President Barack Obama named Gov. Lincoln Chafee '75 P'14 one of 35 co-chairs to his re-election campaign yesterday, multiple news organizations reported Wednesday. Gov. Deval Patrick of Mass. is the only other current governor named to the campaign, and many of the co-chairs are current or former government officials. Actress Eva Longoria was also named a co-chair.
Chafee served as a Republican in the U.S. Senate with Obama, though he left the party to become an independent in 2007. Chafee endorsed and campaigned for Obama in his run for president.
Though Hillary Clinton won the 2008 Rhode Island Democratic primary, Obama won the state in the general election with a 63 percent majority, one of his most substantial margins of victory.
When Chafee ran for governor in 2010, Obama did not endorse the Democrat running for the office, Frank Caprio, in a show of support for Chafee. In response, Caprio reportedly said the president could "take his endorsement and shove it."
Last March, Rhode Islanders gave Obama his fifth-highest approval rating in the country at 53 percent.
