The 2020 Election Results

A total of 137,125,484 Americans voted in the 2020 presidential election. On Election Day (November 3, 2020), the Republican nominee, Senator John Dickenson of Mississippi, lost the election to the Democratic incumbent, President William C. Holland of Texas, by the largest margin in modern American history. Dickenson accumulated 7 electoral votes to Holland's 531 and 32% of the popular vote (44,502,030) to Holland's 66% (90,571,382). Dickenson carried one state and one congressional district: Mississippi and Nebraska's 3rd congressional district.

Dickenson lost the popular vote in both the male and female electorate with 33% and 32%, respectively. Dickenson's most narrow regional loss was the South, with 36% of the popular vote, but he lost by greater margins in the East, Midwest, and West with 29%, 34%, and 28% of the popular vote, respectively. Holland was heavily favored over Dickenson among Catholics (67% to 31%), and by a smaller margin among Protestants (58% to 41%). Dickenson lost the Independent vote to Holland (71% to 26%). Holland won the white vote over Dickenson (59% to 39%) and was heavily favored by the nonwhite electorate (84% to 16%). Dickenson lost the college-educated, high school-educated, and grade school-educated population to Holland (62% to 37%, 66% to 33%, and 79% to 20%, respectively).

Sharing Holland's ticket, Democratic candidates triumphed in 9 of the 12 gubernatorial races, 18 of the 31 Senate contests, and 304 of the 435 elections for seats in the U.S. House. This section provides a more detailed analysis of the information provided at this article, United States presidential election, 2020 (Holland Version), including the official results of each race and the comparative strengths of the various candidates within each state and district.

United States presidential election, 2020

National Presidential Vote

This was the total vote breakdown for the presidential election, held in all fifty states and the District of Columbia:

United States presidential election, 2020
Party		Presidential Candidate	Vice-Presidential Candidate	Popular Vote	Percentage	Electoral Vote	Percentage
	Democratic	William Holland	Robert Holtzman	90,571,382	66.05%	531	98.69%
	Republican	John Dickenson	Charles Beauregard	44,502,030	32.45%	7	1.31%

Map of the 2020 presidential election results by state.

President Holland's total of 90,571,382 votes far exceeds the previous record of 70,414,261 votes, which he had received four years earlier. His percentage of the total popular vote-66.1 percent-was the largest any candidate received since the popular vote first came into widespread use in 1824. He exceeded Lyndon Johnson with 61.1 percent (1964), Franklin D. Roosevelt with 60.8 percent (1936), Richard Nixon with 60.7 percent (1972), Warren G. Harding with 60.3 percent (1920), and Al Gore with 60.1 percent (2000), in terms of the popular vote. Holland's percentage of the two-party popular vote also set a record. He received 66.5 percent of the two-party popular vote, compared to 65.2 percent for Calvin Coolidge in 1924, 63.9 percent for Harding in 1920, 62.5 percent for Roosevelt in 1936, 62.0 percent for Nixon in 1972, 61.3 percent for Johnson in 1964, and 60.2 percent for Gore in 2000.

Holland's popular vote margin over Dickenson-46,069,352 votes-is an all-time record, easily exceeding the 21,437,467 vote margin by which Gore defeated George W. Bush, and the 17,995,488 plurality of Richard Nixon over George McGovern in 1972. The 2020 results were far more dramatic than those of the 2016 election, when Holland defeated the Republican ticket of Romney and Ryan by a still-impressive 11,895,818 popular vote margin. The 2020 Holland-Holtzman ticket received 20,157,121 more votes than in 2016.

Holland set another record by carrying nineteen states by more than a million votes: California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. In ten states and the District of Columbia, Holland defeated Dickenson by a margin of forty percentage points or more: D.C. (92.5 percent), Hawaii (80.9 percent), Vermont (78.2 percent), California (76.7 percent), Maryland (73.7 percent), New York (73.1 percent), Massachusetts (72.4 percent), Rhode Island (70.6 percent), Illinois (70.5 percent), Texas (69.5 percent), and Colorado (68.6 percent). Holland's narrowest margin was in Wyoming, where he won by 4,708 votes (50.9 percent). In all, Holland was victorious in 49 states and the District of Columbia, winning 531 of the 538 electoral votes.

Dickenson, on the other hand, won only one state and one congressional district with 7 electoral votes. His total popular vote, 44,502,030, was 14,016,313 less than the vote of 58,518,343 which Romney received in 2016. Dickenson won 32.5 percent of the total vote and 33.5 percent of the two-party vote. His biggest victory (at the electoral level) was in Nebraska's 3rd congressional district, where he won 53.6 percent of the vote. His narrowest victory was his only state win, his home state of Mississippi, where he edged Holland by 22,110 votes (50.5 percent).

