With so much speculation about the upcoming race for Rhode Island’s 1st Congressional District, it can be easy to forget that there’s also a race for Senate on the horizon.  Raymond McKay hasn’t lost sight of 2024, however: almost a decade after first considering a senatorial run, the former Warwick city administrator declared his candidacy Thursday at the E vent Factory in Warwick  for the seat currently held by Sen Sheldon Whitehouse.

“It’s a matter of timing,” McKay said.  “The narrative facing our nation keeps shifting, and not for the better.  Somebody needs to stand up to them, and I’m available;  I’m retired now.”

McKay’s job interfered with his plans to mount a senate run in 2014, when he hoped to become the Republican challenger to Sen Jack Reed.  At the time, McKay was working as Warwick’s telecommunications manager, and a city ordinance prevents certain municipal workers from running for public office.  Although McKay brought the case to state and federal court, he was ultimately forced to postpone his run until after retirement.

“It’s not really important if I’m facing off against Reed or Whitehouse,” McKay said.  “Both gentlemen have got to move on at this point.  They’ve been in Washington long enough by now – they need to retire and go spend time with their families.”

At 62 years old, McKay cites his comparative youth as an asset.  Originally from Providence (where he graduated from Hope High School), he currently lives in Warwick. Prior to his 26-year career with the City of Warwick, McKay spent a decade in the Army, working in electronic maintenance for nuclear missiles.

McKay said the ten years since his first attempt at running have given him plenty of time to refine his platform. “My core beliefs remain the same as back in 2014, but the problems we’re facing now are even more complicated,” he said.  “We’ve updated our platform to address these new challenges.”

Key issues

“If I can borrow from Bill Clinton – it’s the economy, stupid,” McKay said.  “The Biden administration has driven up inflation while using taxpayer money to support foreign militaries.  And politicians like Sheldon Whitehouse aren’t calling out the president’s dangerously excessive spending.”

McKay's also focuses on Second Amendment advocacy and skepticism about the Biden administration's environmental policies.  "The 'green' policies they're pushing are irresponsible," he said.  "Solar farms and wind turbines simply can't generate the energy we need.  If you want something clean and reliable, we already have a great option: nuclear energy. But nobody wants to talk about that."

The senatorial hopeful plans to tap into voters’ frustration with a bitterly divided national discourse.  “We’re living in a political climate where many voters are going to reject me without even listening to what I have to say,” he said.  “As soon as I call myself a ‘conservative,’ there are a lot of voters who will interpret that to mean that I’m racist or intolerant, when what I really mean is that I believe in the Constitution.”

In announcing his run, McKay portrayed Whitehouse as an overzealous progressive trying to stoke “division between parties, between races, between sexes, and [between] parents and children.”

Although this “woke-baiting” approach has proven popular in Republican campaigns throughout the country, McKay was careful not to tie his platform to any specific figures within his own fractious party.  “I’ve got my hands full trying to manage my own campaign,” he replied when asked if he endorsed any of the declared Republican presidential candidates.  “I’ll support whoever receives the party nomination, but for now, I don’t have time to focus on the national stage.  My attention is completely on Rhode Island.”

The task ahead of him will certainly require it: most oddsmakers strongly favor Sen Whitehouse in the race, with the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics recently predicting that the 2024 RI Senate race will be a “safe” Democratic victory.  Whitehouse has held the seat since defeating incumbent Lincoln Chafee in 2006; he is currently the chairman of both the Senate Budget Committee and the Narcotics Caucus.  The senator fended off challengers in 2012 and 2018, both times enjoying a sizable lead over his opponent.

McKay acknowledges that the race will be a challenge, but he is still optimistic.  “It wasn’t all that long ago that the state voted for Reagan,” he said.  “There are still former Reaganites in the district, waiting for a leader who will get them energized and ready to vote in change.  I believe I’m that candidate.”

The first step will be filling up the campaign coffers in order to actually mount his run.  “We’re officially registered in Rhode Island now and actively seeking donations,” McKay said, noting that he has collected a bit less than $8,000 so far. He has set a goal of raising $5 million for the campaign.

“It’s ambitious, but I think it’s a goal we can realistically achieve,” he said.  “We’d like to have the money in the bank by the end of next June in order to start buying ad space and promoting the message.  It’s going to take a lot for us to keep up financially with Sheldon’s campaign.”

So far, the Whitehouse campaign has raised nearly $2 million.  Attempting to compete with such an established political brand will require McKay to adopt a creative approach – one which he has modeled after successful tactics used by his local Republican colleagues.

“When Don Carcieri first announced he was running for governor, nobody knew who he was,” McKay said.  “Voters would have looked at the ballot and said ‘What the heck is a Carcieri?’ I was part of the campaign team that had to get his name out there, and we did it through careful advertising and a lot of work on the street.  I’m even willing to take a campaign tip out of the Buddy Cianci playbook – over the next year, if there’s so much as an envelope opening somewhere in Rhode Island, there’s a good chance I’ll be there shaking hands with people."