2020 Senate and Gubernatorial Elections: The View from Labor Day

Democratic National Committee chair Tom Perez should be very pleased with his performance. Since winning the chairperson position in February 2017, he has overseen a net gain of eight gubernatorial elections and hundreds of state legislative seats, as well as winning back control of the United States House of Representatives (“House”) in 2018—flipping a historic net 41 seats. He also held net losses in the United States Senate (“Senate”) to one—helped Democrat Doug Jones’ upset win in Alabama in December 2017—when 2018 looked like a terrible year for Senate Democrats.

As of Labor Day 2020, meanwhile, the Democratic nominee for president—former Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.—is in a very strong position, the House appears safe for Democrats…and Democrats are poised to add seats in the Senate, with control of the upper chamber for the first time since 2014 highly plausible.

Currently, there are 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and 2 Independents who caucus with Democrats in the Senate. To regain control, Democrats must either win a net total of four Senate seats OR a net total of three Senate seats while winning back the presidency; as president of the Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris breaks a 50-50 tie.

In May 2019, I surveyed the 34 Senate races—now 35 with the December 2019 retirement of Republican Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia and subsequent appointment of businesswomen Kelly Loeffler by Republican Governor Brian Kemp—scheduled for November 2020. I concluded then that while paths existed for the Democrats to recapture the Senate, everything would have to go just right.

More than one year later, based upon a political climate strongly favoring Democrats—they lead by 7.2 percentage points on the generic ballot [1]—and all publicly-available polls conducted since January 1, 2020, everything appears to be going right for the Democrats.

Before continuing, here is the September 2020 lighthouse photograph in my Down East 2020 Maine Lighthouses wall calendar.

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Table 1 presents the 35 Senate races scheduled for November 2020, sorted by 3W-RDM, my measure of how much more or less Democratic a state votes relative to the nation. “National Lean” is the current generic ballot margin. “Incumbency” is the average electoral advantage adhering to reelection candidates, calculated separately by party and adjusted downward for serving less than one full six-year term. “Sum” is 3W-RDM plus Incumbency plus National Lean, or what I call the “fundamentals”: how a generic Democrat would expect to fare against a generic Republican in a state, all else being equal.

Table 1. 2020 Senate election overview

Name	State	Run 2020	3W-RDM	Incumbency	National Lean	Sum
DEMOCRATS
Edward Markey	MA	Yes	22.1	4.4	7.2	33.7
Jack Reed	RI	Yes	18.0	4.4	7.2	29.6
Richard Durbin	IL	Yes	14.7	4.4	7.2	26.3
Chris Coons	DE	Yes	12.5	4.4	7.2	24.1
Cory Booker	NJ	Yes	12.0	4.4	7.2	23.6
Jeff Merkley	OR	Yes	8.7	4.4	7.2	20.3
Tom Udall	NM	No	6.5	0.0	7.2	13.7
Gary Peters	MI	Yes	2.2	4.4	7.2	13.8
Mark Warner	VA	Yes	1.5	4.4	7.2	13.1
Tina Smith	MN	Yes	1.5	2.2	7.2	10.9
Jeanne Shaheen	NH	Yes	0.1	4.2	7.2	11.5
Doug Jones	AL	Yes	-28.4	2.2	7.2	-19.0

REPUBLICANS
Susan Collins	ME	Yes	5.9	-2.4	7.2	10.7
Cory Gardner	CO	Yes	2.2	-2.4	7.2	7.0
Joni Ernst	IA	Yes	-4.7	-2.4	7.2	0.1
Thom Tillis	NC	Yes	-6.0	-2.4	7.2	-1.2
David Perdue	GA	Yes	-9.6	-2.4	7.2	-4.8
Kelly Loeffler	GA	Yes	-9.6	-0.4	7.2	-2.8
Martha McSally	AZ	Yes	-9.7	-0.6	7.2	-3.1
John Cornyn	TX	Yes	-15.3	-2.4	7.2	-10.5
Lindsey Graham	SC	Yes	-15.7	-2.4	7.2	-10.9
Cindy Hyde-Smith	MS	Yes	-18.5	-1.6	7.2	-12.9
Steve Daines	MT	Yes	-18.6	-2.4	7.2	-13.8
Dan Sullivan	AK	Yes	-19.2	-2.4	7.2	-14.4
Bill Cassidy	LA	Yes	-22.2	-2.4	7.2	-17.4
Pat Roberts	KS	No	-23.4	0.0	7.2	-16.2
Lamar Alexander	TN	No	-25.8	0.0	7.2	-18.6
Ben Sasse	NE	Yes	-25.8	-2.4	7.2	-21.0
Mike Rounds	SD	Yes	-25.8	-2.4	7.2	-21.0
Tom Cotton	AR	Yes	-28.2	-2.4	7.2	-23.4
Mitch McConnell	KY	Yes	-28.7	-2.4	7.2	-23.9
James Risch	ID	Yes	-34.2	-2.4	7.2	-29.4
Shelley Moore Capito	WV	Yes	-35.5	-2.4	7.2	-30.7
James Inhofe	OK	Yes	-38.1	-2.4	7.2	-33.3
Mike Enzi	WY	No	-45.7	0.0	7.2	-38.5