The 2020 presidential election witnessed the greatest swing of the national electorate in the history of the United States: 42.72%. It thereby overtook that of 1932, in which there had been a swing of 35.17% towards the Democratic Party.

Total Vote

The total Presidential vote of 137,125,484 was the largest in American history. The previous record was set in 2016, when 130,236,726 Americans voted for President. The percentage of eligible (voting age) persons voting in 2020 also increased slightly. In 2016, 58.1 percent of the 224,000,000 eligible voters voted for President; in 2020, 58.2 percent of the 235,248,000 eligible voters.

Presidential Vote by District

A measure of Dickenson's sweeping defeat was reflected in the fact that he won a majority of the vote in only 26 of the 435 congressional districts in the country. Holland, on the other hand, was victorious in 409 districts. The breakdowns:

2020 Presidential Election, Results by Congressional District.

Region	Holland	Dickenson	Total
Northeast	78	0	78
South	136	19	155
Midwest	89	5	94
West	100	2	102

Of the seven non-Southern districts which Dickenson carried, there were two in Indiana (IN-04 and IN-06), and one each in Utah (UT-03), Arizona (AZ-05), Nebraska (NE-03), Kansas (KS-01), and Wisconsin (WI-05). The Southern districts he carried were four each in Georgia (GA-03, GA-09, GA-11, and GA-14) and Alabama (AL-01, AL-02, AL-03, AL-04), three in Tennessee (TN-01, TN-02, TN-06), two each in Louisiana (LA-01 and LA-03), Mississippi (MS-01 and MS-04), and Kentucky (KY-02 and KY-04), and one each in Oklahoma (OK-03) and South Carolina (SC-03). Dickenson did not carry any congressional districts in the Eastern states.

By contrast, Romney in 2016 had carried 160 congressional districts to Holland's 275. That year's totals:

Region	Holland	Romney	Total
Northeast	60	18	78
South	71	74	155
Midwest	59	35	94
West	72	30	102

As seen above, Romney had won the majority of congressional districts in the South that year, and had managed to win at least one congressional district in forty-two of the fifty states.

In contrast to recent presidential elections, in which the Republican presidential candidate had consistently run ahead of their party's candidate for House seats, Dickenson won a greater percentage than the Republican House candidate in only 161 of the 435 House districts. Holland was the first Democratic President since Lyndon Johnson who ran ahead of most of his party's candidates. Most of the districts in which Dickenson ran stronger than the Republican House candidate were districts in which weak or unknown candidates were running on the Republican ticket.

In 2016, Romney ran ahead of GOP house candidates in 275 districts while Holland ran ahead of Democratic house candidates in 260 districts.

Finally, Holland carried 105 of the 131 districts which elected a Republican congressman, and all 304 of the districts which elected a Democratic congressman. All 26 districts carried by Dickenson elected a Republican congressman. He did not carry any Democratic congressional districts, as shown below:

2020 Presidential Election, Presidential-Congressional Comparison.

Presidential Vote by County

Another measure of Dickenson's loss can be explored through counties. He won a majority (or plurality) of the vote in only 614 of the nation's 3,144 counties, independent cities, and county-equivalents. Holland, on the other hand, was victorious in 2,530 counties. The breakdowns:

Election results by county.

  William Holland

  John Dickenson

Region	Holland	Dickenson	Total
Northeast	211	6	217
South	1,095	325	1,422
Midwest	856	199	1,055
West	374	76	450

As with congressional districts, there was a clear contrast with 2016. In that year, Romney had carried 1,657 counties, to Holland's 1,487. The breakdowns:

Region	Holland	Romney	Total
Northeast	141	76	217
South	614	808	1,422
Midwest	374	681	1,055
West	146	304	450

1,043 counties which had voted for Romney that year defected to President Holland in this election, the largest number of county flips between elections since 1964, when Lyndon Johnson had gained 1,089 counties which had voted for Richard Nixon in 1960. Holland gained in every state except for Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Hawaii, which he had swept four years earlier against Romney. Dickenson, however, unlike Barry Goldwater (who won 338 counties, mostly in the South, which had voted for Kennedy or unpledged electors), was unable to flip any of Holland's counties from 2016; indeed, he did worse than Romney in every one of them. Dickenson underperformed Romney in 3,103 counties overall; he did better than Romney in just 41 counties. And the flip in counties had an impact upon the results by community size. Whereas Romney had won the rural vote by five points in 2016, Dickenson lost it by 18. Romney ran behind Holland in the suburban vote by just four points in 2016; Dickenson lost it by 28 points. Romney had earned 33% of the urban vote; Dickenson won just 22%.

