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Lincoln Davenport Chafee ( ; born March 26, 1953) is an American politician. He was mayor of Warwick, Rhode Island, from 1993 to 1999, a United States Senator from 1999 to 2007, and the 74th Governor of Rhode Island from 2011 to 2015. He was a Democrat from 2013 to 2019; in 2019, he became a Libertarian, having previously been a Republican until September 2007 and an independent and then a Democrat in the interim. He is the last non-Democrat to hold statewide and/or Congressional office in Rhode Island.
The son of Republican politician John Chafee, who was the 66th Governor of Rhode Island, the United States Secretary of the Navy, and a U.S. Senator from Rhode Island, Lincoln Chafee's first elected office was as a member of the Warwick City Council in 1985. After John Chafee died in 1999, Lincoln Chafee was appointed to fill his father's seat in the U.S. Senate to which he won a full term in 2000.
Chafee was the only Republican in the Senate to vote against Iraq Resolution in the lead-up to the Iraq War. He was defeated in his 2006 reelection bid by Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse. Chafee subsequently shifted his affiliation towards the Democratic Party by first endorsing Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, running as an independent for Governor of Rhode Island in 2010, serving as the co-chair of Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, and then finally officially switching his registration to the Democratic Party in May 2013. In March 2019, he switched his political affiliation again to the Libertarian Party.
In 2015, he sought nomination to become the Democratic Party candidate in the 2016 presidential election, but withdrew prior to the primaries. In January 2020, Chafee filed to run again for president, this time seeking the Libertarian nomination. Chafee withdrew his candidacy on April 5, 2020, and announced he would instead focus on helping "other Libertarians seeking office."
He attended public schools in Warwick, Rhode Island, Providence Country Day School, as well as later, Phillips Academy. At Brown University, Chafee captained the wrestling team, and in 1975 earned a Bachelor of Arts in classics. He then attended Montana State University's non-degree Farrier School (a sixteen-week program) in Bozeman. For the next seven years, he worked as a farrier at Harness racing in the United States and Canada. One of the horses he shod, Overburden, set the track record at Northlands Park in Edmonton. In describing how his time as a farrier affected him, Chafee stated that "when you're around horses, you tend to be a quieter person."
In 1992, he was elected Warwick's first Republican mayor in 32 years, and was re-elected in 1994, 1996, and 1998, when he won by 17% and carried all nine wards.
Chafee was praised for his fair-minded and sensible approach to government, including his ability to work with seven Democrats (of nine seats) on the Warwick City Council. He conservatively managed the city's finances, strengthening the city's bond rating and paying down the outstanding pension liability.
He worked effectively and cooperatively with the municipal unions, especially in settling a difficult and prolonged teacher labor dispute that he inherited from the previous administration.
As mayor, Chafee made conservation, environmental protection, and wise growth a priority. He purchased 130 acres of open space, planted hundreds of street trees, and created new historic districts and a new economic development "intermodal" district at the state airport. His municipal composting and recycling initiatives dramatically decreased landfill waste. His "Greenwich Bay Initiative", which extended sewer service to the most environmentally-sensitive areas of the city, earned Warwick recognition by EPA as one of the best local watershed programs in the nation.
In the general election he faced the Democratic nominee, then-U.S. Representative Robert Weygand. Chafee won the election 57%–41%.
Chafee lost to Whitehouse in the general election, 54%–46%. In response to a question at a news conference on November 9, 2006, Chafee stated he was unsure whether he would remain in the Republican Party after serving out the remainder of his term. According to Michelle R. Smith of the Associated Press, when asked whether he felt that his loss may have helped the country by switching control of power in Congress (away from Republicans and toward the Democrats), he replied: "To be honest, yes."