Based solely on these fundamentals, only one Democrat—Jones—entered the 2020 election cycle in serious danger of losing her/his seat, while two Republican—four-termer Susan Collins of Maine and first-termer Cory Gardner of Colorado—were in a similarly weak position. First-termer Joni Ernst of Iowa is basically a 50-50 proposition, while first-termer Thom Tillis of North Carolina is only slightly ahead, as are two recently-appointed Senators, Loeffler and Martha McSally, who lost to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema in 2018; slightly further ahead, but “only” by 4.8 points is first-termer David Perdue of Georgia.

So, at least according to the fundamentals, Democrats entered the 2020 election cycle poised to net between one and six Senate seats, making control of the chamber slightly more likely than not to remain Republican.

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Publicly-available polling tells a broadly similar story, even if the quantity and quality—based upon FiveThirtyEight’s pollster ratings—of polls varies widely from state to state:

Table 2: Number and Average Quality of 2020 Senate Election Polls

State	# of Polls	Average Rating
North Carolina	46	B-/B
Michigan	42	B-/C+
Arizona	37	B/B-
Georgia (Loeffler)	31	B/B-
Georgia (Perdue)	16	B
Texas	13	B
Maine	12	B-/C+
Iowa	10	B/B+
Kentucky	10	B/B+
South Carolina	10	B-/B
Montana	7	B-
Alabama	6	B-/B
Colorado	6	B-/C+
Kansas	5	B
Minnesota	5	B/B+
Mississippi	5	B-/B
New Hampshire	5	B-
Alaska	3	B-/B
Oklahoma	2	C+/B-
New Jersey	1	A+
New Mexico	1	B
Virginia	1	B-/C+
All other states	0
TOTAL	274	B-/B

Only 22 races (63%) have been polled at all, with North Carolina (46), Michigan (42), Arizona (37) and the Loeffler race in Georgia (31) topping the list; six other states—the Perdue race in Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, South Carolina and Texas—have been polled at least 10 times. Thus, just 11 races account for 227 (83%) of the 274 total Senate election polls conducted thus far in 2020.

Table 3 lists expected outcome, based on the fundamentals, and current weighted-adjusted polling average (WAPA) for each Democratic Senate nominee; New Hampshire will hold its Senate primaries on September 8, with incumbent Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen expected to win re-nomination easily. Elections with no incumbent are in italics.

Table 3: Expected and actual polling margins for 2020 Democratic Senate nominees, Labor Day 2020

State	Expected	WAPA	Exp – WAPA
Massachusetts	33.7
Rhode Island	29.6
Illinois	26.3
Delaware	24.1
New Jersey	23.6	21.7	-1.9
Oregon	20.3
New Mexico	13.7	13.7	0.0
Maine	10.7	3.6	-7.1
Colorado	7.0	10.0	3.0
Michigan	13.8	9.4	-4.4
Virginia	13.1	20.5	7.4
Minnesota	10.9	6.0	-4.9
New Hampshire	11.7	13.6	1.9
Iowa	0.1	1.3	1.2
North Carolina	-1.2	4.8	5.9
Georgia–Perdue	-4.8	-2.5	2.2
Georgia–Loeffler	-2.8	-5.1	-2.3
Arizona	-3.1	8.9	11.9
Texas	-10.5	-8.4	2.1
South Carolina	-10.9	-4.1	6.8
Mississippi	-12.9	-11.0	1.9
Montana	-13.8	-0.9	12.9
Alaska	-14.4	-6.4	8.0
Louisiana	-17.4
Kansas	-16.2	-4.0	12.2
Tennessee	-18.6
Nebraska	-21.0
South Dakota	-21.0
Arkansas	-23.4
Alabama	-19.0	-10.5	8.6
Kentucky	-23.9	-9.6	14.3
Idaho	-29.4
West Virginia	-30.7
Oklahoma	-33.3	-19.4	13.9
Wyoming	-38.5
AVERAGE	-2.8*	1.4	4.3

* Only for the 22 states with both measures

The WAPA for New Hampshire is the average of polls assessing Shaheen against retired United States Army officer Donald J. Bolduc (12.5) and attorney Bryant “Corky” Messner (14.8); all five polls were conducted by the University of New Hampshire, a B- pollster with a prior Democratic lean of 2.8 points.

