2020 United States Senate election in Kentucky


The 2020 United States Senate election in Kentucky was held on November 3, 2020, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the Commonwealth of Kentucky, 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 Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, who had been Senate Majority Leader since 2015 and senator from Kentucky since 1985, won reelection to a seventh, and ultimately last, term in office. He faced off against former U.S. Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath and Libertarian Brad Barron.
The Democratic and Republican primaries took place on June 23, 2020. As the primaries neared, the president of the National Bar Association accused officials of carrying out voter suppression. 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, 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

  • Mitch McConnell, incumbent U.S. senator and Senate Majority Leader

    Eliminated in primary

  • Nicholas Alsager
  • Paul John Frangedakis, chiropractor
  • Louis Grider, truck driver
  • Neren James
  • Kenneth Lowndes
  • C. Wesley Morgan, former state representative

    Withdrawn

  • Wendell K. Crow, businessman and entrepreneur
  • Karl Das

    Results

Democratic primary

Candidates

Nominee

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 to obtain the nomination.

Nominee

  • Brad Barron, farmer and entrepreneur

    Reform Party

Withdrawn

  • Derek Leonard Petteys

    Independents

Declared

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.

Debates

  • , October 12, 2020 - C-SPAN

    Predictions

Additional general election endorsements

Polling

Graphical summary

Polls

with Charles Booker

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Mitch
McConnell 		Charles
Booker 		Other /
Undecided
Civiqs/Data for ProgressJune 13–15, 2020898 ± 3.8%52%38%9%

with Jim Gray

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Mitch
McConnell 		Jim
Gray 		Undecided
Gravis MarketingJune 11–12, 2019741 ± 3.6%49%41%10%

with Generic Democrat

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Mitch
McConnell 		Generic
Democrat		Other /
Undecided
Public Policy PollingMay 14–15, 20201,104 –47%44%9%
Public Policy Polling Feb 11–12, 2019748 ± 3.6%45%42%12%
Public Policy Polling Aug 15–16, 2017645 –37%44%19%

on whether Mitch McConnell deserves to be re-elected

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		YesNoOther /
Undecided
Fabrizio Ward/AARPJuly 29–31, 2019600 ± 4.0%31%62%8%
Public Policy Polling Feb 11–12, 2019748 ± 3.6%32%61%8%

with Generic Republican and Generic Democrat

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Generic
Republican		Generic
Democrat		Other /
Undecided
CygnalOctober 19–20, 2020640 ± 3.9%55%39%6%
Quinnipiac UniversitySeptember 10–14, 20201,164 ± 2.9%54%38%8%
Fabrizio Ward/AARPJuly 29–31, 2019600 ± 4.0%48%42%13%

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

McConnell won five of six congressional districts.
DistrictMcConnellMcGrathRepresentative
67%28%James Comer
62%33%Brett Guthrie
37%61%John Yarmuth
60%36%Thomas Massie
74%22%Hal Rogers
51%46%Andy Barr