Raimondo overcame criticism from Fung and Democratic challengers for drawing campaign contributions from the finance industry and for steering more state pension money into high-fee hedge funds. Among her supporters is Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News.

Work Ahead

Fung conceded defeat and congratulated Raimondo.

“The next governor of the state of Rhode Island has her work cut out for her on day one,” he said.

She becomes the first Democrat to win the state’s governorship since Bruce Sundlun’s re-election in 1992. She will replace Governor Lincoln Chafee, who won office as a political independent and later joined the Democratic Party. He opted not to seek re-election.

The race focused on how to revive an economy once fueled by factory jobs that have disappeared. The unemployment rate was 7.6 percent in September, third-highest in the nation.

Raimondo said she would seek to boost manufacturing and stoke the economy by putting more money into public works.

A Rhodes Scholar and graduate of Harvard University and Yale Law School, she co-founded a venture capital firm, Point Judith Capital. She was elected treasurer in 2010.

The pension changes Raimondo pushed came after Central Falls became the state’s first city to go bankrupt, which eventually forced retirees to accept cuts to pension checks. She said the reductions were needed to prevent rising retirement costs from bankrupting other cities and crowding out funding for schools and other programs.

“When I came into office I inherited a pension crisis,” she said. “They said we couldn’t fix it, but we did.”

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