Democratic Party Battleground Primaries, 2020

2020 Democratic Party primary elections
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Last updated: September 11, 2020
General elections are often the focal point of election-year media coverage as they determine control of elected offices up and down the ballot. Primary elections, however, can provide insight on future elections as they help dictate the direction each party takes.

Although many of the most competitive primaries take place for open seats or offices that are held by a different party, even high-ranking federal officeholders can lose renomination to primary challengers. In the 2018 primary for New York's 14th Congressional District, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Joseph Crowley (D), the fourth-ranking House Democrat, was defeated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D).

On this page, you will find information on noteworthy and notable Democratic Party primaries taking place across the country for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, state executive offices, state legislatures, and municipal offices. The page also includes information about notable top-two primaries for Democratic seats.

Ballotpedia identified 64 Democratic battleground primaries in 2020.

Click here for information on Republican Party battleground primaries in 2020.

Criteria[edit]

It is typically difficult to predict how competitive primaries will be until after filing deadlines take place. However, Ballotpedia used a number of factors to give insight into the most interesting 2020 primary elections. Factors that were used to determine the competitiveness of primaries included:

• Whether or not the seat was open (retiring or resigning incumbent)
• Notable endorsements of multiple candidates
• Significant fundraising from multiple candidates
• Number of candidates
• Incumbent's years in office (if seeking re-election)
• Whether or not the district's general election was expected to be a battleground

U.S. Senate primaries[edit]

The following map shows each state with a Democratic battleground primary for U.S. Senate in 2020. Use the buttons in the upper-right hand corner of the map or your mouse's scroll wheel to zoom in and out. Hover over or tap a state to view the incumbent's name. There were nine U.S. Senate Democratic battleground primaries in 2020.

U.S. Senate Democratic battleground primaries, 2020
State	Primary date	Primary winner	Incumbent	Open seat?	MOV in 2014[1]
Arizona	August 4, 2020	Mark Kelly	Martha McSally	d	R+13.0
Colorado	June 30, 2020	John Hickenlooper	Cory Gardner	d	R+1.9
Georgia	June 9, 2020	Jon Ossoff	David Perdue	d	R+7.7
Iowa	June 2, 2020	Theresa Greenfield	Joni Ernst	d	R+8.3
Kentucky	June 23, 2020	Amy McGrath	Mitch McConnell	d	R+15.5
Maine	July 14, 2020	Sara Gideon	Susan Collins	d	R+36.2
Massachusetts	September 1, 2020	Ed Markey	Ed Markey	d	D+22.8
North Carolina	March 3, 2020	Cal Cunningham	Thom Tillis	d	R+1.5
Texas	March 3, 2020 July 14, 2020 runoff	M.J. Hegar and Royce West M.J. Hegar	John Cornyn	d	R+27.2

U.S. House primaries[edit]

The following map shows each U.S. House district with a Democratic battleground primary in 2020. Use the buttons in the upper-right hand corner of the map or your mouse's scroll wheel to zoom in and out. Hover over or tap a district to view the incumbent's name. There were 37 U.S. House Democratic battleground primaries in 2020.

