Chafee, Lincoln Davenport (1953-…), served as governor of Rhode Island from 2011 to 2015. A long-time Republican, he campaigned for the post as an independent. In 2013, he changed his party affiliation to Democrat. Chafee was a Republican member of the United States Senate from 1999 to 2007. Prior to becoming a senator, Chafee had served as the mayor of Warwick, Rhode Island’s second largest city after Providence.
Chafee was born in Warwick on March 26, 1953. He received a bachelor’s degree from Brown University in 1975. After graduation, he went to horseshoeing school at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana, and worked for the next seven years as a blacksmith at racetracks in the United States and Canada. He returned to Warwick in 1983. From the mid-1980’s until the early 1990’s, he held management positions at various companies in the area.
Chafee began his political career in 1985 as an elected delegate to the Rhode Island constitutional convention. A year later, he became a member of the Warwick City Council. In 1992, he was elected mayor of Warwick. Chafee was the first Republican to be elected mayor of the city in more than 30 years.
In 1999, Chafee began campaigning for a seat in the U.S. Senate. He hoped to win the seat held by his father, John H. Chafee, who had announced he would retire when his term ended in January 2001. John Chafee died suddenly in October 1999. In November, the governor of Rhode Island appointed Lincoln Chafee to finish the uncompleted Senate term. In November 2000, Chafee was elected to a full six-year term in the Senate. In November 2006, Chafee lost a reelection bid to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, a former Rhode Island attorney general.
Chafee was elected Rhode Island’s governor in November 2010. He served in the office from 2011 to 2015. In June 2015, Chafee began a campaign for the 2016 Democratic nomination for president. He withdrew from the race in October.