The Loeffler race is a “jungle” primary in which every candidate, regardless of party affiliation, will appear on the November 3 ballot; assuming no candidate tops 50%, a runoff election between the top two vote-getters will take place on January 5, 2021. Republican House Member Doug Collins of Georgia is also running, as are Democrats Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Matt Lieberman, son of 2000 Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Lieberman, and former United States Attorney Ed Tarver. WAPA combines polls of all candidates—which suggest Loeffler and Collins could be the top two vote finishers—and head-to-head matchups between each Republican and each Democrat. The latter show all three Democrats beating Loeffler, and all three losing to Collins—albeit based on only one or two polls. Overall, then, this is an extremely difficult election to assess.

The correlation between expected margin and WAPA is +0.92, meaning the polling is broadly in line with the underlying “fundamentals” of the election. Still, even in a strong Democratic year, Democratic Senate nominees are “overperforming” expectations by an average of 4.3 percentage points (“points”), at least in the 22 Senate elections with at least one poll.

Table 4, finally, shows the win probability for each Democratic nominee based upon fundamentals, current polling and a weighted combination of the two, as well as a final projected margin; for calculation details, please see here. Republican seats in which Democrats lead are in boldface, while Democratic seats in which Repubicans lead are in boldfaced italics.

Table 4: Estimated state margins and probability Democrat wins, 2020 Senate Elections

State	Current Party	P(D win): Expected	P(D win): WAPA	P(D Win): Overall	Predicted Margin
Massachusetts	DEM	100.0%		100.0%	33.7
Rhode Island	DEM	100.0%		100.0%	29.6
Illinois	DEM	100.0%		100.0%	26.3
New Jersey	DEM	99.9%	100.0%	100.0%	22.3
Delaware	DEM	99.9%		99.9%	24.1
Oregon	DEM	99.7%		99.7%	20.3
Michigan	DEM	96.6%	99.9%	99.6%	9.8
Virginia	DEM	95.8%	100.0%	99.5%	19.5
New Hampshire	DEM	93.7%	100.0%	99.3%	13.4
New Mexico	DEM	96.5%	100.0%	99.2%	13.7
Colorado	GOP	81.0%	100.0%	97.8%	9.7
Minnesota	DEM	92.2%	97.7%	97.2%	6.5
Arizona	GOP	29.2%	99.8%	92.5%	7.6
Maine	GOP	91.9%	88.4%	88.8%	4.5
North Carolina	GOP	39.1%	94.4%	88.6%	4.1
Iowa	GOP	46.2%	67.1%	64.3%	1.2
Montana	GOP	2.0%	38.7%	33.1%	-2.8
Georgia–Perdue	GOP	21.6%	19.9%	20.1%	-2.8
Kansas	GOP	0.8%	9.4%	8.2%	-5.7
Georgia–Loeffler	GOP	30.6%	4.4%	8.1%	-4.8
South Carolina	GOP	5.0%	8.7%	8.1%	-5.1
Alaska	GOP	1.6%	1.7%	1.7%	-7.3
Texas	GOP	5.6%	0.3%	0.8%	-8.6
Louisiana	GOP	0.5%		0.5%	-17.4
Mississippi	GOP	2.7%	0.0%	0.4%	-11.3
Tennessee	GOP	0.3%		0.3%	-18.6
Nebraska	GOP	0.1%		0.1%	-21.0
South Dakota	GOP	0.1%		0.1%	-21.0
*Alabama*	*DEM*	*0.3%*	*0.0%*	*0.1%*	*-11.8*
Kentucky	GOP	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%	-16.7
Arkansas	GOP	0.0%		0.0%	-23.4
Idaho	GOP	0.0%		0.0%	-29.4
West Virginia	GOP	0.0%		0.0%	-30.7
Oklahoma	GOP	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	-26.3
Wyoming	GOP	0.0%		0.0%	-38.5

Two months before election day 2020, and with caveats about what voting will look like during a pandemic, Democrats are in a very strong position to recapture the Senate—albeit with few, if any, seats to spare.

Let us examine these 35 elections in groups.

Safe Democratic (9). Senators Edward Markey of Massachusetts, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Richard Durbin of Illinois, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Chris Coons of Delaware, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Mark Warner of Virginia and Shaheen should easily win reelection by double-digit margins, while in New Mexico House Member Ben Ray Lujan is expected to beat meteorologist Mark Ronchetti equally handily.

