2020 United States Senate Election In Delaware
The 2020 United States Senate election in Delaware was held on November 3, 2020, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Delaware, 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.
 | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
  Coons: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% Witzke: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% No data | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
.jpg)
Incumbent Democratic senator Chris Coons ran for reelection to a second full term and won against Republican challenger Lauren Witzke with 59.4% of the vote. He outperformed Democratic presidential nominee and former Delaware Senator Joe Biden (whose seat Coons was elected to in a 2010 special election) by 0.7 percentage points, compared to the concurrent presidential election.
Democratic primary
Candidates
Nominee
- Chris Coons, incumbent U.S. senator
Eliminated in primary
- Jessica Scarane, technology executive
Withdrawn
- Scott Walker, Republican nominee for Delaware's at-large congressional district in 2018 (running for governor as a Republican)
Declined
- Lisa Blunt Rochester, incumbent U.S. representative for Delaware's at-large congressional district (running for re-election)
- Kerri Evelyn Harris, former candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in 2018
Endorsements
Chris Coons
- U.S. vice presidents
- Joe Biden, 47th Vice President of the United States (2009-2017), United States Senator from Delaware (1973-2009), Democratic nominee for the 2020 election
- State executives
- Jack Markell, Governor of Delaware (2009-2017), Treasurer of Delaware (1999-2009)
- State legislators
- Margaret Rose Henry, Member of the Delaware Senate from the 2nd District (1994-2019), Majority Leader of the Delaware Senate (2017-2019)
- Sean Lynn, Member of the Delaware House of Representatives from the 31st district (2014-present)
- Nicole Poore, Majority Leader of the Delaware Senate (2009-present), Member of the Delaware Senate from the district 12 (2013-present)
- Individuals
- Sarah McBride, LGBTQ rights activist, National Press Secretary of the Human Rights Campaign and candidate for the Delaware State Senate
- Organizations
- 314 Action
- American Bankers Association
- Brady Campaign
- Council for a Livable World
- Delaware AFL-CIO
- Delaware Bankers Association
- Delaware Building and Construction Trades
- Delaware Stonewall PAC
- Democratic Majority for Israel
- End Citizens United
- Everytown for Gun Safety
- Giffords
- Humane Society of the United States Legislative Fund
- Human Rights Campaign
- Jewish Democratic Council of America
- Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs
- League of Conservation Voters
- Mom's Demand Action
- NARAL Pro-Choice America
- Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund
- Planned Parenthood
- Pro-Israel America
- Sierra Club
Jessica Scarane
- State legislators
- John Kowalko, Member of the Delaware House of Representatives from the 25th district (2006-present)
- Organizations
- Political Parties
Polling
Hypothetical head-to-head polling | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Results
Coons—70–80%
Coons—60–70%
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Chris Coons (incumbent) | 87,332 | 72.85% | |
| Democratic | Jessica Scarane | 32,547 | 27.15% | |
| Total votes | 119,879 | 100.00% | ||
Republican primary
Candidates
Nominee
- Lauren Witzke, far-right activist and proponent of the QAnon conspiracy theory
Eliminated in primary
- James DeMartino, attorney and nominee for the Delaware House of Representatives in 2016 & 2018
Declined
- Rob Arlett, former Sussex County councilman and nominee for U.S. Senate in 2018
Endorsements
James DeMartino
- Organizations
- Delaware Colonial Region Republicans
- Political Parties
Lauren Witzke
- U.S. representatives
- Paul Gosar, U.S. representative from Arizona (2011–present)
- Individuals
- Nick Fuentes, white nationalist activist
Results
Witzke—60–70%
Witzke—50–60%
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Lauren Witzke | 30,702 | 56.89% | |
| Republican | James DeMartino | 23,266 | 43.11% | |
| Total votes | 53,968 | 100.00% | ||
Other candidates
Libertarian Party
Nominee
- Nadine Frost, Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate in 2018
Independent Party of Delaware
Nominee
- Mark Turley, small business owner
General election
Prior to the election, Christopher Coons' re-election was considered to be a near certainty regardless of the Republican challenger. The choice of Lauren Witzke, a controversial extremist and believer of QANON, as the nominee only cemented this prediction. Networks declared Coons the winner as soon as voting ended based on Exit Polling alone. Coons also outperformed Biden (who also once held this Senate seat) in terms of percentage but underperformed in terms of raw vote, likely due to the lack of third-party Senate candidates.
