The 2020 United States Senate election in Kentucky was held on November 3, 2020, to elect a member of the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

to represent the

Commonwealth of Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

, concurrently with the

2020 U.S. presidential election Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and California junior senator Kamala Harris defeated the incumbent Republican president Donald Trump and vi ...

, as well as other elections to the United States Senate,

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operated ...

to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

and various state and local elections. Incumbent Republican Senator

Mitch McConnell Addison Mitchell McConnell III (; born February 20, 1942) is an American politician and attorney serving as the senior United States senator from Kentucky, a seat he has held since 1985. McConnell is in his seventh Senate term and is the long ...

, who had been

Senate Majority Leader The positions of majority leader and minority leader are held by two United States senators and people of the party leadership of the United States Senate. They serve as chief spokespersons for their respective political parties, holding the ...

since 2015 and senator from Kentucky since

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

, won reelection to a seventh, and ultimately last, term in office. He faced off against former U.S. Marine fighter pilot

Amy McGrath Amy Melinda McGrath (born June 3, 1975) is an American former Marine fighter pilot and former political candidate from Kentucky. McGrath was the first woman to fly a combat mission for the Marine Corps, as well as the first to pilot the F/A-18 ...

and

Libertarian Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according ...

Brad Barron. The Democratic and Republican primaries took place on June 23, 2020. As the primaries neared, the president of the

National Bar Association The National Bar Association (NBA) was founded in 1925 and is the nation's oldest and largest national network of predominantly African Americans, African-American attorneys and judges. It represents the interests of approximately 67,000 lawyers, ...

accused officials of carrying out

voter suppression Voter suppression is the discouragement or prevention of specific groups of people from voting or registering to vote. It is distinguished from political campaigning in that campaigning attempts to change likely voting behavior by changing the o ...

. Compared to typical numbers of 3,700, the number of polling stations was reduced to 200 with only one in Louisville. Because a large number of voters voted by mail, absentee ballots were not counted until June 30. In the primary, over 937,000 people requested absentee ballots or voted early, a far greater number than usual. Despite much speculation about this race being potentially competitive and large amounts of money being poured in to try to defeat McConnell, he wound up winning his final term with his largest margin of victory since

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

, defeating McGrath by nearly 20 percentage points. He also won Elliott and Wolfe Counties for the first time, solidifying rural Kentucky's hard swing towards the GOP. This was the only election in which McConnell attained more than 1 million votes.

Republican primary

Candidates

Nominee

, incumbent U.S. senator and

Eliminated in primary

* Nicholas Alsager * Paul John Frangedakis, chiropractor ''(switched to independent write-in candidacy after losing primary)'' * Louis Grider, truck driver * Neren James * Kenneth Lowndes * C. Wesley Morgan, former

state representative A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United St ...

Withdrawn

* Wendell K. Crow, businessman and entrepreneur ''(remained on ballot)'' * Karl Das

Results

Democratic primary

Candidates

Nominee

, former U.S. Marine fighter pilot and Democratic nominee for Kentucky's 6th congressional district in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Eliminated in primary

* Charles Booker, state representative * Mike Broihier, farmer, educator, and former Marine * Maggie Joe Hilliard * Andrew Maynard * Eric Rothmuller, small business owner * John R. Sharpensteen * Bennie J. Smith, local business owner * Mary Ann Tobin, former Auditor of Kentucky

Withdrawn

* Jimmy Ausbrooks, mental health counselor (endorsed Mike Broihier) ''(remained on ballot)'' * Steven Cox, registered pharmacy technician (endorsed Charles Booker) * Joshua Paul Edwards * Kevin Elliott, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Murray State University * Dr. Loretta Babalmoradi Noble

Declined

* Rocky Adkins, former minority leader of the

Kentucky House of Representatives The Kentucky House of Representatives is the lower house of the Kentucky General Assembly. It is composed of 100 Representatives elected from single-member districts throughout the Commonwealth. Not more than two counties can be joined to form a ...

and candidate for Governor of Kentucky in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Andy Beshear Andrew Graham Beshear ( ; born November 29, 1977) is an American attorney and politician serving as the 63rd governor of Kentucky since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 50th attorney gen ...

Governor of Kentucky The governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Kentucky. Sixty-two men and one woman have served as governor of Kentucky. The governor's term is four years in length; sinc ...

, former

attorney general of Kentucky The attorney general of Kentucky is the chief legal officer of the U.S. state of Kentucky, created by the Kentucky Constitution (Ky.Const. § 91). Under Kentucky law, they serve several roles, including the state's chief prosecutor (KRS 15.700), ...

, and son of former governor

Steve Beshear Steven Lynn Beshear ( ; born September 21, 1944) is an American attorney and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 61st governor of Kentucky from 2007 to 2015. He served in the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1974 ...

, former

governor of Kentucky The governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Kentucky. Sixty-two men and one woman have served as governor of Kentucky. The governor's term is four years in length; sinc ...

and nominee for the U.S. Senate in

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

* Jack Conway, former attorney general of Kentucky, nominee for the U.S. Senate in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, nominee for Governor of Kentucky in

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

* Adam Edelen, former state auditor and candidate for Governor of Kentucky in

Greg Fischer Gregory Edward Fischer (born January 14, 1958) is an American businessman and entrepreneur who served as the second mayor of Louisville Metro from 2011 to 2023. In 2019, he was elected vice president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and in ...

