Incumbent Sabina Matos wins Lieutenant governor position over Aaron Guckian

PROVIDENCE − Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos will keep her job for the next four years, after an initial appointment by Gov. Dan McKee.

After a close race for much of the night, a Democrat, pulled ahead with a commanding lead over Republican challenger Aaron Guckian. Early results gave Matos a slim lead over Guckian at the same time as McKee had a much larger lead over his challenger, Ashley Kalus.

Guckian said he conceded the race to Matos, and that she ran a great campaign. WPRI declared Matos the winner of the race with 96% of precincts reporting.

With nearly 98.6% of precincts reporting, Matos' lead over Guckian was significant, 50.9%, or 174,326 votes, to 43.4%, or 148,790 votes.

In her victory speech, Matos said her story is an important one, an immigrant whose family came to the United States, and was able to take advantage of unique opportunities, but her story is not unique in the country.

In an interview after she declared victory, Matos said her heart is filled with gratitude, to McKee and to the people of Rhode Island.

Matos said for the next four years, she plans to focus her energy on housing, high-speed internet access and to see how she can transform the lieutenant governor's office into a champion for tourism. Matos said she is looking to the example of the lieutenant governor of Louisiana, where touting tourism is an official job duty.

Matos said she was concerned come election day because Guckian had more resources than she did in the general election and everyone seemed to be complacent, convinced that she was a shoo-in and the lack of city races to bring out Providence voters, where much of her support is from.

Mail-in ballots, when added to the totals, solidified her lead, she said.

Matos, the incumbent, took the post after her predecessor fulfilled his top duty of replacing the governor, and a Republican who is no stranger to the governor's office.

Matos held 51.1% of the vote to Guckian's 43.2% as of 9:50 p.m. Tuesday night.

Matos, the incumbent, took the post after her predecessor fulfilled his top duty of replacing the governor, and a Republican who is no stranger to the governor's office.

Guckian said Matos is a great person and that once he realized he had lost, he conceded graciously. He said he was surprised he did not do better in some times.

"Obviously, Rhode Island voters made a statement tonight," he said.

All of the results are also available on the dedicated Providence Journal election page.

What does RI's lieutenant governor do?

The Rhode Island lieutenant governor's biggest job is to become the governor in case of resignation or incapacitation, which happened last year when Lt. Gov. Dan McKee ascended to the governorship following Gina Raimondo's resignation to become the U.S. secretary of commerce.

McKee's ascension to the role was the first time that had happened in Rhode Island since 1950, when John O. Pastore resigned to become a member of the U.S. Senate, and the lieutenant governor, John S. McKiernan, took over for the final few weeks until newly elected Dennis Roberts took office. Five years earlier, in 1945, Pastore had taken over from Howard McGrath, who took a job as the U.S. solicitor general under President Harry Truman.

More:Three Democrats make the case for becoming RI's lieutenant governor

Each lieutenant governor in recent years has found his or her own niche, as McKee did in advocating for the small-business community, and his predecessor, Elizabeth Roberts, did in helping to create Rhode Island's Obamacare program.

The lieutenant governor also serves as chairman of four boards: the Long Term Care Coordinating Council, the Alzheimer's State Plan Executive Board, the Emergency Management Advisory Council and the Small Business Advocacy Council.

Sabina Matos: Providence City Council president, lieutenant governor

While McKee and Raimondo had a frosty relationship, Matos and McKee are practically running together, appearing at events together and operating as a single administration, supporting the same projects.

Who is Sabina Matos?Sabina Matos officially launches bid for lieutenant governor

Before McKee appointed Matos to fill the post he vacated to become governor, she was the term-limited Providence City Council president.

Matos' journey to the lieutenant governor's office started when her family came to the United States from the Dominican Republic in 1994 and soon moved to Providence's Olneyville neighborhood from New York City.

If elected, Matos previously said she would work toward helping the state create more affordable housing.

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Aaron Guckian: Opera singer, political aide

During the campaign, on billboards and on his leaflets and pamphlets, Guckian had a unified message: to turn the lieutenant governor's office into a super-charged constituent services center, helping people navigate through the red tape of state and local government.

Guckian previously said he would then take the data collected from acting as a help center to propose changes to the state legislature, and to work with state agencies to solve common problems.

Guckian is no stranger to the governor's office, as he was a special assistant to then-Gov. Donald Carcieri, a job that started in his role as a support staffer on the campaign trail. He drove Carcieri on the campaign trail at night as he worked as an elementary school teacher. After leaving the governor's office, he worked at two banks, then at the Rhode Island Foundation as a fundraiser.

Before becoming a teacher or working in the statehouse, Guckian trained as an opera singer before touring in Italy.

Both candidates made it through primary challenges

Matos and Guckian each won their respective primary races.

Matos went up against two women, Sen. Cynthia Mendes, who was running on a ticket with Matt Brown, who lost in his gubernatorial primary, and Rep. Deborah Ruggiero. Although she was in a three-way race, Matos, the incumbent, garnered 47% of the primary vote.

More:Republican Aaron Guckian wants to make the RI lieutenant governor's office a help center

Guckian won 68% of the Republican primary vote against Paul Pence.

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Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com or follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI's Lieutenant Governor race: Matos wins race over Guckian