U.S. House Democratic battleground primaries, 2020
District	Primary date	Primary winner	Incumbent	Open seat?	MOV in 2018
Arizona's 1st District	August 4, 2020	Tom O'Halleran	Tom O'Halleran	d	D+7.7
Arizona's 6th District	August 4, 2020	Hiral Tipirneni	David Schweikert	d	R+10.4
Colorado's 1st District	June 30, 2020	Diana DeGette	Diana DeGette	d	D+50.8
Colorado's 3rd District	June 30, 2020	Diane Mitsch Bush	Scott Tipton	d	R+7.9
Florida's 15th District	August 18, 2020	Alan Cohn	Ross Spano	d	R+6.0
Florida's 18th District	August 18, 2020	Pam Keith	Brian Mast	d	R+8.6
Georgia's 7th District	June 9, 2020	Carolyn Bourdeaux	Rob Woodall		R+0.2
Hawaii's 2nd District	August 8, 2020	Kaiali'i Kahele	Tulsi Gabbard		D+54.8
Illinois' 3rd District	March 17, 2020	Marie Newman	Dan Lipinski	d	D+47.1
Illinois' 7th District	March 17, 2020	Danny K. Davis	Danny K. Davis	d	D+75.2
Indiana's 1st District	June 2, 2020	Frank Mrvan	Peter Visclosky		D+30.2
Massachusetts' 1st District	September 1, 2020	Richard Neal	Richard Neal	d	D+95.2
Massachusetts' 4th District	September 1, 2020	Jake Auchincloss	Joseph Kennedy III		D+95.4
Michigan's 13th District	August 4, 2020	Rashida Tlaib	Rashida Tlaib	d	D+72.9
Minnesota's 5th District	August 11, 2020	Ilhan Omar	Ilhan Omar	d	D+56.3
Missouri's 1st District	August 4, 2020	Cori Bush	William Lacy Clay	d	D+63.4
Montana's At-Large District	June 2, 2020	Kathleen Williams	Greg Gianforte		R+4.7
Nebraska's 2nd District	May 12, 2020	Kara Eastman	Don Bacon	d	R+2.0
New Jersey's 2nd District	July 7, 2020	Amy Kennedy	Jeff Van Drew	d	D+7.7
New Mexico's 3rd District	June 2, 2020	Teresa Leger Fernandez	Ben Ray Lujan		D+32.2
New York's 1st District	June 23, 2020	Nancy Goroff	Lee Zeldin	d	R+4.1
New York's 9th District	June 23, 2020	Yvette Clarke	Yvette Clarke	d	D+79.0
New York's 10th District	June 23, 2020	Jerrold Nadler	Jerrold Nadler	d	D+64.2
New York's 14th District	June 23, 2020	Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez	Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez	d	D+64.6
New York's 15th District	June 23, 2020	Ritchie Torres	Jose Serrano	d	D+92.0
New York's 16th District	June 23, 2020	Jamaal Bowman	Eliot Engel	d	D+100
New York's 17th District	June 23, 2020	Mondaire Jones	Nita Lowey		D+76.0
New York's 24th District	June 23, 2020	Dana Balter	John Katko	d	R+5.2
Ohio's 3rd District	April 28, 2020	Joyce Beatty	Joyce Beatty	d	D+47.2
Pennsylvania's 1st District	June 2, 2020	Christina Finello	Brian Fitzpatrick	d	R+2.6
Tennessee's 5th District	August 6, 2020	Jim Cooper	Jim Cooper	d	D+35.6
Texas' 10th District	March 3, 2020 July 14, 2020 runoff	Pritesh Gandhi and Mike Siegel Mike Siegel	Michael McCaul	d	R+2.4
Texas' 21st District	March 3, 2020	Wendy Davis	Chip Roy		R+2.6
Texas' 22nd District	March 3, 2020	Sri Preston Kulkarni	Pete Olson		R+4.9
Texas' 24th District	March 3, 2020 July 14, 2020 runoff	Candace Valenzuela	Kenny Marchant		R+3.1
Texas' 28th District	March 3, 2020	Henry Cuellar	Henry Cuellar	d	D+68.8
Texas' 31st District	March 3, 2020 July 14, 2020 runoff	Donna Imam and Christine Eady Mann Donna Imam	John Carter	d	R+2.9

State executive primaries[edit]

The following map shows each state with Democratic state executive battleground primaries in 2020. Hover over or tap a state for information on which primaries are battlegrounds and who the incumbent is in each. There were nine Democratic state executive battleground primaries in 2020.

Democratic state executive battleground primaries, 2020
State	Primary date	Primary winner	Incumbent	Open seat?	MOV in 2016[2]
Governor of Montana	June 2, 2020	Mike Cooney	Steve Bullock		D+3.9
Governor of New Hampshire	September 8, 2020	Dan Feltes	Chris Sununu	d	R+7.0
New Hampshire Executive Council District 2	September 8, 2020	Cinde Warmington	Andru Volinsky		D+15.8
Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina	March 3, 2020	Yvonne Lewis Holley	Dan Forest		R+6.6
Secretary of State of Oregon	May 19, 2020	Shemia Fagan	Bev Clarno	d	R+4.1
Governor of Vermont	August 11, 2020	David Zuckerman	Phillip Scott	d	R+14.9
Lieutenant Governor of Vermont	August 11, 2020	Molly Gray	David Zuckerman		D+18.4
Vermont State Auditor	August 11, 2020	Doug Hoffer	Doug Hoffer	d	D+27.9
Governor of West Virginia	June 9, 2020	Ben Salango	Jim Justice	d	D+6.8

State legislative primaries[edit]

The following map shows each state with a Democratic state legislative primary battleground chamber in 2020. Hover over or tap a state for more information on which chambers are battlegrounds and how many seats Democrats control in each. There were six Democratic primary battleground chambers in 2020.

