Hopkins Leading 54-45 in Cranston Mayoral Race, Thousands of Votes to Be Counted

Hopkins Leading 54-45 in Cranston Mayoral Race, Thousands of Votes to Be Counted

Republican Ken Hopkins leads the race to be Cranston’s next Mayor. Hopkins has 16,159 -- good for 54.6% -- in his effort to turn back Democratic challenger Maria Bucci.

Bucci has 13,301 votes which equals 45.0%.

All machine votes have been counted.

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There is a group of votes in Cranston still to be counted. According to the spokesperson for the Board of Elections, "There were issues with one of the Cranston sticks. Likely BOE is going to run the physical ballots again through one of their machines. The good thing to remember is Rhode Island has physical ballots as the backup in case of a problem like this."

There will be a Board meeting on Wednesday on Zoom, join here: https://elections.ri.gov/calendar/meetings.php

Hotly Contested Race

In the heated race to replace outgoing Mayor Allan Fung, Hopkins and Bucci sparred on a number of fronts. 

Hopkins charged that Bucci refused to explain how she missed 60% of her votes when she served on the Cranston City Council earlier in the 2000s.

Bucci in turn said she was “disappointed” in Hopkins, and that the City of Cranston faces “real challenges” — and that her missed votes were a reflection of her being a young mother and caretake to an elderly family member at the time. 

Hopkins picked up the endorsement of a former Democratic City Councilor, the Cranston FOP, and more in his campaign.