One of the biggest and most overlooked election stories may have come out of the country’s smallest state. Rhode Island, only 1,200 square miles and home to a little more than 1 million people, is rarely the subject of national political interest. With a majority-Democratic legislature, Democratic governor, and an all-Democratic congressional delegation, the state’s politics might seem sleepy to outsiders. Hiding beneath the surface is a much deeper story. Much of Rhode Island’s Democratic leadership is, put simply, quite conservative. The long-standing (and now outgoing) Democratic Speaker of the House, one of the state’s most powerful elected officials, voted down abortion rights legislation, and has an A rating from the National Rifle Association. Democrats in the state House voted in 2010 to cut taxes for the rich, and in 2011, a majority of Democrats voted for repressive voter I.D. laws. The Rhode Island Democratic State Committee stripped the Women’s Caucus of privileges after the group lobbied for a reproductive rights bill. As a Republican official once told NPR, “[Rhode Island has] a lot of Democrats who we know are Republican but run as a Democrat — basically so they can win.”