Result
Rep. Robert D. Phillips (D-Woonsocket) won a ninth term representing Rhode Island House District 51 on Nov. 3 with no opponent on the ballot, receiving 2,442 votes, or 96.1% of the total, in unofficial results. His new two-year term begins when the General Assembly convenes Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2027.
Phillips first won the seat in 2010. He has been one of the House’s deputy majority leaders since January 2019.
Candidates and Platforms
Phillips, a former banker with a business degree from the University of Rhode Island, is first vice chair of the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee. In 2023 he introduced a resolution creating a House commission to study putting solar panels along Rhode Island’s interstate highways, then chaired the commission, which issued its report in 2024, according to his legislative biography.
He also serves on the House Rules, Education, Corporations and Small Business committees. He voted against the state’s truck tolls, joining a small group of House Democrats who sided with Republicans, and said 95% to 99% of his district opposed them, the Call & Times reported in 2018.
District and Chamber
District 51 covers parts of Woonsocket and Cumberland in northern Rhode Island. Next door in District 49, which also takes in part of Woonsocket, Democrat Veronicka Vega unseated the district’s independent representative, 51.4% to 47.7%.
Republicans lost two of their 10 House seats on Nov. 3, leaving them with eight members in the 75-seat chamber, The Boston Globe reported. The House will also have one independent, former Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, and Democrats gained two Senate seats.
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