Vic Mellor wins Republican CD2 primary

Warwick businessman Vic Mellor will face Democratic U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner in November after defeating Dr. Stephen Skoly in the Republican primary for Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District Wednesday.

Mellor captured just over 58% of the vote, compared with Skoly’s 42%, according to unofficial results from the Rhode Island Board of Elections.

Mellor, a 56-year-old entrepreneur and former Marine who moved back to Rhode Island last year after several decades living in Florida, prevailed over the Rhode Island Republican Party’s endorsed candidate. Mellor participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, march on the U.S. Capitol, describing the event as “a peaceful exercise of free speech rights, emphasizing his stance on grassroots activism and the right to protest government actions” on his campaign website.

On that date, a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters attacked U.S. Capitol Police officers, pushed through barricades and disrupted a joint session of Congress where the results of the presidential election of 2020 were being certified as lawmakers fled. 

Forty two minutes after the polls closed, Magaziner announced he would hold an 11:30 a.m. press conference Thursday outside the State House with police officers who fought to defend the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Magaziner’s press release called Mellor a “rioter.”

Magaziner will be joined by Harry Dunn, who served as a U.S. Capitol Police officer for over 15 years, and Daniel Hodges, a D.C. Metropolitan Police Department Officer since 2014, and a Virginia National Guard veteran. Hodges was attacked by the mob as captured on video. 

Mellor and Skoly met for only one debate, which was recorded at WJAR NBC10 the Friday afternoon before Labor Day weekend. Mellor’s campaign was buoyed by a plentiful amount of self-financing which he poured into his campaign. Mellor reported more than $3 million in receipts through Aug. 20, including $2.175 million in loans and more than $735,000 in contributions from Mellor himself, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

Skoly, a 70-year-old East Greenwich oral and maxillofacial surgeon, reported about $225,000 in total receipts over the election cycle, according to his most recent filing as of Aug. 20.

The general election is Nov. 3.