Allan Fung is heading back to elected office. The former Cranston mayor has won Rhode Island House District 15 as an independent candidate, defeating Republican incumbent Chris Paplauskas and Democrat Colleen Crudele in a three-way race that played out in the same district his wife represented for two terms.
The projected outcome, called by 12 News, marks Fung's return to public office after a career that included more than a decade running Cranston's city government, according to a WPRI report. Fung served as mayor of Cranston from 2009 to 2021, a tenure detailed in earlier reporting from The Boston Globe.
The seat itself carries family history. Fung's wife, Barbara Ann Fenton-Fung, held House District 15 from 2020 to 2024 before she gave it up to mount an unsuccessful primary challenge against Cranston Mayor Ken Hopkins that year, according to the same report. Her departure opened the door for Paplauskas, who won the vacant seat in 2024 by just 26 votes before seeking a second term this cycle, a detail reported by the outlet. WJAR also covered the race's result as part of its news coverage.
A Political Comeback Years in the Making
Fung's path back to elected office wound through a notable detour. The same Globe report notes that he left the Republican Party and filed to become an unaffiliated voter on May 6, setting up his run for the House seat as an independent rather than under the GOP banner he carried for most of his political career.
That career includes a high-profile loss. In 2022, Fung ran as a Republican for Rhode Island's open 2nd Congressional District seat, a race that ultimately went to Democrat Seth Magaziner, as the Globe's coverage recounts. That campaign drew national attention at the time, but this year's bid for a state legislative seat kept the contest firmly local, centered on Cranston's House District 15.
Family Ties Shaped the Contest
The three-way nature of the race — pitting Fung against the sitting Republican incumbent and a Democratic challenger — was itself part of the story. Family ties underpinned the contest, according to Rhode Island Current, which reported on the overlapping relationships and history connecting the candidates and the seat's recent occupants. Paplauskas had been defending a seat he won by the narrowest of margins just two years earlier, while Fung's own political history in Cranston was part of the contest.
A familiar name in Cranston politics is set to return to the State House, in the very district his wife represented before him.