Known for often disagreeing with the Republican Party leadership, Chafee says he did not cast his ballot for President George W. Bush in the 2004 election, instead choosing to write in former president George H. W. Bush as a nod to the Republican Party of his father. Chafee frequently criticized the younger Bush's record on the environment, and expressed concern about the 2004 Republican Party platform and overall philosophical direction of the party. He described the younger Bush's presidency as "an agenda of energizing the far-right-wing base, which is divisive." Soon thereafter, he rejected Democratic overtures to leave the Republican Party after appeals to him from other Republican senators to remain in their caucus. Chafee considered challenging George W. Bush for re-nomination in the New Hampshire primary in 2004 on an anti- (Iraq and Afghanistan) war platform. In his autobiography, Against the Tide (2007), he states that "In the fall of 2003, part of me thought it was cowardly to oppose the president on so many issues and then not oppose him head-on as he sought renomination." However, he decided not to run after the capture of Saddam Hussein on December 13, 2003.Lincoln Chafee, Against the Tide (2007), p.119-120
On November 17, 2005, he voted in favor of reinstating the top federal income tax rate of 39.6% (which last existed under President Bill Clinton in the 1990s) on the highest-income taxpayers.
In 2003, Chafee voted against the Medicare Part D prescription drug expansion. However, Chafee also cast a crucial procedural vote against a Democratic attempt to kill that bill, which failed by only two votes. Chafee also co-sponsored the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005, which expanded federal jurisdiction over class-action lawsuits, and voted against a wholesale ban on gifts from employees of lobbying companies.
The Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies identified Chafee as a "free trader" during his U.S. Senate tenure, indicating a pro-free trade, pro-market economy, and anti-subsidy voting record.. Chafee has supported free trade agreements (e.g., North American Free Trade Agreement and Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and bankruptcy reform.
As U.S. Senator from Rhode Island, Chafee received grades of D in 2000, C− in 2001, C in 2002, C− in 2003 and 2004, and D in 2005 and 2006 from the National Taxpayers Union, a conservative Taxpayer groups.
Chafee sponsored the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act of 2002, enabling the clean up and redevelopment of thousands of abandoned urban buildings throughout the United States.
Chafee is pro-choice. Lincoln Chafee on Abortion OnTheIssues.org In 2003, Chafee was one of the three Republican Senators to oppose the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. His 2006 senatorial re-election bid was endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice America. He also supported federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
In 2004, Chafee was one of six Republicans to vote against the Federal Marriage Amendment, an amendment intended to ban gay marriage; in 2006, he voted against banning gay marriage a second time. During his tenure, Chafee was the only sitting or former Republican senator to support the legalization of same-sex marriage, until Rob Portman of Ohio endorsed it in 2013.
He supported affirmative action and gun politics, and was one of only two Republicans to vote against the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (which prevents firearms manufacturers and dealers from being held liable for crimes committed with their products). On June 27, 2006, Chafee was one of only three Republicans to vote against the proposed Flag Desecration Amendment.
Chafee opposes the death penalty, and has consistently voted against limiting death penalty appeals in federal cases. He has also favored including racial statistics in death penalty appeals, and making DNA analysis a prerequisite for any federal-level, criminal executions.
On May 23, 2005, Chafee was one of 14 bipartisan senators to forge a compromise on the Democrats' use of the judicial filibuster, forestalling the Republican leadership's implementation of the so-called "nuclear option". Under the agreement, the Democrats would retain the power to filibuster a Bush II judicial nominee only in an "extraordinary circumstance", and three of the most conservative Bush appellate court nominees (Janice Rogers Brown, Priscilla Owen and William Pryor) would receive a vote by the full Senate. Chafee was the only Republican to oppose George W. Bush's nomination of Samuel Alito to the United States Supreme Court. However, he voted to end debate on the nomination, helping to end any chance of a Democratic filibuster of it. Chafee did not announce his opposition to the nomination until a majority of Senators had already publicly said they would support Alito.
Chafee is now involved in J Street, a liberal Jewish group that calls for Israel to withdraw from all occupied territories and advocates for a "two state" solution to the Arab–Israeli conflict.
In November 2006, immediately following the midterm elections, Chafee joined key Democrats in opposing President Bush's renomination of John Bolton as United States Ambassador to the United Nations. On December 4, 2006, the White House announced that Bolton would no longer seek the appointment, and would resign within a matter of weeks.