As indicated by the results above, the Northeast was Dickenson's worst region. He won only six counties in that region, all of them in Pennsylvania: Tioga, Potter, Lycoming, Snyder, Franklin, and Fulton. Holland won every county in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. Holland was the first presidential candidate from either party, since Calvin Coolidge in 1924, to win every single county in New England. He became the first Democrat in history to win all of New Hampshire's counties, and only the second, following Lyndon Johnson in 1964, to win every county in New York and New Jersey. Holland dominated in most of these counties, though his victories in some traditional Republican strongholds, such as Juniata and Perry Counties in Pennsylvania, were very narrow. The best Dickenson did in any northeastern county was the 52.6 percent vote share which he received in Potter County, Pennsylvania. Potter and Snyder Counties, in fact, were the only northeastern counties where he received an absolute majority; he held Tioga, Lycoming, Franklin, and Fulton with narrow pluralities. Holland won every northeastern state with more than sixty percent of the vote, breaking seventy percent in four: Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York.

By contrast, the South was Dickenson's best region, where he carried 325 of the region's 1,422 counties. Of the region's sixteen states, Holland won every county in just one: Delaware. He came close in Virginia, winning all but one county, and won all but two counties in Maryland. Dickenson did best, county-wise, in Georgia, where he carried 54 of the state's 159 counties. His next best state was Kentucky, where he carried 48 of the state's 120 counties. In his home state of Mississippi, the only state in the entire country that he won, he carried 34 out of 82 counties. He carried 38 counties in Alabama and Oklahoma each, 31 counties in Tennessee, 24 parishes (county-equivalents) in Louisiana, and 19 counties in West Virginia, with all but Louisiana being decided by single digits. However, Dickenson did terribly in North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, and Holland's home state of Texas, winning, besides the one county in Virginia, nine counties in North Carolina, three counties in Florida, and ten counties in Texas. Texas, in particular, weighed in as the most Democratic (Confederate) state in the region, due to Holland's extensive popularity, deriving from his years as senator and governor there. Dickenson also did poorly in South Carolina, winning just four counties, and in Arkansas, winning just eight counties, although he managed to hold Holland under 60% in both states. Holland broke sixty percent in five Southern states: Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, and Texas, exceeding seventy percent in Maryland.

In the Midwest, Dickenson won 199 of the region's 1,055 counties. He managed to win at least one county in each state. Although Nebraska and Kansas voted decisively for Holland, Dickenson nevertheless did the best, countywise, in those two traditionally Republican states. He carried 51 counties in Kansas and 44 in Nebraska. The counties in Nebraska were sufficient for him to eke out a narrow victory in NE-03, giving him his only electoral vote in the country outside of Mississippi. Dickenson won 34 counties in Missouri, many of them traditionally Republican strongholds in the southwest and northernmost portions of the state. He carried 28 in South Dakota, 25 in Indiana, 19 in North Dakota, 9 in Illinois, 6 in Ohio, and 2 each in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Michigan. Holland broke sixty percent in six states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Ohio, and Missouri, and exceeded seventy percent in Illinois.

In the West, Dickenson's second-worst region after the Northeast, he carried 76 of the region's 450 counties. He won 23 counties in Montana, 18 in Idaho, and 15 in Wyoming. He carried 10 in Utah, 6 in Washington, 3 each in Colorado and New Mexico, and 1 each in Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona. Holland won every county in California, Alaska, and Hawaii. He was the first presidential candidate from either party, since Franklin Roosevelt in 1936, to win every county in California, and the first since Johnson in 1964 to do so in Alaska. Holland broke sixty percent in six Western states: Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska, breaking seventy percent in California, and eighty percent in Hawaii, his best state in the nation.

The 2020 election was notable in that several county streaks were broken. In the West, the most prominent streaks broken were those of Josephine County, Oregon, Ada County, Idaho, Douglas County, Nevada, and Hughes County, South Dakota. These counties voted Democratic for the first time since 1936. In the Midwest, Holland was the first Democrat ever to win Ogle County, Illinois, and broke a Republican county streak in Lee County, Illinois extending back to 1856. He was also the first Democrat ever to win Missaukee County, Michigan, and the first to win Sanilac County, Michigan since the Republican Party's foundation. Holland also broke a string of notable county streaks in Virginia, South Carolina, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, and New York.

