Political Profile: An Interview with Lincoln Chafee

“There are more wedge issues that divert our attention from the real issues. That’s what I found during my time in the Senate…But the Republicans wanted to send their Republican candidates out to campaign about gay marriage and abortion and flag burning. It’s all about control of the Senate.”

Lincoln Chafee has held office at all three levels of government. He was Mayor of Warwick, Rhode Island, for six years, before serving in the Senate from 1999 to 2007, and then returning to Rhode Island to be its governor for four years. Mr. Chafee began his political career as a member of the Republican Party. In the Senate, Senator Chafee went against his party, most notably in its support of the Iraq War, being the only Republican to do so at the time. Chafee was elected Governor of Rhode Island as an Independent, but he later aligned himself with the Democratic party in 2013. In 2016, he ran for President of the United States, before withdrawing prior to voting. On June 22nd, Governor Chafee discussed with Merion West’s Erich Prince his experiences at different levels of government, voting against his party, the future of the Democratic Party, and polarization in America.

To get started, since a lot of our coverage deals with polarization and coming to the middle, I want to ask you what it’s like to vote against your party. There were a number of notable instances back when you were Republican. You and Senator McCain voted against the 1.35 trillion dollar tax cut in 2001. Nowadays, we have folks like Jeff Flake and Rand Paul, for example, voting against Gina Hapsel for CIA Director. What’s it like to break with your party and be one of the lone couple of Republicans or Democrats voting against the party leaders?

I was very apprehensive about doing that and getting frozen out by my caucus, and anything that I wanted, of course, would never move forward. So I made a very sharp and diligent effort to keep good relations with the leadership. I’d sit at their table at our lunches that we’d have in the Senate. I’d stand up at our Tuesday Group lunch and explain my vote. My fellow Republican senators, at the time, seemed to kind of respect me for it, I think. After I did kind of a rant about the Iraq War vote, I said, “I’m a pro-choice, pro-environment, anti-war Republican.” And I kind of yelled it, and the caucus was quiet for a while, and then Judd Gregg said, “It’s the last one that counts.”