2020 United States Senate election in Rhode Island
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Nominee Jack Reed Allen Waters
Party Democratic Republican
Popular vote 328,574 164,855
Percentage 66.48% 33.35%
Reed:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90%
Waters:      50–60%
     No votes
U.S. senator before election

Jack Reed
Democratic

Elected U.S. Senator

Jack Reed
Democratic

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The 2020 United States Senate election in Rhode Island was held on November 3, 2020, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Rhode Island, concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Incumbent Democratic Senator Jack Reed was challenged by Republican nominee Allen Waters. Waters was later disavowed by the state Republican Party after charges of domestic assault in 2019 became public.[1]

Reed easily won a fifth term in office with 66.5% of the vote and a 33.1% margin. Despite Reed's clear landslide victory, this was actually Reed's worst Senate re-election performance, and the first time since 1996 in which he failed to receive at least 70% of the vote. Nevertheless, Reed outperformed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden by 7.2% in the concurrent presidential election, the largest overperformance by any Democratic Senate candidate in 2020.[2]

Democratic primary

Candidates

Nominee

Primary results

Democratic primary results[4]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Jack Reed (incumbent) 65,859 100.0%
Total votes 65,859 100.0%

Republican primary

Candidates

Nominee

Primary results

Republican primary results[4]
Party Candidate Votes %
Republican Allen Waters 8,819 100.0%
Total votes 8,819 100.0%

Independents

Disqualified

General election

Predictions

Source Ranking As of
The Cook Political Report[7] Safe D October 29, 2020
Inside Elections[8] Safe D October 28, 2020
Sabato's Crystal Ball[9] Safe D November 2, 2020
Daily Kos[10] Safe D October 30, 2020
Politico[11] Safe D November 2, 2020
RCP[12] Safe D October 23, 2020
DDHQ[13] Safe D November 3, 2020
538[14] Safe D November 2, 2020
Economist[15] Safe D November 2, 2020

