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Lincoln Chafee

Governor

Lincoln Chafee is a proud Rhode Islander, born and raised in Warwick. He graduated with a degree in Classics from Brown University, where he received the Francis M. Driscoll Award for leadership, scholarship and athletics. After graduating, he worked for seven years as a blacksmith at harness racetracks throughout the United States and Canada. When he returned to Rhode Island, inspired by the path of his father John Chafee, he entered politics. He won election in 1985 as a delegate to the Rhode Island Constitutional Convention, and went on to serve four years on the Warwick City Council, nearly four two-year terms as Mayor of Warwick, and seven years as United States Senator. After leaving the US Senate, he disaffiliated from the Republican Party and became an independent. He spent two years as Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies, during which he wrote Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President.In November, 2010, with the help of an excellent campaign staff and a strong community of supporters, he was elected the first independent Governor of Rhode Island, and is currently the nation’s only independent Governor.