Rhode Island Elections ProjectIndependent election information
Candidate profile under construction · Data last reviewed October 6, 2026
Rhode Island House · District 38

Brian Patrick Kennedy

Democrat · Incumbent · Hopkinton, Westerly

2026 candidate
Portrait of Rhode Island Representative Brian Patrick Kennedy

Portrait: Rhode Island General Assembly ↗

About this candidate

Brian Patrick Kennedy represents House District 38 · Hopkinton, Westerly.

At a glance

Democratic incumbent in the 2026 candidate roster.

How to read this page

Campaign positions, election returns, campaign finance and outside scorecards are labeled by source and period.

Official General Assembly biography ↗

League of Women Voters · 2026 voter guide

The October 2026 Chariho-area guide marks this candidate as no response. No questionnaire answers are published for this candidate in that guide.

Read the original League voter guide · page 3 ↗

Browse League guide responses and sources →

Campaign priorities

Campaign priorities under construction

No campaign priorities are currently recorded for this candidate in RIEP’s research. This section will be updated after verification.

Past electoral performance

Districtwide general election results. Select a year to open RIEP’s results map.

2024
Winner · 5,385 votesDistrictwide general election
96.0%
2022
Winner · 3,174 votesDistrictwide general election
57.9%
2020
Winner · 4,128 votesDistrictwide general election
58.1%
2018
Winner · 2,993 votesDistrictwide general election
59.5%
2016
Winner · 3,173 votesDistrictwide general election
53.7%
2014
Winner · 3,115 votesDistrictwide general election
96.9%
2012
Winner · 3,803 votesDistrictwide general election
69.9%

Democratic primary history

House District 38 · Share of votes cast for named candidates.

2026
852 votesDemocratic primary · Official results
66.15%

Rhode Island Board of Elections ↗. Official 2026 results updated September 15, 2026. Earlier primary years are under construction.

Campaign finance snapshot

28-days-before-election report · 2026 · September 2, 2026 to October 5, 2026. Figures describe the stated reporting period.

$2,307.27Total receipts
$7,457.67Spent during period
$62,606.15Cash at period end
View Brian Patrick Kennedy’s campaign finance →

Cash receipts include $900 in individual contributions, $125 from a PAC and $1,282.27 in refunds or rebates; refunds are separate from donations.

Open 28-days-before-election financial report (PDF) ↗

Record in office · 2025–2026 General Assembly

21Lead-sponsored bills
109Bills cosponsored
10Lead bills passed chamber
9Lead bills became law

Session attendance

91Sessions eligible
77Sessions present
14Sessions absent
84.6%Attendance rate

Presence recorded in official House Journals. “Not Voting” on a floor vote is not treated as an absence. Attendance rate is a percentage.

Leadership
Speaker Pro Tempore
Committees
House Conduct Committee · House Corporations Committee · House Innovation and Technology Committee · House Rules Committee · House State Government and Elections Committee

Official committee roster · Dataset updated August 30, 2026.

Experimental · 2025–2026 House

Vote-based ideology

How Brian Patrick Kennedy’s recorded votes compare with other representatives. This feature is under construction and measures voting patterns, not legislative effectiveness.

Loading voting records…

How this is calculated

One-dimensional W-NOMINATE estimates positions from 450 divided roll calls in 91 official House journals. Similar positions indicate similar voting patterns in this vote set. Party labels color the points; they are not used to estimate the positions. The positive direction is anchored to Michael Chippendale; zero is not a calibrated ideological center.

Coverage ends June 11, 2026. Named votes reconcile with printed totals in all 1,210 extracted binary roll calls. Missing votes and recusals are not counted as Nay. Annual fits are separately scaled and cannot measure ideological change directly. House and Senate coordinates are not directly comparable.

This experimental analysis is separate from CEL’s Legislative Effectiveness Score and RIEP’s Legislative Progress Index. View all representatives and methodology → · Official House journals ↗

Bills & votes

Brian Patrick Kennedy’s 21 lead-sponsored bills in the 2025–2026 General Assembly, from RIEP’s official-source research. Passage and law status reflect the recorded snapshot; “Not recorded” does not describe the current disposition of a bill.

Lead-sponsored records · 2025–2026 21 records
BillYearPassed chamberBecame law
H50232025YesYes
H50262025Not recordedNot recorded
H50332025Not recordedNot recorded
H51092025Not recordedNot recorded
H54152025YesYes
H55482025YesYes
H55492025YesNot recorded
H55652025YesYes
H56362025Not recordedNot recorded
H56622025Not recordedNot recorded
H63212025YesYes
H71732026YesYes
H71882026Not recordedNot recorded
H72352026Not recordedNot recorded
H73312026Not recordedNot recorded
H75042026Not recordedNot recorded
H75512026YesYes
H78592026YesYes
H78652026YesYes
H78722026Not recordedNot recorded
H83682026Not recordedNot recorded

Source: RIEP research using Rhode Island General Assembly bill-status records, August 30, 2026 snapshot.

Outside ratings & scorecards

Each organization uses its own methodology. RIEP does not combine these into an overall candidate score.

Legislative effectiveness · 2023–2024

Center for Effective Lawmaking

1.46Expected benchmark: 1.193

Historical score covering the 2023–2024 legislative session. It does not measure Brian Patrick Kennedy’s 2025–2026 record.