Results

United States Senate election in Rhode Island, 2020[16]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Democratic Jack Reed (incumbent) 328,574 66.48% -4.10%
Republican Allen Waters 164,855 33.35% +4.10%
Write-in 833 0.17% ±0.00%
Total votes 494,262 100.0%
Democratic hold
By municipality
Municipality Jack Reed
Democratic 		Allen Waters
Republican 		Write-in Margin Total
votes
# % # % # % # %
Barrington 7,778 73.91 2,733 25.97 13 0.12 5,045 47.94 10,524
Bristol 7,512 67.18 3,653 32.67 17 0.15 3,859 34.51 11,182
Burrillville 3,876 47.33 4,299 52.50 14 0.17 -423 -5.17 8,189
Central Falls 3,002 81.84 658 17.94 8 0.22 2,344 63.90 3,668
Charlestown 3,044 61.01 1,940 38.89 5 0.10 1,104 22.13 4,989
Coventry 10,440 54.22 8,788 45.64 25 0.13 1,652 8.58 19,253
Cranston 22,591 61.81 13,907 38.05 48 0.13 8,684 23.76 36,546
Cumberland 11,640 62.06 7,089 37.80 26 0.14 4,551 24.27 18,755
East Greenwich 5,451 64.52 2,993 35.43 4 0.05 2,458 29.10 8,448
East Providence 15,663 70.96 6,363 28.83 47 0.21 9,300 42.13 22,073
Exeter 2,165 54.80 1,785 45.18 1 0.02 380 9.62 3,951
Foster 1,330 48.56 1,407 51.37 2 0.07 -77 -2.81 2,739
Glocester 2,910 49.40 2,971 50.44 9 0.15 -61 -1.04 5,890
Hopkinton 2,522 54.36 2,109 45.46 8 0.17 413 8.90 4,639
Jamestown 2,952 74.06 1,028 25.79 6 0.15 1,924 48.27 3,986
Johnston 8,273 56.89 6,247 42.96 22 0.15 2,026 13.93 14,542
Lincoln 7,514 61.30 4,721 38.51 23 0.19 2,793 22.79 12,258
Little Compton 1,594 64.93 858 34.95 3 0.12 736 29.98 2,455
Middletown 5,750 70.45 2,404 29.45 8 0.10 3,346 40.99 8,162
Narragansett 5,769 65.90 2,973 33.96 12 0.14 2,796 31.94 8,754
New Shoreham 728 80.09 180 19.80 1 0.11 548 60.29 909
Newport 7,917 77.58 2,276 22.30 12 0.12 5,641 55.28 10,205
North Kingstown 11,162 65.19 5,940 34.69 21 0.12 5,222 30.50 17,123
North Providence 10,569 66.43 5,301 33.32 40 0.25 5,268 33.11 15,910
North Smithfield 3,904 56.36 3,017 43.55 6 0.09 887 12.80 6,927
Pawtucket 18,166 76.92 5,375 22.76 75 0.32 12,791 54.16 23,616
Portsmouth 6,987 66.13 3,565 33.74 13 0.12 3,422 32.39 10,565
Providence 45,774 85.38 7,662 14.29 176 0.33 38,112 71.09 53,612
Richmond 2,557 54.92 2,091 44.91 8 0.17 466 10.01 4,656
Scituate 3,248 50.25 3,204 49.57 12 0.19 44 0.68 6,464
Smithfield 6,453 57.94 4,684 42.06 9 0.08 1,769 15.88 11,137
South Kingstown 11,615 71.78 4,530 27.99 37 0.23 7,085 43.78 16,182
Tiverton 5,380 61.24 3,396 38.66 9 0.10 1,984 22.58 8,785
Warren 3,816 67.50 1,827 32.32 10 0.18 1,989 35.18 5,653
Warwick 28,720 63.73 16,293 36.15 54 0.12 12,427 27.57 45,067
West Greenwich 1,906 49.29 1,958 50.63 3 0.08 -52 -1.34 3,867
West Warwick 8,253 61.18 5,223 38.72 14 0.10 3,030 22.46 13,490
Westerly 7,626 62.11 4,641 37.80 11 0.09 2,985 24.31 12,278
Woonsocket 7,870 62.58 4,685 37.25 21 0.17 3,185 25.33 12,576
Totals 328,574 66.48 164,855 33.35 833 0.17 163,719 33.12 494,262

See also

References

  1. ^ Gregg, Katherine. "R.I. GOP rescinds endorsement of U.S. Senate candidate Allen Waters". The Providence Journal. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  2. ^ Rakich, Nathaniel (December 2, 2020). "There Wasn't That Much Split-Ticket Voting In 2020". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  3. ^ Nesi, Ted (April 18, 2019). "Sen. Reed has $1.8M for 2020 re-election race". WPRI. Retrieved April 18, 2019.
  4. ^ a b "2020 Statewide Primary". State of Rhode Island - Board of Elections. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
  5. ^ Gregg, Katherine (December 16, 2019). "Providence native drops Mass. Senate bid to challenge Reed". Providence Journal. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  6. ^ "Rhode Island Federal Candidate Database".
  7. ^ "2020 Senate Race Ratings for October 29, 2020". The Cook Political Report. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
  8. ^ "2020 Senate Ratings". Senate Ratings. The Rothenberg Political Report. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
  9. ^ "2020 Senate race ratings". Sabato's Crystal Ball. Retrieved March 12, 2021.
  10. ^ "2020 Senate Race Ratings". Daily Kos Elections. Retrieved March 13, 2021.
  11. ^ "2020 Election Forecast". Politico. November 19, 2019.
  12. ^ "Battle for the Senate 2020". RCP. October 23, 2020.
  13. ^ "2020 Senate Elections Model". Decision Desk HQ. September 2, 2020. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
  14. ^ Silver, Nate (September 18, 2020). "Forecasting the race for the Senate". FiveThirtyEight. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
  15. ^ "Forecasting the US elections". The Economist. November 2, 2020. Retrieved March 13, 2021.
  16. ^ "2020 General Election - Statewide Summary". Rhode Island Board of Elections. Retrieved November 30, 2020.

External links

Official campaign websites
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