In September 2007, Chafee officially left the Republican Party, changing his affiliation to Independent. He said that he did so because of the Republican Party's drifting away from its core values, such as its abandoning fiscal conservatism. Citing the party's new tendency to pass tax cuts without spending cuts to balance the loss of revenue, he noted how the party was destroying social programs aimed to help middle-class and lower-income Americans, particularly and Head Start. Former RI Sen. Lincoln Chafee Leaves GOP. September 16, 2007 Associated Press report. Retrieved September 17, 2007. In February 2008, he said he was considering voting for then-Senator Barack Obama in Rhode Island's Democratic presidential primary election. Ex-Republican Chafee considers voting for Obama in R.I. primary. Mark Arsenault, February 8, 2008 The Providence Journal. Retrieved February 8, 2008. On February 14, 2008, with the Rhode Island Democratic primary approaching in three weeks, Chafee officially endorsed Obama. In 2012, he was one of 35 co-chairs selected to "act as key surrogates and ambassadors" for Obama's re-election campaign.
In 2008, Chafee joined the advisory board of J Street, a lobbying group that promotes diplomatic relations between Israel and its neighbors, and supports an independent Palestinian state.
In September 2008, Chafee received media attention for describing Sarah Palin, then-Governor of Alaska and the Republican vice-presidential nominee in the 2008 presidential election, as a "cocky wacko."
On September 16, 2010, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (who had also switched from Republican to Independent to Democratic in recent years) traveled to Rhode Island. Bloomberg praised Chafee's "experience and integrity", saying that Chafee would put Rhode Islanders' interests "ahead of party interests", and that Chafee would "produce results -— because that's exactly what he did as a mayor and as senator."
It was reported that President Obama's lack of endorsement of any of the candidates indicated tacit support of Chafee over Democrat Caprio.
Chafee easily won the endorsements of all major public school teachers unions, including the Rhode Island affiliates of the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers in his 2010 gubernatorial campaign.
On November 2, 2010, Chafee won the gubernatorial race, winning with a 36% plurality in the seven-candidate race.
Chafee also inherited a crisis with impending bankruptcies of a number of municipalities including Providence, East Providence, Pawtucket, West Warwick and Woonsocket.
As a former mayor, Chafee was a strong advocate for the state's city and towns. He increased state aid and intervened to protect these distressed communities.
One city, Central Falls, did declare a bankruptcy. Chafee appointed a special master to run the city on an interim basis, negotiate concessions with labor and retirees, and pass a budget with tax increases. Central Falls emerged from bankruptcy the following year.
A 2012 poll showed that some of Chafee's proposed tax increases, intended to move the state from budget deficit to surplus status, had received negative feedback from Rhode Island residents. As Governor of Rhode Island, Chafee received grades of D in 2012 and B in 2014 from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, in their biennial Fiscal Policy Report Card on America's Governors.
In two of his four budgets, there were no tax increases. At the same time, he restored 20% to local education and higher education, cut by his predecessor.
Chafee championed a bill that legalized same-sex marriage in Rhode Island, signing it into law on May 2, 2013.
Chafee has shown some willingness to deviate from strict "War on Drugs" policies, in favor of alternative approaches to America's drug-crime problem.Ethan Nadelmann (December 27, 2010) Breaking the Taboo, The Nation
This notion of all these failing schools, if this were true, how did America get to be at the status where we are in the world if it were that bad? So I don't buy into the trashing of our public school system. Somehow Brown University, and University of Rhode Island and Bryant University, Providence College are full of public school students that are doing very, very well and leading America in many fields. Yes, there's room for improvement, I don't deny that and I want to be part of the improvement. But the notion that our public school systems are in disarray and failing, I don't buy that.
The game was released in February 2012 to moderate critical success, but failed commercially. 38 Studios ended up laying off their staff and filed for bankruptcy. According to Schilling, Chafee's public comments calling the game a "failure" caused a publisher to pull out of a $35 million deal that could have paid for a sequel. In response, Chafee said he would need to "verify" Schilling's claim, saying that he couldn't "just take it as a leap of faith." He added that it "isn't accurate" to blame the state for the company's collapse.