Meets Expectations#15 of 66 House Democrats

The party rank compares this legislator with other members of the same party in the same chamber. CEL’s expectations label uses a separate benchmark that accounts for party status, seniority and committee leadership. “Meets Expectations” means a score between 50% and 150% of that benchmark; it does not mean an average party rank. How CEL defines expectations ↗

28Bills introduced
28Committee action
17Beyond committee
17Passed chamber
13Became law
View full legislative effectiveness details

The score weights advancement by bill significance. The expected benchmark accounts for comparable legislators’ party status, seniority and committee leadership.

CategoryBills introducedCommittee actionBeyond committeePassed chamberBecame law
Commemorative00000
Substantive2828171713
Substantive and significant00000

Historical scores

2023–2024 · 1.46 · Party rank 15 of 66

2021–2022 · 1.21 · Party rank 22 of 65

2019–2020 · 1.48 · Party rank 15 of 68

2017–2018 · 1.70 · Party rank 8 of 64

2015–2016 · 1.47 · Party rank 13 of 64

2013–2014 · 1.44 · Party rank 17 of 70

2011–2012 · 2.20 · Party rank 8 of 65

2009–2010 · 1.90 · Party rank 8 of 70

2007–2008 · 1.54 · Party rank 14 of 62

Produced by the Center for Effective Lawmaking at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, not by RIEP. Source report ↗ · Methodology ↗ · Glossary ↗

Experimental RIEP calculation · 2025–2026

Three-stage legislative progress index

1.05#33 of 75 House district records

#33 of 64 House DemocratsAbove House average

View entire 2025–2026 House ranking →

Why RIEP publishes a current-session index

CEL’s Legislative Effectiveness Score is our research benchmark. The CEL data presented here cover 2023–2024 and have not been extended to the 2025–2026 session. RIEP’s provisional index provides a current-session view of bill sponsorship and advancement while that historical score remains available for context.

RIEP uses three equally weighted stages and a House average of 1. It does not reproduce CEL’s five-stage method, bill-significance weights or expected-performance model. “Above” or “below House average” describes this index only; it is not a CEL expectations label.

Compare RIEP and CEL scores for the same 2023–2024 session →

Lead-sponsored bills, bills passed by the House, and bills that became law, compared with all 75 House district records. A score of 1 represents the comparison-set average.

21Lead-sponsored
10Passed House
9Became law
View calculation and methodology

Each stage receives equal weight. Divide Brian Patrick Kennedy’s count at each stage by the corresponding House total, average the three shares, and multiply by 75. Rank uses unrounded scores; equal scores share a rank. Bills that become law contribute at each stage they reach. Cosponsored bills and resolutions are excluded.

75 ÷ 3 × (21 ÷ 2469 + 10 ÷ 648 + 9 ÷ 501) = 1.047541.

House totals: 2,469 lead-sponsored bills; 648 bills passed by the House; 501 bills became law.

Dataset updated: September 22, 2026. The complete House calculation dataset includes all 75 district records, including representatives not running in 2026. These snapshot counts are not a live legislative feed.

Prototype only. This is a separate RIEP progress index, not an update to the Center for Effective Lawmaking’s score or an overall assessment of a legislator. It does not include committee-action stages or bill-significance weights. Party comparisons use the 2025–2026 House roster.

Underlying bill records: Official Rhode Island Bill Status/History ↗

RI League of Cities and Towns · 2025Votes on nine 2025 bills and budget items selected by the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns as priorities affecting municipalities, local authority, municipal budgets, public employees, state aid, and local taxpayers.
6/9

This is the Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns' score, not an RIEP assessment. Denominators below nine reflect absences, recusals, or other non-votes in the League's published scorecard. Source report ↗

ACLU of Rhode Island · 2025Individual roll-call record on 11 House votes selected by the ACLU of Rhode Island as key civil-liberties issues for the 2025 session. The source shows, vote by vote, whether the legislator's vote matched the ACLU's stated position, opposed it, or was absent/otherwise not voting.
6/11

The ACLU selected these votes to highlight civil-liberties issues. An aligned vote matches its stated position; an opposed vote does not. The selection does not cover every relevant bill or capture committee and floor leadership, so RIEP does not convert it into an overall grade.

ACLU of Rhode Island · 2025 voting record

Eleven House votes selected by the ACLU. The labels compare Brian Patrick Kennedy’s vote with the ACLU’s position.

1Economic Justice× Opposed ACLU position
2Freedom of Speech× Opposed ACLU position
3Freedom to Read Act✓ Aligned with ACLU position
4Racial JusticeA Absent / not voting
5Criminal Justice✓ Aligned with ACLU position
6Voting Rights✓ Aligned with ACLU position
7HIV Testing Mandate Repeal✓ Aligned with ACLU position
8Hairstyle Discrimination✓ Aligned with ACLU position
9Criminal Justice — election officials× Opposed ACLU position
10Student Privacy✓ Aligned with ACLU position
11Political Speech× Opposed ACLU position

This is an ACLU of Rhode Island voting record, not an RIEP score or endorsement. RIEP displays the underlying organization-selected record without converting it into a percentage, grade, rank, or aggregate candidate rating. The ACLU states that its selected votes do not cover every bill with civil-liberties implications and do not capture committee or floor leadership. Source report ↗

Endorsements

Published endorsements from outside organizations. Select an organization to view its endorsement source.

NEARI PACE ↗

2026 election · House District 38

AFL-CIO Rhode Island ↗

2026 election · House District 38

Outside organizations’ endorsements, not RIEP endorsements. Sources may include organization lists and voter-guide records.

Under construction

Additional bill summaries, floor votes, earlier primary results and digital footprint research will be added after review.