Municipal primaries[edit]

The following map shows each municipality within Ballotpedia's coverage scope with a Democratic battleground primary in 2020. Hover over a dot for more information on which office is a battleground and who the incumbent is. There were three municipal Democratic battleground primaries in 2020.

Democratic municipal battleground primaries, 2020
Office	Primary date	Primary winner	Incumbent	Open seat?	MOV in 2016
Cook County, Illinois State's Attorney	March 17	Kim Foxx	Kim Foxx	d	D+44.1
St. Louis, Missouri Circuit Attorney	August 4	Kimberly Gardner	Kimberly Gardner	d	D+96.6
Travis County, Texas District Attorney	March 3 July 14 runoff	Margaret Moore and José Garza José Garza	Margaret Moore	d	D+32.1

Top-two primaries for Democratic seats[edit]

See also: Top-two battleground primaries, 2020

There were nine top-two battleground primaries for Democratic-held seats in 2020.

California and Washington utilize a top-two primary system, which allows all candidates to run and all voters to vote but only moves the top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, to the general election. In states that do not use a top-two system, all parties are usually able to put forward a candidate for the general election if they choose to.^[3][4][5][6]

Unlike the top-two format used in some states (Louisiana and Georgia special elections for example), a general election between the top two candidates in California and Washington occurs regardless of whether the top candidate received 50 percent of the vote in the first round of elections.

As of 2020, California and Washington were among the three states to use a top-two primary system. Nebraska utilized a top-two system for its nonpartisan state legislature.

Top-two battleground primaries for Democratic-held seats, 2020
Office	Primary winners	Incumbent	Open seat?	MOV in 2018[7]
Governor of Washington	Jay Inslee Loren Culp	Jay Inslee	d	D+8.8
Lieutenant Governor of Washington	Denny Heck Marko Liias	Cyrus Habib		D+8.8
Attorney General of Washington	Bob Ferguson Matt Larkin	Bob Ferguson	d	D+34.3
California's 10th	Josh Harder Ted Howze	Josh Harder	d	D+4.5
California's 16th	Jim Costa Kevin Cookingham	Jim Costa	d	D+15.0
California's 25th	Mike Garcia Christy Smith	Vacant (Previous: Katie Hill)	d	D+8.7
California's 45th	Katie Porter Greg Raths	Katie Porter	d	D+4.1
California's 53rd	Georgette Gomez Sara Jacobs	Susan Davis		D+38.2
Washington's 10th	Marilyn Strickland Beth Doglio	Denny Heck		D+23.0

Change log[edit]

This section lists every change that was made to our battleground list since we launched the page in September 2019.

• August 7, 2020: Removed one battleground race from the list: MN-01.

• July 16, 2020: Added one battleground race to the list: St. Louis Circuit Attorney.

• July 10, 2020: Added two battleground races to the list: FL-18 and TN-05.

• July 6, 2020: Added five battleground races to the list: MN-05, Lieutenant Governor of Vermont, Vermont State Auditor, Governor of New Hampshire, and New Hampshire Executive Council District 2.

• June 5, 2020: Removed one battleground race from the list: WV Senate.

• May 29, 2020: Removed one battleground race from the list: MD-06.

• May 18, 2020: Removed four battleground races from the list: IN-05, MD-05, Montana Attorney General, and Mayor of Baltimore.

• April 26, 2020: Added one battleground race to the list: AZ-06.

• April 8, 2020: Added one battleground race to the list: MI-13. Removed one battleground race: TX-13 runoff.

• March 31, 2020: Added two battleground races to the list: New Mexico state Senate and state House. Removed one battleground race: New Mexico U.S. Senate.

• March 15, 2020: Added three battleground races to the list: TX-13, TX-31, and Montana Attorney General.

• March 1, 2020: Added three battleground races to the list: CO-03, NY-24, and WV Gov. Removed one battleground race from the list: MI-03.

• February 25, 2020: Removed one battleground chamber from the list: Texas State Senate.

• February 14, 2020: Removed one battleground race from the list: TX-23.

• February 7, 2020: Added one battleground race to the list: Travis County, Texas, District Attorney.