As chair of the agency securing the loan, Chafee initiated a lawsuit to recover lost funds for Rhode Island taxpayers. To date, about $17 million has been recovered through settlements.
Following a widely panned debate performance and poor polling numbers, Chafee announced on October 23, 2015, that he would be ending his campaign. After she secured the Democratic nomination, a Chafee spokesman said that he would support Hillary Clinton.
Between 2018 and 2019, Chafee and his family moved their residency to Wyoming. By 2018, Chaffee's wife Stefanie had registered as a voter in Teton Village, Wyoming. Chafee completed his move to Wyoming in 2019.
In 2020, Chafee joined the Libertarians for the National Popular Vote advisory board.
Chafee has endorsed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the 2024 United States presidential election. Kennedy initially ran as a Democrat and later withdrew before the Democratic primaries began to run as an Independent.
On March 11, 2019, Chafee officially switched from the Democratic to the Libertarian Party, stating, "It's what I've always been—fiscally conservative and socially liberal." In August, Chafee declared that he'd "be open" to running for president as a Libertarian.
On January 5, 2020, Chafee formally filed to run for the Libertarian Party nomination. He formally announced his candidacy on January 8 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Chafee's 2020 platform highlighted issues such as foreign intervention, the war on drugs, and government spending. While individuals such as former New York gubernatorial candidate Larry Sharpe and national party chair Nicholas Sarwark were supportive of Chafee, others including the Rhode Island state chair Pat Ford were more skeptical due to his historical positions on gun control issues, among other things. According to The Providence Journal, Chafee hired Libertarian consultant Christopher Thrasher as campaign manager and selected Westerly Town Council member Caswell Cooke Jr. for the position of campaign treasurer.
On April 5, 2020, Chafee announced on Facebook that he was ending his campaign for the Libertarian presidential nomination. He did not make any endorsements for president.
Chafee is the only governor to have vetoed a bill proposing the availability of Choose Life license plates to Rhode Islanders, citing an inappropriateness of using state license plates to fund politically divisive initiatives and as a violation of the separation of Church and State. This decision was criticized as a violation of free speech and as having been influenced by his previous post on NARAL's board of directors.
In 2011, as governor of Rhode Island, Chafee challenged an order of a federal court to transfer a prisoner in state custody to the United States government, because the prisoner in question might be subject to capital punishment, which Rhode Island had abolished. At the time, Chafee said, "my actions are motivated by my obligation as governor to safeguard Rhode Island's sovereignty and the integrity of its laws."
Chafee has indicated he is receptive to the idea of legalizing the recreational use of marijuana and in 2006 supported Rhode Island's legalization of medical marijuana. He has praised the Libertarian Party for its “enlightened approach to the corrosive and failed war on drugs.” In March 2020, after moving to Wyoming, Chafee testified in favour of a bill in the Wyoming House of Representatives that would have legalized and regulated marijuana usage in Wyoming.
In 2015 Chafee said he believed "certain of our rights have been wrongfully infringed upon. Particularly the Fourth Amendment which forbids the tapping of our phones without a warrant." While in the U.S. Senate, Chafee was the only Republican to vote against the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which restricted habeas corpus rights of persons detained by the U.S. Department of Defense as .
In 2013, five years after his Providence Journal commentary urging passage of the plan, Chafee signed legislation entering Rhode Island into the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. As governor he also signed legislation creating the Voter Choice Study Commission "for the purpose of studying instant-runoff voting and other advanced voting methods."
In the Senate, Chafee voted in support of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (commonly known as the McCain-Feingold Act), which tightened regulation of "soft money" contributions in political campaigns.
In 2001 and 2003, while in the U.S. Senate, Chafee voted against the Bush tax cuts arguing he was concerned they favored the highest income brackets and about unchecked growth in the federal deficit. Chafee said that "cutting taxes is easy for politicians, we love to cut taxes. It takes responsibility to make sure our revenues match our expenditures and we're not doing that right now."
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