Wallin May Run for GOP Chairman

Wallin May Run for GOP Chairman

Former Attorney General candidate Erik Wallin confirmed in an interview with GoLocalProv yesterday that he is considering another run in the near future—in the election for a new chairman of the state Republican Party next spring.

“I was approached and have been asked and have expressed an interest,” Wallin told GoLocalProv.

He declined to specify who asked him to run, saying that a variety of individuals, both office-holders and party members, had approached him. Wallin also received a non-binding endorsement of the conservative Rhode Island Republican Assembly over the weekend.

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The announcement comes after current Chairman Giovanni Cicione told GoLocalProv that he would be willing to step aside if someone else in the party expressed interest in the position.

“The Republican Party needs to rebuild—both its financial and its organizational structure,” Wallin said. “We lost every single … general officer race as well as the two Congressional seats.”

Wallin said he’d make a final decision closer to the spring. He said he also has not decided what to do with his private law practice, which he closed to make his unsuccessful run for Attorney General.

One other potential candidate, according to Cicione, is Travis Rowley, the current chairman of the Rhode Island Young Republicans. “I think Travis gave it some thought,” Cicione said. “Honestly I would like to see him continue to build up the YR organization. He’s done a great job with that.”

Rowley declined to comment.