2020 United States Senate election in Rhode Island explained

See also: 2020 United States Senate elections.

Election Name:	2020 United States Senate election in Rhode Island
Country:	Rhode Island
Type:	presidential
Ongoing:	no
Previous Election:	2014 United States Senate election in Rhode Island
Previous Year:	2014
Next Election:	2026 United States Senate election in Rhode Island
Next Year:	2026
Election Date:	November 3, 2020
Image1:	Senator Jack Reed official photo (cropped).jpg
Nominee1:	Jack Reed
Party1:	Democratic Party (United States)
Popular Vote1:	328,574
Percentage1:	66.48%
Nominee2:	Allen Waters
Party2:	Republican Party (United States)
Popular Vote2:	164,855
Percentage2:	33.35%
U.S. Senator
Before Election:	Jack Reed
Before Party:	Democratic Party (United States)
After Election:	Jack Reed
After Party:	Democratic Party (United States)

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

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

Primary results

Republican primary

Candidates

Nominee

• Allen R. Waters, investment consultant^[4]

Primary results

Independents

Disqualified

• Lenine Camacho^[5]

General election

Predictions

Source	Ranking	As of
align=left	The Cook Political Report^[6]		October 29, 2020
align=left	Inside Elections^[7]		October 28, 2020
align=left	Sabato's Crystal Ball^[8]		November 2, 2020
Daily Kos^[9]		October 30, 2020
Politico^[10]		November 2, 2020
RCP^[11]		October 23, 2020
DDHQ^[12]		November 3, 2020
538^[13]		November 2, 2020
Economist^[14]		November 2, 2020

Results

By municipality

Municipality	Jack Reed Democratic		Allen Waters Republican		Write-in		Margin		Total votes
	data-sort-type="number"		data-sort-type="number"	%	data-sort-type="number"		data-sort-type="number"	%		data-sort-type="number"		data-sort-type="number"	%	data-sort-type="number"		data-sort-type="number"	%
	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.^[15]

District	Reed	Waters	Representative
		70%	29%		David Cicilline
		63%	37%		James Langevin

See also

• 2020 Rhode Island elections

External links

• • • Web site: League of Women Voters of Rhode Island . (State affiliate of the U.S. League of Women Voters)

Official campaign websites

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

Notes and References

1. Web site: Gregg. Katherine. R.I. GOP rescinds endorsement of U.S. Senate candidate Allen Waters. 2020-12-02. The Providence Journal. en-US.
2. Web site: Rakich. Nathaniel. 2020-12-02. There Wasn't That Much Split-Ticket Voting In 2020. 2020-12-02. FiveThirtyEight. en-US.
3. News: Nesi. Ted. Sen. Reed has $1.8M for 2020 re-election race. WPRI. April 18, 2019. April 18, 2019. April 18, 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190418152339/https://www.wpri.com/politics/sen-reed-has-18m-for-2020-re-election-race/1935884042. dead.
4. Web site: Gregg . Katherine . Providence native drops Mass. Senate bid to challenge Reed . Providence Journal . December 19, 2019 . December 16, 2019.
5. Web site: Welcome to your Voter Information Center. August 21, 2024.
6. Web site: 2020 Senate Race Ratings for October 29, 2020 . The Cook Political Report . March 11, 2021.
7. Web site: 2020 Senate Ratings . Senate Ratings . The Rothenberg Political Report . March 11, 2021.
8. Web site: 2020 Senate race ratings . Sabato's Crystal Ball . March 12, 2021.
9. Web site: 2020 Senate Race Ratings . Daily Kos Elections. March 13, 2021.
10. Web site: 2020 Election Forecast. November 19, 2019 . Politico.
11. Web site: Battle for the Senate 2020. October 23, 2020 . RCP.
12. Web site: September 2, 2020 . 2020 Senate Elections Model. September 2, 2020 . Decision Desk HQ.
13. Web site: Silver . Nate . Forecasting the race for the Senate . . September 18, 2020 . September 18, 2020.
14. Web site: November 2, 2020 . Forecasting the US elections . March 13, 2021 . The Economist.
15. Web site: DRA 2020. Daves Redistricting. August 21, 2024.