“CVS Health Isn’t Running for Office”: Company, Business Coalition Push Back on McKee Campaign Tactic

As CVS Health’s name becomes increasingly prominent—and increasingly negative—in Rhode Island’s race for governor, the Woonsocket-based company and a coalition of the state’s largest employers have been pushing back.

Gov. Dan McKee’s reelection campaign has repeatedly focused on Democratic primary challenger Helena Foulkes’ years as a senior CVS executive, using the company’s record during the opioid crisis to challenge her leadership and judgment.

McKee’s campaign has made Foulkes’ approximately 25-year career at CVS a central line of attack, accusing the former senior executive of putting corporate profits ahead of patients during the opioid crisis and challenging her record on prescription-drug costs and health coverage. Foulkes has disputed the allegations and said the advertisements misrepresent both her responsibilities and the actions CVS took while she was there.

But the campaign’s attacks on Foulkes are increasingly being seen as attacks on CVS Health itself—one of Rhode Island’s largest private employers and one of the state’s best-known corporate names.

Now, CVS Health is responding directly

“CVS Health isn’t running for office,” the company said in a statement. “Our 7,000 Rhode Island-based colleagues are supporting communities, serving our friends, families, and neighbors across the state. It’s something our employees take great pride in and care about deeply.”

CVS called the McKee campaign’s latest advertisement “a misrepresentation of the work we do every day.”

“We’ll continue to keep our focus on what matters,” the company said.

Partnership for Rhode Island weighs in

The Partnership for Rhode Island, a nonprofit CEO roundtable composed of many of the state’s largest employers, also issued a statement emphasizing CVS Health’s importance to Rhode Island.

“CVS Health is an important employer and a foundation of Rhode Island’s economy,” said Elizabeth “Liz” Catucci, the Partnership’s executive director. “The company employs over 7,000 Rhode Islanders and creates growth opportunities for hundreds of small and local businesses, contributing $3.4 billion to our state’s economy.”

Catucci said the tone adopted by Rhode Island’s political leaders matters when the state is working to retain and attract major employers.

“Rhode Island leaders should embrace a public posture that encourages companies like CVS to invest and grow in our state,” she said.

The Partnership for Rhode Island was founded in 2017 to bring major employers together around strategic investments and initiatives intended to make Rhode Island a better place to live, work and learn.

Its membership reflects the breadth of the state’s corporate, health care, higher education and philanthropic leadership:

• John Galvin, AAA Northeast
• Ted Shallcross, Amica
• Marc Crisafulli, Bally’s
• Brian Moynihan, Bank of America
• Martha Wofford, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island
• Christina Paxson, Brown University
• John Fernandez, Brown University Health
• Mike Wagner, Care New England
• Bruce Van Saun, Citizens Financial Group
• David Joyner, CVS Health
• Malcolm Roberts, FM
• Tom Gilbane, Gilbane Building Company
• Bob Vincent, IGT
• Amanda Dasch, Ørsted
• David Cicilline, Rhode Island Foundation

The statement was issued by Catucci on behalf of the Partnership.

Where Foulkes—and CVS—meet

Foulkes spent approximately 25 years at CVS, ultimately serving as executive vice president of CVS Health and president of CVS Pharmacy. She left the company in 2018 and later served as CEO of Hudson’s Bay Company.

Gov. McKee’s campaign has sought to make Foulkes’ CVS tenure a central issue in the Democratic primary, linking her leadership to the company’s handling of opioid prescriptions and portraying her as a highly paid corporate executive who benefited while the opioid crisis devastated families.

Foulkes has disputed the characterization of her role and CVS’s record, arguing that the company took significant steps to reduce opioid dispensing and strengthen safeguards.

CVS, however, is making a separate point: Foulkes may be running for governor, but the company and its 7,000 Rhode Island employees are not.

The intervention by the Partnership for Rhode Island adds an economic-development question to what had largely been a political and public-health dispute: How far can a campaign go in attacking a candidate’s corporate record before it also begins harming the reputation of one of the state’s largest employers?

The intervention carries additional weight following Hasbro’s decision to move its longtime Pawtucket headquarters and at least 700 jobs to Boston—an unmistakable reminder that Rhode Island cannot take its major employers for granted.

As Rhode Island works to retain businesses, attract investment and strengthen its economy, CVS and the Partnership are now signaling that they believe the McKee campaign has crossed that line.