Lean/likely Democratic (2). The only reason first-term Senators Gary Peters of Michigan and Tina Smith of Minnesota are considered remotely vulnerable is the fact they represent two of the closest states in the 2016 presidential election, and because their polling averages are between four and five points below their election fundamentals. Still, each is very likely to prevail over businessman John James and former House Member Jason Lewis, respectively, by mid-single-digit margins.

Likely Democratic flips (4). Four incumbent Republican Senators—Gardner, McSally, Collins and Tillis—appear headed for defeat by single-digit margins. Gardner is the most likely to lose—by as much as 10 points—to former Governor John Hickenlooper. McSally is right behind, staring at a high-single-digit defeat by former astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of former Arizona House Member Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot and severely wounded in January 2011.

Collins and Tillis, meanwhile, trail Maine State House of Representatives Speaker Sara Gideon and former North Carolina State Senator Cal Cunningham, respectively, by around five points. While not guaranteed to win by any means—Collins won her last election by 37 points, and North Carolina leans 6.0 points Republican—right now these two states are likely Democratic pickups.

Toss-ups (2). Based solely on expectations—incumbent Republican in a lean-Republican state running for reelection in a strong Democratic year—Ernst is no more than even money to win reelection. And while she only trails businesswoman Theresa Greenfield by 1.3 points, that is enough to make Ernst the slightest of underdogs.

On the flip side is heavily Republican Montana, where Steve Daines seeks a second term. The fundamentals suggest Daines should easily win reelection by between 10 and 15 points. However, Governor Steve Bullock is mounting a very strong challenge, trailing by only 0.9 points overall—albeit a few points lower than when he declared his candidacy in early March.

Democrats could easily win both of these races, lose both of these races or split them, with Greenfield likelier to win than Bullock.

Likely Republican flip (1). While Jones is outpacing his fundamentals—running as a Democratic incumbent after only three years in a very Republican state—by 8.6 points, he remains very unlikely to prevail against former college football head coach Tommy Tuberville. In fact, losing “only” by single digits would be a moral victory.

Lean/likely Republican (6). Setting aside the Loeffler reelection, Democrats appear likely to fall short in Georgia’s other Senate election, Kansas, South Carolina, Alaska and Texas. Journalist Jon Ossoff, State Senator Barbara Bollier, former South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Jaime Harrison, orthopedic surgeon (and Independent) Al Gross, and United States Air Force veteran Mary Jennings “M. J.” Hegar, respectively, are overperforming expectations by an average 6.3 points against Senator David Perdue, House Member Roger Marshall and Senators Lindsey Graham, Dan Sullivan and John Cornyn. However, they are doing so in states which lean Republican by an average of 16.6 points.

Still, just as Republican upsets in Michigan and Minnesota cannot be ruled out, neither can Democratic victories in any of these states, with Ossoff likeliest to do so, followed by Harrison. And, in Texas, roughly 20% of voters in polls conducted in July and August are still undecided, which is a warning sign for any incumbent.

It is worth noting that a Harrison victory would give South Carolina two African-American Senators, which has not happened in any state since Reconstruction.

Likely Republican/Sleepers (2). In Mississippi, first-term Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith is again facing former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, who lost by only 7.2 points in 2018. One year later, Republican Tate Reeves defeated Democrat Jim Hood by only 5.5 points in an open gubernatorial election. Currently, Espy trails by 11.0 points, very close to the 12.9 points suggested by the fundamentals. Based on recent history, then, this race could yet tighten, though Hyde-Smith is still heavily favored.

In Kentucky, meanwhile, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seeks a 7^th term against former United States Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath. The fundamentals say McGrath should be trailing by nearly 24 points. However, she is “only” down by 9.6 points, and in six polls conducted since June 1, 2020, she trails in three by 3-5 points and in three by 17-22 points, making this a very difficult race to assess. As with Espy, though, McGrath is highly likely to lose by mid-to-high single digits.

Safe Republicans (9). Senators Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, James Risch of Idaho, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and James Inhofe of Oklahoma should easily win reelection by double-digit margins. And in Tennessee and Wyoming, respectively former United States Ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty and former House Member Cynthia Lummis are expected to win by similar margins.

In sum, Democrats appear all but certain to net at least one Senate seat, losing in Alabama while winning in Arizona and Colorado, and are very well-positioned to win seats in Maine and North Carolina, giving them a 50-50 tie in the Senate—broken by Vice President Mike Pence or Harris. To be fair, though, it is difficult to see how Democrats win all four seats while losing the presidential election, so I assume Harris breaks the tie in this scenario.