, Mayor of Louisville * Jim Gray, Secretary of the

Kentucky Transportation Cabinet The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) is Kentucky's state-funded government agency, agency charged with building and maintaining U.S. Highway System, federal highways and List of primary state highways in Kentucky, Kentucky state highways, ...

, former mayor of Lexington and nominee for the U.S. Senate in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Alison Lundergan Grimes Alison Case Lundergan Grimes (born November 23, 1978) is an American lawyer and Democratic politician who was the secretary of state of Kentucky from 2012 until 2020. Grimes was elected in 2011 after defeating incumbent Elaine Walker in the De ...

, former

secretary of state of Kentucky The secretary of state of Kentucky is one of the constitutional officers of the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is now an elected office, but was an appointed office prior to 1891. The current secretary of state is Republican Michael Adams, who was ...

and nominee for the U.S. Senate in

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

''(endorsed Booker)'' * Matt Jones, attorney, media personality, and restaurateur ''(had formed an exploratory committee beforehand, endorsed Booker)''

Campaign

There were debates on March 5, 2020 and June 1, 2020.

Polling

Endorsements

Results

Other candidates

Libertarian primary

The Libertarian Party of Kentucky did not qualify to nominate through the taxpayer-funded primary and held its own privately operated primary on March 8, 2020. Anyone registered Libertarian in the state of Kentucky as of January 1, 2020, could participate. All candidates of the Libertarian Party of Kentucky must defeat None Of The Above (NOTA) to obtain the nomination.

Nominee

* Brad Barron, farmer and entrepreneur

Reform Party

Withdrawn

* Derek Leonard Petteys

Independents

Declared

* Daniel Cobble ''(as a write-in candidate)'' * Harold H. Fitzpatrick ''(as a write-in candidate)'' * Paul John Frangedakis ''(as a write-in candidate)'' ''(switched from Republican candidacy after losing primary)'' * Randall Lee Teegarden ''(as a write-in candidate)'' * Demetra Wysinger ''(as a write-in candidate)''

Withdrawn

* Alyssa Dara McDowell, independent candidate for president in 2016, 2018 Independent nominee for

District 65

General election

Despite record breaking fundraising from McGrath and speculation that the race could be competitive, McConnell was handily re-elected. Throughout the general election, McConnell portrayed McGrath as an overly liberal "rioter apologist" and made use of a comment from 2018 where McGrath compared her reaction to Trump being elected in 2016 to how she felt during the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

Debates

Complete video of debate
October 12, 2020 -

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...

Predictions

Additional general election endorsements

Polling

Graphical summary

Polls

with Charles Booker
with Jim Gray
with Generic Democrat
on whether Mitch McConnell deserves to be re-elected
with Generic Republican and Generic Democrat

Results

McConnell was announced as the winner on November 3. When pressed for a potential recount of the election amid legal disputes regarding the general, McConnell dismissed the idea, since, "at the risk of bragging, it wasn't very close."

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

(largest municipality: Owingsville) * Elliott (largest municipality: Sandy Hook) *

Marion Marion or MARION may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Marion (band), a British alternative rock group * ''Marion'' (miniseries), a 1974 miniseries * ''Marion'' (1920 film), an Italian silent film * ''Marion'' (2024 film), a UK short People a ...

(largest municipality:

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

) * Menifee (largest municipality: Frenchburg) *

Nicholas Nicholas is a male name, the Anglophone version of an ancient Greek name in use since antiquity, and cognate with the modern Greek , . It originally derived from a combination of two Ancient Greek, Greek words meaning 'victory' and 'people'. In ...

(largest municipality:

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England. Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...

) *

Rowan The rowans ( or ) or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in the genus ''Sorbus'' of the rose family, Rosaceae. They are native throughout the cool temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the highest species diversity in the Himalaya ...

(largest municipality: Morehead) * Wolfe (largest municipality: Campton)

By congressional district

McConnell won 5 of 6 congressional districts.

Notes

Partisan clients
Voter samples

References

External links

* * * (state affiliate of the U.S.

League of Women Voters The League of Women Voters (LWV) is a nonpartisan American nonprofit political organization. Founded in 1920, its ongoing major activities include Voter registration, registering voters, providing voter information, boosting voter turnout and adv ...

) * campaign websites
Brad Barron (L) for Senate

Mitch McConnell (R) for Senate

Amy McGrath (D) for Senate
{{Elections in Kentucky footer

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

Mitch McConnell

Republican primary

Candidates

Nominee

Eliminated in primary

Withdrawn

Results

Democratic primary

Candidates

Nominee

Eliminated in primary

Withdrawn

Declined

Campaign

Polling

Endorsements

Results

Other candidates

Libertarian primary

Nominee

Reform Party

Withdrawn

Independents

Declared

Withdrawn

General election

Debates

Predictions

Additional general election endorsements

Polling

Graphical summary

Polls

Results

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

By congressional district

See also

Notes

References

External links