Lincoln Chafee Presidential Campaign, 2016 (The More Things Changed)

Lincoln Chafee, the 74th Governor of Rhode Island, former United States Senator from Rhode Island, and former Mayor of Warwick, formally launched his 2016 presidential campaign on June 3, 2015 at a speech at the George Mason Center for Politics & Foreign Relations in Arlington, Virginia. His campaign marked the first time a candidate from Rhode Island had sought the nomination of a major party.

Background
Chafee's father, John Chafee, was the senior United States Senator from Rhode Island; he had intended to retire, and not seek reelection in 2000, and Lincoln had intended to run to win his father's seat the same year. On October 24, 1999, however, John Chafee died, and Republican Governor Lincoln Almond appointed his son to fill the vacancy. Due to the proximity between his appointment and the scheduled election in 2000, no special election was called. Chafee was elected to his seat outright with a 57% majority against his Democratic opponent, U.S. Representative Robert Weygand.

Chafee was seen as the most liberal Senator of his party, and faced a tough primary battle against Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey in 2006, which he won by a 55 to 45 percent margin. His battle with Laffey in the primary significantly drained his campaign funds, and Chafee lost to Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, one of six Republican seats lost when Democrats regained their majority in the midterm elections of 2006.

After his Senate loss, Chafee left the Republican Party, saying, "it's not my party anymore". After a hiatus from politics, he announced his candidacy for Governor of Rhode Island in the 2010 election; in a seven-way race, Chafee won the governorship with 36 percent of the vote. Having previously indicated the possibility that he might run for re-election for Governor as a Democrat, Chafee officially joined the Democratic Party in February 2012, shortly after being named one of President Barack Obama's re-election campaign co-chairs.

He chose to run for re-election in 2014, and faced a tough primary fight against Treasurer Gina Raimondo and Providence Mayor Angel Taveras. After winning the primary, he won the general election with just over 45% of the vote against the Republican nominee, Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, and Moderate Party nominee Robert J. Healy.

Ten Points for Prosperity through Peace

 * No Ambassadorship for Sale
 * No Torture
 * No Warrantless Wiretapping
 * Bring Edward Snowden home
 * No Drone Strikes
 * Fair Trade Agreements
 * Reduce Tensions with Russia
 * Repair Relations with Latin America and End the War on Drugs
 * Ban Capital Punishment
 * Go Metric

Governor Chafee's campaign was often centered on foreign policy, and consistently took more strident antiwar positions than his primary opponents.

'''Citizen Equality Act of 2017
The Citizen Equality Act was the centerpiece of Chafee's campaign finance and electoral reform program, largely crafted and promoted by senior advisor Lawrence Lessig. Among its provisions, the act would:
 * Restore and strengthen voting rights (including automatic registration and making election day a holiday);
 * End gerrymandering by replacing current single-member districts with independently determined, multi-member districts in which ranked choice voting is used to achieve better representation of all citizens' views;
 * Establish "citizen-funded elections," in which each citizen is given a voucher to distribute public funding in a decentralized way, with matching funds for small donations out of pocket as well; and
 * Put strong limits on the revolving door between government work and lobbying.

Fundraising
Governor Chafee's campaign relied heavily on small donors. However, two SuperPACs supported his candidacy: Mayday PAC and Honesty PAC.

Caucuses and Primaries
Immediately following his announcement at George Mason, Chafee attended a pre-scheduled event with local Democrats in Grafton county, New Hampshire. Because of his longstanding New England ties, and proximity to Rhode Island, New Hampshire became the crux of his campaign's strategy over the Iowa caucuses, where he finished in a distant 5th place.

In the February 9th New Hampshire primary, the three top-polling candidates in the state - Governor Chafee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and New York Congressman Bernie Sanders - finished in a near-tie. The results of the primary were not certified until the following afternoon, where Chafee finished in 2nd place, behind Sanders and ahead of Clinton by only a few thousand votes.

Chafee's campaign did not significantly contest the Nevada caucuses or the South Carolina primary election, despite winning delegates in each, choosing instead to focus on the Super Tueday contests in Vermont, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Colorado, where he and his staff believed they had a greater chance of victory.

After being unable to replicate his the success of his near-win in New Hampshire, and unable to carry a single state, Chafee suspended his campaign on March 6th, following the Super Saturday contests.