The question, then, is whether Democrats can add further seats in Iowa, where they are slightly favored, and/or Montana, where they are slight underdogs…and possibly in Georgia, where Ossoff has a roughly 1-in-5 chance of winning. Democrats have further pickup opportunities in some Republican states, albeit with at most an 8% chance.

Bottom line: The most likely range of Democratic pickups is three to five, with a plausible range of one to six—exactly what the fundamentals suggested in May 2019. If I simply add up the probabilities Democrats win each race, they sum to +4.1, though this is very “back of the envelope” methodology.

Another way to think about these races is to observe how Democratic win probabilities change with either of two reasonable assumptions:

All polls are overestimating Democratic margins by 3.0 points.

In this scenario, Democrats remain almost certain to win in Arizona (89.0%) and Colorado (95.5%) while losing in Alabama. Maine (61.1%) and North Carolina (67.1%) are now toss-ups, though Democrats would still be the slightest of favorites in both. But Iowa would now lean Republican (29.0%), with Democrats no more than an 8.5% favorite (Montana) anywhere else. Meanwhile, Democrats would still be favored in Minnesota (84.0%), but it would not be a comfortable lead.

Bottom line: Democrats could net zero seats, or they could net three seats, with a gain of one or two the likeliest outcome; summing the probabilities suggest a 2.3 seat gain, making Democrats modest underdogs to win back the Senate.

All polls are underestimating Democratic margins by 3.0 points.

While Alabama is still very likely to flip Republican, Democrats would be at least a 94% favorite to win Arizona, Colorado, Maine and North Carolina—and an 88.6% favorite to win Iowa—for a minimum net gain of four seats. Montana (65.3%) and the Perdue race in Georgia (53.4%) would be toss-ups, with Democrats the slightest of favorites, albeit by 0.2 points, suggesting long recounts in both states. Should Democrats prevail in both, that increases the net gain to six seats. And Democrats would now only be modest underdogs in toss-up races in Kansas (32.5%) and South Carolina (32.2%), with the difficult-to-assess Loeffler race in Georgia (27.2%) just beyond that. However, they would still be unlikely to win in Alaska (14.3%) or Texas (4.5%).

Bottom line: In this scenario, Democrats net four to eight seats, with five or six the likeliest outcome. Summing the probabilities, though, suggests a Democratic net gain of 6.1 seats, making them very strong favorites to win back the Senate.

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Flying well under the radar are 11 states holding gubernatorial elections in 2020. Democrats are defending four of them; John Carney, Jay Inslee and Roy Cooper are all-but-guaranteed to be reelected in Delaware, Washington and North Carolina, respectively. The latter is somewhat surprising, given Cooper’s 0.2 point upset win over Republican incumbent Pat McCrory in 2016; the fundamentals suggest a 6.9-point lead, while the polls have him up 11.8 points—something in between these two seems likely.

The other governor’s mansion Democrats are defending is in Montana, where Bullock is stepping down after two terms (and running for the Senate). Montana leans 18.6 points more Republican than the nation, and Democrats Bullock and Brian Schweitzer have governed the state for 16 consecutive years, making it ready for a Republican flip; the fundamentals say House Member Greg Gianforte should win by 11.4 points. And while Democratic Lieutenant Governor Mike Cooney is “only” trailing by 5.8 points, that is not close enough to give Democrats more than a 2.8% chance of winning.

Six Republican governors, meanwhile, are running for reelection—and all are expected to win by at least 9.3 points. This includes heavily Democratic Vermont, where Phil Scott leads Lieutenant Governor David Zuckerman by 31.9 points, and partisan-neutral New Hampshire, where Chris Sununu leads both State Senate Majority Leader Dan Feltes and Executive Council of New Hampshire member Andru Volinsky by more than 30 points. The other four are Eric Holcomb in Indiana, Mike Parson in Missouri, former Democrat Jim Justice in West Virginia and Doug Burgum in North Dakota. In Utah, finally, Gary Herbert is stepping down after eight years; Republican Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox is a near-lock to hold the governor’s mansion against Democratic law professor Christopher Peterson.

Bottom line: Even if one assumes polls are over- or under-estimating Democratic strength by three points, Montana is still the only state likely to flip partisan control—from Democratic to Republican. In fact, across all three scenarios, the range of “summed probabilities” is -0.50 to -0.76, with only the strong Democratic lean of Vermont keeping it even that close to no net change.

Until next time…please stay safe and healthy…

[1] That is, some variant of “If the election for United States House of Representatives was held today, would you vote for the Democrat or the Republican in your Congressional district?”