2020 United States Senate election in Rhode Island

2020 United States Senate election in Rhode Island

November 3, 2020

Nominee Jack Reed Allen Waters Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 328,574 164,855 Percentage 66.48% 33.35%

County results Municipality results Congressional district results Precinct results 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

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 his clear landslide victory, this was actually his worst Senate re-election performance, and the first time since his initial election to the U.S. Senate in 1996 in which he failed to receive at least 70% of the vote. Nevertheless, he 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

• Jack Reed, incumbent U.S. senator^[3]

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

• Allen R. Waters, investment consultant^[5]

Primary results

Republican primary results^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Allen Waters	8,819	100.0%
Total votes			8,819	100.0%

Independents

Disqualified

• Lenine Camacho^[6]

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

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

By congressional district

Reed won both congressional districts.^[17]

District	Reed	Waters	Representative
1st	70%	29%	David Cicilline
2nd	63%	37%	James Langevin

See also

• 2020 Rhode Island elections

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. Archived from the original on April 18, 2019. Retrieved April 18, 2019.
4. "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. "Welcome to your Voter Information Center". Retrieved August 21, 2024.
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. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. 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.
17. "DRA 2020". Daves Redistricting. Retrieved August 21, 2024.

External links

• Government Documents Round Table of the American Library Association, "Rhode Island", Voting & Elections Toolkits
• "Rhode Island: Election Tools, Deadlines, Dates, Rules, and Links", Vote.org, Oakland, CA
• "League of Women Voters of Rhode Island". (State affiliate of the U.S. League of Women Voters)
• Rhode Island at Ballotpedia

Official campaign websites

• Jack Reed (D) for Senate
• Allen Waters (R) for Senate