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung delivered her concession speech before family and friends gathered at the Asia Grille in Garden City Center.

Both Fenton-Fung and incumbent Cranston Mayor Kenneth Hopkins turned out to vote early Tuesday morning with family. After 8 p.m., when the polls closed, they both joined with supporters and awaited poll results.

Early unofficial results (with 100 percent of precincts reporting), showed Hopkins with 3,470 votes (or 58.5%) and Fenton-Fung with 2,466 votes (or 41.5%).

Hopkins’s crowd packed the St. Mary’s Feast Society on Phenix Avenue.

He arrived just after 8:30 and declared, “Cranston, I love you!” He lamented Fenton-Fung’s “negative campaigning” and said his family, faith and friends got him through.

Noting that he inherited a deficit when he took office, Hopkins said, “I fixed it.”

Fenton-Fung’s husband Allan Fung was the city’s previous mayor. Once allies of Hopkins, the Fungs decided to give the sitting mayor a tough primary race.

“That's what a leader does ... they don't complain, they don't look back,” Hopkins told his cheering supporters Tuesday night.

At the Asia Grille, Fenton-Fung spoke to a hushed room.

The Concession

The candidates sparred for months. It was a race of accusations, counter-accusations, impromptu press conferences and vicious mailers.

“I want to thank all of my supporters — it’s been phenomenal,” she told her family, friends and political allies. “You guys have been so awesome, been by my side and we’re going to be super excited from here on out just looking at what we can do to help Cranston, help this city succeed, we’ll see how this goes in the months and years in the future but I really do want to congratulate [Hopkins].”

Fenton-Fung stopped short of endorsing her opponent and fellow Republican.

“I have real concerns … So before I throw my support behind anybody, I really want to see how that plays out over the next days and weeks,” she said. “I mean, look, I took out the speaker in 2020, and I thought this race would be a bit more about the corruption, what’s gone on at City Hall. I’ll be honest — I don’t feel that I can support anybody tonight until I see more of what’s going on with that entire situation.”

She referenced a recent lawsuit filed against the mayor accusing him of motor vehicle theft. The Hopkins campaign has vigorously denied any wrongdoing.

The General

Hopkins entered the St. Mary’s Feast Society to Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.”

He will now face City Councilman Robert Ferri, the endorsed Democratic nominee.

Ferri was a Republican, but in April 2022, he switched parties to give the Democrats majority control of City Council (the Democrats currently hold a 6-3 majority on City Council).

Hopkins’s November opponent released a statement Tuesday night.

“With the contentious, and at times embarrassing for the city’s reputation, Republican primary election behind us, I welcome Ken Hopkins to the general election, and invite him to run a clean campaign focused on the issues facing the voters of Cranston,” Ferri said. “When I first ran for office in 2020, it was because I lived by the belief that good people can get involved and solve problems for people in government.  I am running for Mayor because we need a leader who will make our city work for its residents.”

Ferri took the opportunity to fire a few opening salvos.

“Simply put, if I thought things were working well in our city, I wouldn’t be running,” Ferri continued. “I will wake up everyday to make life better for parents, seniors, homeowners and renters.  Ken seems more focused on taking care of himself and his friends who he owes favors to.”

Ferri pledged to listen to voters.

“My message to the Republican primary voters of Cranston is that if things didn’t turn out today as you wished they had, I’d be honored to earn your support on November 5^th,” he concluded.

At the Polls

“It was a smooth Primary Election Day throughout Cranston,” Nick Lima, Cranston’s Registrar and Director of Elections, reported from the frontlines around 8:30 p.m. “Over 10,000 Cranston voters cast ballots in these important primaries between Election Day, mail ballot, and early voting.”

According to Lima, Primary Day in Cranston was “smooth.” Most of the evening’s races were decided by 9 p.m., though a few will be decided over the next few days as provisional, limited and manual count ballots are tallied.

“Overall, turnout was fairly light, well below 20%, and as numbers continue to come in this evening, the state Board of Elections will announce unofficial results on its website, and final, official results in the days to come,” Lima said. “Meanwhile, our office will be working diligently in the days ahead to fully close out the Statewide Primary, and will then immediately switch gears to the conduct of the Nov. 5, General Election.”

Late Tuesday evening, he estimated a 17 percent turnout across the city.

As of the Herald’s deadline, early results were transmitted to the state board of elections along with partial mail ballots. It will take a couple more days to tabulate the day-of drop box ballots plus additional provisional mail ballots.

“The Primary is important, and it is a good warm up for us to get ready for the General Election in November,” Lima said.

The city initially had a shortage of poll workers, but quickly overcame the deficit in help and approached the Primary with a full staff.

“We had a great crew today too. We had over 260 poll workers plus another three dozen support personnel,” said Lima. “And we’re hiring for the General. We will need another 50 poll workers for November.”

Rest of the Ballot

While several races were still too close to call at press-time, others were decided as Cranston’s polls reached 100 percent-reporting.

Patricia Morgan will be Rhode Island’s Republican candidate for U.S. Senator, running against the Ocean State’s junior Senator, Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, in the General Election.

Cranston City Councilor Lammis J. Vargas was locked in a tight race with Darrell A. Brown in the Democratic primary for state Senator (District 28-Cranston, Providence), the seat being vacated by current Cranston state Sen. Josh Miller.

Vargas and Brown were leading opponents Melissa Carden, John F. Croke Jr. and Bernice Morris. That race may take several days to definitively decide (in Cranston, Vargas had 709 votes, or 33%; Brown had 700 votes, or 32.6%; but Vargas had a healthy lead in Providence, where only 68% of the precincts had reported by press-time).

The Democratic Primary race for District 42 State Representative was also a nail-biter. Incumbent State Rep. Edward T. Cardillo Jr. struggled to maintain a lead over Kelsey K. Coletta (the third opponent, Dennis D. Cardillo Jr., likely ran third).

Incumbent State Rep. Charlene Lima held out a small lead over challenger Giona A. Picheco in the District 14 Democratic Primary.

Incumbent State Rep. Brandon C. Potter secured a healthy lead over his Democratic Primary opponent Joseph R. Graziano.

Editor’s Note: Herald Publisher Joy Fox and contributors Adam Zangari and Barbara Polichetti contributed to this report. The results in this story are early, unofficial tabulations. Look for final official results in next week’s edition.