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2020 United States Senate election in Texas

The 2020 United States Senate election in Texas was held on November 3, 2020, to elect a member to the United States Senate to represent the State of Texas, concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn won a fourth term against Democratic nominee MJ Hegar by 9.6%.

Prior to the election, most news organizations projected this race as "Lean Republican", and was not expected to be as competitive as the contest for Texas's other Senate seat two years prior, when Republican incumbent Ted Cruz defeated Democrat Beto O'Rourke by a 2.6% margin. Nonetheless, John Cornyn won in what was his worst performance out of his four elections for the U.S. Senate, while MJ Hegar's 43.9% marked the highest vote share of any of Cornyn's Democratic challengers. Despite this being Cornyn's worst performance percentage-wise, he more than doubled his 2014 vote count and received what was then the most raw votes for a Republican U.S. Senate candidate in the history of the United States; this record was later surpassed by Steve Garvey in California in 2024.

Cornyn outperformed President Donald Trump in the state by about 4%, and was able to carry two counties won by Joe Biden (Tarrant and Williamson). While Cornyn did better than Trump in the Texas Triangle, contributing to his over performance, Hegar slightly outperformed Biden in the heavily Hispanic Rio Grande Valley, and was able to carry one Trump county (Zapata), though Hegar herself vastly underperformed previous Democratic margins in the region.

Republican primary

Candidates

Nominee

Eliminated in the primary

  • Virgil Bierschwale, U.S. Navy veteran, software developer, realtor
  • John Anthony Castro, tax consultant, author, businessman, entrepreneur
  • Dwayne Stovall, bridge construction contractor, businessman
  • Mark Yancey, businessman, Attacca International Executive, former owner of the Dallas Wings basketball team

Declined

Endorsements

Polling

Results

Democratic primary

Candidates

Nominee

Eliminated in the runoff

Eliminated in the primary

Withdrawn

  • John B. Love III, Midland City Councillor
  • Hunter Darrel Reece
  • David Selig

Declined

Endorsements

First round

Debates

Polling

Results

Runoff

Polling

Debates

with MJ Hegar and Chris Bell<br />

with MJ Hegar and Amanda Edwards<br />

with MJ Hegar and Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez<br />

Results

Other candidates

Libertarian Party

Candidates

Nominee
  • Kerry McKennon, Libertarian nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 2018
Withdrawn
  • Wes Benedict, former national executive director of the Libertarian Party
  • Rhett Rosenquest Smith, Libertarian nominee for the Precinct 2 Bexar County Justice of the Peace in 2020 and Libertarian nominee for Texas's 11th congressional district in 2018

Green Party

Nominee

  • David B. Collins, info tech trainer and Green nominee for U.S. Senate in 2012

People Over Politics Party

Withdrawn

  • Cedric Jefferson

Human Rights Party

Withdrawn

  • James Brumley

Independents

Declared

  • Ricardo Turullols-Bonilla, retired teacher and candidate for Austin city council in 2014 (as a write-in candidate)

Withdrawn

  • Tim Smith
  • Arjun Srinivasan
  • Krisjiannis Vittato, teacher and ex-filmmaker

General election

Debate

Predictions

Post-primary endorsements

Polling

Graphical summary

Aggregate polls

with Royce West<br />

with Chris Bell<br />

with Sema Hernandez<br />

with Beto O'Rourke<br />

with generic Democrat<br />

with generic Opponent<br />

with generic Republican and generic Democrat<br />

Results

By county

<div style="overflow:auto">

</div> Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

By congressional district

Cornyn won 24 out of 36 congressional districts, including one that elected a Democrat.

See also

Notes

Partisan clients<br />

Additional candidates and voter samples<br />

References

Further reading

External links

Official campaign websites