Predictions
| Source | Ranking | As of |
|---|---|---|
| The Cook Political Report | Solid D | October 29, 2020 |
| Inside Elections | Safe D | October 28, 2020 |
| Sabato's Crystal Ball | Safe D | November 2, 2020 |
| Daily Kos | Safe D | October 30, 2020 |
| Politico | Safe D | November 2, 2020 |
| RCP | Safe D | October 23, 2020 |
| DDHQ | Safe D | November 3, 2020 |
| 538 | Safe D | November 2, 2020 |
| Economist | Safe D | November 2, 2020 |
Endorsements
Chris Coons (D)
- U.S. vice presidents
- Joe Biden, 47th Vice President of the United States (2009-2017), United States Senator from Delaware (1973-2009), Democratic nominee for the 2020 election
- State Executives
- Jack Markell, Governor of Delaware (2009-2017), Treasurer of Delaware (1999-2009)
- State legislators
- Margaret Rose Henry, Member of the Delaware Senate from the 2nd District (1994-2019), Majority Leader of the Delaware Senate (2017-2019)
- Sean Lynn, Member of the Delaware House of Representatives from the 31st district (2014-present)
- Nicole Poore, Majority Leader of the Delaware Senate (2009-present), Member of the Delaware Senate from the district 12 (2013-present)
- Individuals
- Sarah McBride, LGBTQ rights activist, National Press Secretary of the Human Rights Campaign and candidate for the Delaware State Senate
- Labor unions
- Organizations
- 314 Action
- American Bankers Association
- Brady Campaign
- Council for a Livable World
- Delaware AFL-CIO
- Delaware Bankers Association
- Delaware Building and Construction Trades
- Delaware State Education Association
- Delaware Stonewall PAC
- Democratic Majority for Israel
- End Citizens United
- Everytown for Gun Safety
- Giffords
- Humane Society of the United States Legislative Fund
- Human Rights Campaign
- Jewish Democratic Council of America
- Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs
- League of Conservation Voters
- Mom's Demand Action
- NARAL Pro-Choice America
- National Education Association
- Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund
- Planned Parenthood
- Pro-Israel America
- Sierra Club
Lauren Witzke (R)
- Members of U.S. Congress
- Paul Gosar, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona (2011-present)
- Individuals
- Nick Fuentes, far-right political commentator, podcaster and white nationalist
Polling
| Poll source | Date(s) administered | Sample size | Margin of error | Chris Coons (D) | Lauren Witzke (R) | Other/ Undecided |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Delaware | September 21–27, 2020 | 847 (LV) | – | 57% | 27% | 17% |
Results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Chris Coons (incumbent) | 291,804 | 59.44% | +3.61% | |
| Republican | Lauren Witzke | 186,054 | 37.90% | -4.33% | |
| Independent | Mark Turley | 7,833 | 1.59% | N/A | |
| Libertarian | Nadine Frost | 5,244 | 1.07% | N/A | |
| Total votes | 490,935 | 100.0% | |||
| Democratic hold | |||||
By county | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Notes
References
External links
- Government Documents Round Table of the American Library Association, "Delaware", Voting & Elections Toolkits
- "Delaware: Election Tools, Deadlines, Dates, Rules, and Links", Vote.org, Oakland, CA
- "League of Women Voters of Delaware". (State affiliate of the U.S. League of Women Voters)
- Delaware at Ballotpedia
- Official campaign websites
This article uses material from the Wikipedia English article 2020 United States Senate election in Delaware, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
®Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wiki Foundation, Inc. Wiki English (DUHOCTRUNGQUOC.VN) is an independent company and has no affiliation with Wiki Foundation.