The bitter gubernatorial campaign has severely dysregulated the state's civic nervous system, prompting an emergency intervention.
Rhode Island has replaced its bitter gubernatorial election with a mandatory restorative justice circle for Dan McKee and Helena Foulkes. The state ruled that their negative campaign is dysregulating the civic nervous system. Ballots will be withheld until both politicians finish their shadow work.
Rhode Island has paused its gubernatorial election to force Governor Dan McKee and challenger Helena Foulkes into a six-week restorative justice circle. The state election commission ruled Friday that their bitter rematch is actively dysregulating the civic nervous system.
Voters reported severe emotional exhaustion after months of negative attack ads, leading officials to realize that traditional voting would only enable a toxic dynamic. Now, the state will not issue any ballots until both politicians complete their shadow work.
"Dan and Helena are trapped in a classic trauma bond," said Dr. Aris Thorne, Rhode Island's lead somatic democracy practitioner. "They are using the electorate to bypass their own healing, and we cannot validate that behavior by handing either of them executive power."
The commission pointed directly to the state's broken $571 million bridge. McKee and Foulkes have spent the entire campaign weaponizing the infrastructure failure against each other. Thorne described the unrepaired span as a literal manifestation of their inability to hold safe boundaries, noting that engineers are now required to read bell hooks before pouring new concrete.
The candidates also traded fierce accusations of opioid peddling and rampant nepotism. Mediators immediately categorized the nepotism claims as a textbook case of intergenerational trauma hoarding. They asked both politicians to spend the weekend journaling about why they feel fundamentally unsafe sharing state resources with strangers.
Holding space for the electorate
Residents largely welcomed the intervention. Six different community groups filed petitions to replace the upcoming primary with a massive, statewide breathwork session. They successfully argued that forcing residents to mark a ballot would make the public complicit in a mutual abuse cycle.
"I was going to vote for Helena because Dan beat her four years ago and I wanted to validate her lived experience," said local voter River Vance. "But then I realized I was just triangulating. Neither of them has done the work to decenter their egos. When Dan talks about being a political outsider, he is just masking his deep fear of intimacy. We deserve a governor who can self-soothe without raising taxes."
The mandatory restorative circle begins next week on the edge of the collapsed bridge, where both candidates will sit on meditation cushions and pass a carved wooden talking stick. If neither can articulate a non-violent communication strategy by November, the governorship will automatically pass to a weighted blanket.
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