• January 31, 2020: Added three battleground races to the list: WV Senate, MD-06, and Mayor of Baltimore.

• January 24, 2020: Added nine battleground races to the list: IL-07, TX-21, NC Lieutenant Governor, Cook County, Illinois State's Attorney, Illinois State Senate, New York State Senate and Assembly, and Texas State Senate and House of Representatives

• January 13, 2020: Added 12 battleground races to the list: CO Senate, AZ-01, HI-02, IN-05, MA-01, MA-04, MN-01, NJ-02, NY-01, NY-14, NY-16, and TX-10. Removed IL-06.

• January 3, 2020: Added two battleground races to the list: FL-15 and OH-03.

• December 3, 2019: Added three battleground races to the list: IA Senate, PA-1, and OR Secretary of State.

• November 15, 2019: Added one battleground race to the list: IN-1.

• October 25, 2019: Added one battleground race to the list: NY-17.

• September 18, 2019: Added five battleground races to the list: NC Senate, GA-7, IL-6, TX-23, and VT Gov.

• September 12, 2019: Launched initial battlegrounds list with 22 races.^[8]

2018 battlegrounds[edit]

See also: Democratic Party battleground primaries, 2018

Ballotpedia identified 79 Democratic federal and state battleground primaries in 2018. There were two senate battleground primaries, 54 house battleground primaries, and 23 state executive battleground primaries.

Disputes between candidates endorsed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and candidates outside the official organs of the Democratic Party occurred in U.S. House primaries in 2018.

The DCCC supported House candidates they believed would be competitive in general elections. The group said its "Red to Blue" program, which gave candidates organizational and fundraising support, backed candidates who "will take the fight to Paul Ryan’s House Republicans -- and fight to flip these seats from red to blue."^[9]

Other candidates, activists, and influencers criticized the DCCC's choices and claimed that the group did not always support candidates who were sufficiently progressive. In January 2018, Ryan Grim and Lee Fang with The Intercept wrote "In district after district, the national party is throwing its weight behind candidates who are out of step with the national mood."^[10]

An example of the conflict between Democratic officials and progressives occurred in Colorado's 6th District when Levi Tillemann, who was endorsed by the Progressive Democrats of America, released a tape-recorded conversation with House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer. Tilleman told Hoyer the DCCC should stay out of the race. Hoyer urged Tillemann to drop out, saying the Democratic Party's decision to back his opponent, Jason Crow, had been made a long time ago.^[11]

Another headline Democratic primary occurred in New York. Long-time incumbent Rep. Joseph Crowley, who had not seen a primary challenge since 2004, was defeated by self-described democratic socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the Democratic primary for New York's 14th District.^[12] Crowley became the first Democratic incumbent member of Congress to lose in the primary in 2018. He had been a congressman since 1999 and was chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, the 4th highest-ranking member in the Democratic Party leadership. Crowley was also identified by Roll Call as one of six Democrats most likely to succeed Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) should she step down as House Minority Leader.^[13] At the end of March 2018, Crowley had a 22-to-1 fundraising lead over Ocasio-Cortez, who had pledged not to accept contributions from lobbyists.^[14][15]

Ocasio-Cortez garnered endorsements from progressive groups including Justice Democrats, Brand New Congress, and NYC Democratic Socialists of America.^[16] Crowley's list of endorsements included more than 20 labor unions, NARAL Pro-Choice America, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, and more than a dozen state legislators.^[17] Both candidates expressed support for $15 minimum wage and Medicare for All policies; Ocasio-Cortez credited her campaign with pushing Crowley to the left on these issues, while Crowley's campaign argued that "he's always been a progressive advocate."^[18][19]

Top 10 Democratic primaries in 2018[edit]

The list below was selected by Ballotpedia staff at the end of the 2018 primary season. Click the links to learn more about each primary.

1. Florida governor (August 28)
   
2. New York's 14th Congressional District (June 26)
   
3. Illinois' 3rd Congressional District (March 20)
   
4. Massachusetts' 7th Congressional District (September 4)
   
5. Kansas' 3rd Congressional District (August 7)
   
6. Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District (May 15)
   
7. New York state legislative Democratic primaries, 2018 (September 13)
   
8. Colorado governor (June 26)
   
9. Minnesota governor (August 14)
   
10. Virginia's 10th Congressional District (June 12)
    
    

See also[edit]

• Ballotpedia: Our approach to covering primary elections

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