PROVIDENCE — On the morning after her decisive victory, Rhode Island Governor-elect Helena Buonanno Foulkes outlined plans for her first 100 days in office, talking about housing, health care, public transportation, and energy policy.
Foulkes thanked voters in Providence’s Wayland Square before fielding questions for reporters on Wednesday, one day after receiving 57.5 percent of the vote to top independent Ken Block at 28 percent and Republican Aaron Guckian at 13 percent.
Here are five things she spoke about:
Her first 100 days in office
Foulkes said her first step will be bring “top talent” into her administration. She noted that she has vowed to conduct a national search for a new director for the state Department of Transportation, which faced criticism following the abrupt closure of the Washington Bridge westbound in December 2023.
Foulkes said the state can take a variety of steps to address the housing crisis.
“I want to, for example, have a day where we invite modular companies to come talk about how they could set up shop in this state,” she said. “I have an aspiration that by next summer we have many, many modular homes for sale at a price that Rhode Islanders could really afford.”
Foulkes also plans to take quick action to support tenants’ rights.
“Winter is coming, and there were far too many people who were kicked out of their apartments last winter because there was a small but powerful number of landlords that were not doing the right thing,” she said.
Regarding health care, Foulkes said the state could face “a real crisis” with doctors and nurses finding it difficult to practice in this state, and two safety net hospitals — Our Lady of Fatima and Roger Williams Medical Center — that are “really vulnerable.”
“I am starting to do outreach with experts to say, what would one do in this situation,” she said.
More funding for buses
Foulkes said she plans to push for more funding for the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority, which last year made the largest service cuts in its six-decade history.
“I believe very firmly that if you imagine our state in the next 20 to 30 years, public transportation will be a more important part of how people get around,” Foulkes said. “Not only buses, but trains and bikes, and that is the future.”
She said she attended RIPTA listening sessions over the past four years and heard people’s stories about what bus route cuts meant to them.
“Many people talked about losing access to their jobs and probably losing their apartments,” Foulkes said. “In a state where we spend a billion dollars on bridges and roads, and yet still have the worst bridges and roads in the country, I’m quite certain that we can find the $15 million that RIPTA was looking for to restore what they need.”
Electricity bills and energy policy
Foulkes did not embrace proposals that Block and Guckian had made during the campaign to lower power bills by cutting taxes and fees and slowing the state’s transition to renewable energy.
But she said, “Everything’s on the table. The first thing I’ll be looking at is Rhode Island Energy, which is a monopoly owned by a Pennsylvania-based company.” She said Attorney General Peter F. Neronha pushed back on Rhode Island Energy rate hikes, and she will continue to focus on that.
Given Tuesday’s election results, Foulkes said she hopes President Trump realizes the public wants to end the war with Iran. “That will do a tremendous amount to bring gas prices down,” she said.
“In the end, the best way to bring prices down is to lean into solar and wind, which are the cheapest form of energy,” Foulkes said. She said she wants solar arrays installed on 100 public buildings during her first year in office. Harnessing that power with batteries would bring prices down locally, she said.
The State House rotunda
During his 2025 State of the State speech, Governor Daniel J. McKee blocked the public from the State House rotunda, where protesters had planned to gather.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island filed a First Amendment lawsuit against McKee on behalf of the Black Lives Matter RI PAC and Rhode Island Homeless Advocacy Project activists who planned to hold a “people’s State of the State” before the speech.
The two sides reached a settlement ensuring the rotunda would remains open for public use and peaceful protest for the 2026 State of the State address. McKee allowed most — but not all ― of the rotunda to be open to the public during that speech.
When asked if she will rope off any part of the rotunda when she delivers her first State of the State speech in January 2027, Foulkes simply said, “No.”
Campaign spending
Foulkes defended the amount she spent in the campaign. Between January 2025 and Oct. 26 of this year, she far outspent her rivals, pouring $6.77 million into her campaign while Block spent $382,000 and Guckian spent $139,000, according to the state Board of Elections.
“So many people supported my race financially, and this was everything from $10 donations to bigger donations,” she said. “It just speaks to how much people were ready for change.”
Foulkes said the campaign cash was needed because it was hard to challenge an incumbent governor.
“But at the end of the day, I think we won this race because there was a lot of deep emotion and a desire for change,” she said. “I had so many people who were working for me, lifting me up. I was saying last night in my speech that I’m so grateful to the Latino community in particular, for all the work that they did.”
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv.