2020 United States secretary of state elections explained

The 2020 United States secretary of state elections were held on November 3, 2020, to elect the secretaries of state in seven states. These elections took place concurrently with several other federal, state, and local elections.

The previous elections for this group of states took place in 2016. The secretary of state of Vermont serves two-year terms and was last elected in 2018.

Going into the election, there were 26 Republican secretaries of state and 21 Democratic secretaries of state. 5 Republican secretaries of state were up for election, of whom Corey Stapleton of Montana and Bev Clarno of Oregon are retiring. 2 Democratic secretaries of state were up for election, both seeking re-election.

Partisan composition

Going into these elections, this class of secretaries of state is made up of 5 Republicans and 2 Democrats. Republicans were defending two states won by Hillary Clinton in 2016 (Oregon and Washington), while Democrats are defending one state won by Donald Trump in 2016 (North Carolina).

Election predictions

Several sites and individuals published predictions of competitive seats. These predictions looked at factors such as the strength of the incumbent (if the incumbent is running for re-election), the strength of the candidates, and the partisan leanings of the state (reflected in part by the state's Cook Partisan Voting Index rating). The predictions assigned ratings to each seat, with the rating indicating the predicted advantage that a party has in winning that seat.

Most election predictors use:

• "tossup": no advantage
• "tilt" (used by some predictors): advantage that is not quite as strong as "lean"
• "lean": slight advantage
• "likely": significant, but surmountable, advantage
• "safe" or "solid" : near-certain chance of victory

Cook
! Result

Missouri	data-sort-value="9"	R+9		Jay Ashcroft	data-sort-value="57.6"	57.6% R		data-sort-value="60.6"	Ashcroft 60.6% R
Montana	data-sort-value="11"	R+11		Corey Stapleton	data-sort-value="55.5"	55.5% R		data-sort-value="59.6"	Jacobsen 59.6% R
North Carolina	data-sort-value="3"	R+3		Elaine Marshall	data-sort-value="-52.3"	52.3% D		data-sort-value="-51.2"	Marshall 51.2% D
Oregon	data-sort-value="-5"	D+5		Bev Clarno	data-sort-value="100.0"	Appointed		data-sort-value="-50.3"	Fagan 50.3% D
Vermont	data-sort-value="-15"	D+15		Jim Condos	data-sort-value="-66.81"	66.81% D		data-sort-value="-57.9"	Condos 57.9% D
Washington	data-sort-value="-7"	D+7		Kim Wyman	data-sort-value="54.6"	54.6% R		data-sort-value="50.9"	Wyman 50.9% R
West Virginia	data-sort-value="19"	R+19		Mac Warner	data-sort-value="48.5"	48.5% R		data-sort-value="58.3"	Warner 58.3% R

Race summary

States

State	Secretary of state	Party	First elected	Result	Candidates
Missouri			Republican	2016	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap
Montana			Republican	2016		Incumbent retired to run for U.S. House. New secretary of state elected. Republican hold.	nowrap
North Carolina			Democratic	1996	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap
Oregon			Republican	2019		Interim appointee retiring. New secretary of state elected. Democratic gain.	nowrap
Vermont			Democratic	2010	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap
Washington			Republican	2012	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap
West Virginia			Republican	2016	Incumbent re-elected.	nowrap

Closest races

States where the margin of victory was under 5%:

North Carolina, 2.4%

States where the margin of victory was under 10%:

Oregon, 7.1%

Washington, 7.6%Blue denotes races won by Democrats. Red denotes races won by Republicans.

Missouri

See main article: 2020 Missouri Secretary of State election.

Incumbent secretary of state Jay Ashcroft ran and won re-election to a second term after he defeated Democratic nominee Yinka Faleti with 60.6% of the vote.

Montana

See main article: 2020 Montana Secretary of State election.

Incumbent Republican secretary of state Corey Stapleton was eligible to run for a second term but has decided to run for U.S. House instead. Former chief of staff to Stapleton, Christi Jacobsen won the Republican nomination defeating president of the Montana State Senate, Scott Sales and Montana Public Service Commissioner, Brad Johnson.

She went on to defeat Democratic state senator Bryce Bennett with 59.6% of the vote.

North Carolina

Incumbent Democrat Elaine Marshall won re-election to a seventh term after she defeated Republican nominee businessman E.C. Sykes with 51.2% of the vote.

Oregon

See main article: 2020 Oregon Secretary of State election.

Incumbent Republican Bev Clarno had agreed not to run for a full term. Clarno was appointed by Governor Kate Brown to replace Dennis Richardson, who died of cancer during his term.

Republicans nominated state senator Kim Thatcher while Democrats nominated state senator Shemia Fagan.

Fagan defeated Thatcher with 50.3% of the vote.

Vermont

Incumbent Democratic secretary of state Jim Condos won re-election to a fifth term after he defeated Republican nominee H. Brooke Paige.

Washington

See main article: 2020 Washington Secretary of State election.

Incumbent Republican secretary of state Kim Wyman won re-election to a second term after she defeated Democratic nominee Gael Tarleton with 53.6% of the vote.

West Virginia

See main article: 2020 West Virginia Secretary of State election.

Incumbent Republican secretary of state Mac Warner won re-election to a second term after he defeated former secretary of state Natalie Tennant with 53.3% of the vote.