In all, Holland won the majority of counties in 48 states, Dickenson in 2 (Alabama and Wyoming). Dickenson narrowly fell short, by one county, of carrying a majority in Oklahoma, and two counties short of carrying the majority in Kansas. He won the fewest counties for any Republican candidate since Barry Goldwater in 1964, who had carried 826 against Lyndon Johnson. Dickenson, however, won more counties than Alf Landon had in 1936 (420) or Herbert Hoover in 1932 (334); Hoover thus retained the record for winning the fewest counties of any Republican. Conversely, Holland won the most counties of any Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936, carrying more than Lyndon Johnson in 1964 (2,275) or Al Gore in 2000 (2,001).

Presidential Vote by Demographic

Dickenson suffered the worst loss of any presidential candidate from either party in the popular vote by demographic. Holland was the first candidate since Johnson in 1964 to win every racial demographic by double digits, and the first since Ronald Reagan in 1984 to win both genders by double digits as well. 72 percent of the electorate was white in 2020; 28 percent was nonwhite. Holland won the white vote (59 percent), defeating Dickenson among this group by a wide margin of twenty percentage points. This was the same percentage which Johnson had earned fifty-six years earlier. Although whites still weighed in as the most Republican group in the country, Holland's victory nevertheless proved a major factor in molding the election results. He won white women (61 percent) and white men (58 percent). This marked the first time since Johnson that a Democrat carried both gender sets of whites by such margins. Holland's victory cut across educational lines, as he carried a commanding 61 percent of non-college educated whites and 58 percent of college-educated whites.

On a state-by-state basis, Holland won whites in 41 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Holland did best in the Northeast and the West Coast, two regions where white voters in general had gravitated strongly to the Democratic Party over the course of the preceding four decades. Within the Northeast, Dickenson won less than 40 percent of the white vote in Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, less than 30 percent in Massachusetts, and less than 20 percent in Vermont. His best state was New Jersey, but even there, he obtained only 43 percent, losing whites to Holland by ten percentage points. Along the West Coast, Dickenson won less than 40 percent in California, Oregon, and Washington. He did even worse in Hawaii, winning only 20 percent of the white vote. Holland dominated in the District of Columbia, where all demographics voted for him by overwhelming margins; there, 89 percent of white voters cast their ballot for the President. He also performed very well in the Great Lakes, Colorado, and Texas. Dickenson's best Great Lakes state was Indiana, where he obtained 47 percent of the white vote. He won 42 percent in Illinois and Michigan, and 41 percent in Ohio. In Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, however, Dickenson won less than 40 percent. In Colorado, Dickenson obtained 33 percent, the only Interior State where he fell under 40 percent. Dickenson lost whites by clear margins throughout the remaining Midwestern and Western states, though he came within single digits in Missouri (47 percent), Arizona (48 percent), Kansas (49 percent), Nebraska (49 percent), South Dakota (49 percent), and Wyoming (49 percent).

Holland's weakest performances, by contrast, were concentrated in the South, where white voters have been overwhelmingly Republican since the Civil Rights Movement and the subsequent Southern Strategy of Richard Nixon. Holland lost the white vote in nine of the region's sixteen states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee. In Mississippi, Dickenson's only state, Holland managed just 17 percent of the white vote. He did better in Alabama and Louisiana, earning 30 percent in both states. In Georgia, Holland won 33 percent of the white vote; in South Carolina, 38 percent. Holland obtained 45 percent in Oklahoma, 46 percent in Arkansas, 47 percent in Tennessee, and 49 percent in Kentucky. Nevertheless, Holland performed better than any Democrat had with Southern whites since Al Gore in his reelection of 2000. In most of these states (except for Mississippi), nonwhite voters, particularly blacks, provided the margin of victory for the President. Blacks were especially critical in Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, and South Carolina, where white voters remained predominantly loyal to Dickenson, and provided the difference in Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee, where Holland did comparatively better. They were in conjunction with the white minorities that did vote for Holland, who tended to be composed of millennials, college graduates, suburbanites, independents, and some rural moderates. Dickenson's white majorities in these states were predominantly older, working-class, and evangelical voters.

In the seven Southern states where Holland did carry the majority of white voters, his margins among them varied. He won them narrowly in West Virginia (51 percent) and North Carolina (52 percent). He carried them by 10 points in Virginia (55 percent) and 11 points in Florida (55 percent). In Delaware and Maryland, Holland carried them by roughly 17-18 percentage points, earning 58 percent of the white vote in Delaware and 57 percent in Maryland. In Texas, Holland's home state, he won by a landslide margin (as has been noted above), taking 62 percent of the white vote. Overall, Holland won 66 percent of the non-Southern white vote; Dickenson carried 52 percent of the Southern white vote. These averaged out to 59 percent, Holland's nationwide share of the white vote.

