Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee said he was “90 percent there” on deciding to launch a campaign against Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, though he added he had not yet made a final decision. | Jim Mone/AP Photo Lincoln Chafee says he’ll ‘very likely’ challenge Whitehouse in Senate primary

Former Gov. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island said on Wednesday that he would “very likely” challenge Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse in the state’s upcoming Democratic primary.

During an interview with WPRI , Chafee, who launched a longshot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination during the 2016 election, cited Whitehouse’s 46 percent approval rating in a recent state poll as a contributing factor toward his inclination to run.


“Senator Whitehouse just doesn’t have solid support, according to that poll here in Rhode Island,” he said.

Chafee added that he was also tempted to mount a challenge given the fact that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) carried Rhode Island during the Democratic primaries in 2016 over the eventual nominee, Hillary Clinton, whose candidacy Whitehouse backed .

The former governor told the local news outlet that he’d been urged to run by Sanders supporters.

“Their motivation,” Chafee said, “was that Sheldon Whitehouse had voted for Hillary Clinton at the Democratic convention even though almost every city and town in Rhode Island had supported Senator Sanders in our Democratic primary for president.”

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In a separate interview with Rhode Island Public Radio on Wednesday, Chafee said he was “90 percent there” on deciding to launch a campaign against Whitehouse, though he added he had not yet made a final decision.

Chafee was appointed to serve as a Republican senator for Rhode Island in 1999 following the death of his father, Sen. John Chafee. In 2000, Lincoln Chafee was elected to a full term. He was defeated in his re-election bid in 2006 by Whitehouse, who has served in the position since. Chafee went on to be elected governor of Rhode Island as as an independent in 2010, later joining the Democratic Party in 2013.

On the Republican side of the Senate primary, Rep. Bobby Nardolillo faces former state Supreme Court Justice Robert Flanders.

Chafee, who was a member of the Republican Party until 2007, told WPRI Wednesday that “the primary is really the election in Rhode Island.”

“I learned the hard way, losing in 2006, what an anchor that ‘R’ was next to my name,” he said.