Holland, as expected of a Democrat, did exceptionally well among minority voters, carrying each demographic by record margins. However, he did better with these voters than any Democrat had since Johnson in 1964. He did best with African Americans, a fiercely Democratic voting bloc (96 percent), and posted record performances with Hispanics (77 percent), Asians (73 percent), and Other voters (60 percent). Holland won 84 percent of the overall nonwhite vote, the highest percentage won by a Democrat to date. He carried nonwhite voters in every state. As with white voters, Holland's victory cut across educational lines, as he carried 96 percent of non-college educated nonwhites and 74 percent of college-educated nonwhites. It also carried across gender lines, as he won minority women by crushing margins: black women (99 percent), Hispanic women (82 percent), and Asian/Other women (66 percent). He also dominated among minority men by significant margins: black men (90 percent), Hispanic men (71 percent), and Asian/Other men (61 percent). Holland's coalition of voters, as it had been in 2016, remained more diverse than that of his Republican counterpart, with whites comprising 62 percent of his voters, African-Americans 19 percent, Hispanics 13 percent, and Asians/Others 6 percent. Dickenson's coalition, by contrast, was 85 percent white, 2 percent African-American, 8 percent Hispanic, and 5 percent Asian/Others.

Holland won by significant margins among both genders, carrying women (68 percent) and men (64 percent). The persistent gender gap, which had first developed in the 1980s, remained in this election. Dickenson was crushed among women, losing them by 36 percentage points. He lost among men by a smaller margin-31 percentage points-but became the first Republican since Barry Goldwater to lose men by double digits. The President's dominance cut across religious barriers as well. His best group was Other voters (89 percent), followed closely by Agnostics/Atheists (89 percent), Jews (84 percent), and Muslims (80 percent). He won Catholics by 36 points (67 percent), posting the best Democratic performance among them since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. He won Protestants (58 percent) and non-denominational Christians (61 percent) by smaller but still commanding margins. And he became the first Democrat since Johnson to win Mormons (54 percent), capitalizing on their unique distaste with Dickenson's social and foreign policy views. This was critical to his victory in Utah.

Holland swept every age group in the country by double-digit margins. His best group were voters aged 18-29 (75 percent), the most Democratic age group in the electorate. His next best group were voters aged 30-39 (70 percent), receiving a higher share than he did nationally among them. He carried the next three age groups, which are more Republican-leaning, with smaller but still decisive margins: voters aged 40-49 (63 percent), voters aged 50-64 (62 percent), and voters aged 65 and older (62 percent). Younger voters were repelled by Dickenson's social and racial views; middle-aged voters by his economic ones, particularly federal agencies, healthcare, and federal subsidies; and elderly voters by his positions on such important programs as Medicaid, Medicare, pensions, and Social Security. Voters of all ages were also repelled by Dickenson's hard-line rhetoric, including his call for withdrawal from the UN and for aggressive bombing campaigns in the Middle East as well as East Asia.

Holland also won every age group by race. Among whites, he earned these percentages: whites aged 18-29 (63 percent), whites aged 30-39 (58 percent), whites aged 40-49 (58 percent), whites aged 50-64 (57 percent), and whites aged 65 and over (57 percent). Among blacks, he earned these percentages: blacks aged 18-29 (94 percent), blacks aged 30-39 (97 percent), blacks aged 40-49 (97 percent), blacks aged 50-64 (96 percent), and blacks aged 65 and over (96 percent). Among Hispanics, he earned: Hispanics aged 18-29 (80 percent), Hispanics aged 30-39 (77 percent), Hispanics aged 40-49 (77 percent), Hispanics aged 50-64 (74 percent), and Hispanics aged 65 and over (71 percent). The President received 67 percent among Asian/Other voters, as classified by age group.

By educational level, Holland also performed very well. His best group was voters without a high school education (79 percent), the most impoverished segment of the electorate. His next best group, ironically, was voters with postgraduate degrees (74 percent), who had long been gravitating to the Democratic Party. He performed exceptionally well with high school graduates (66 percent), matching his national share among them. He won college graduates, the most Republican-leaning category, by a significant margin (62 percent) and carried those with some college education with an even more decisive majority (64 percent). He won every income group as well: those making less than $30,000 (78 percent), those making between $30,000 and $49,999 (72 percent), those making between $50,000 and $99,999 (61 percent), those making between $100,000 and $199,999 (59 percent), those making between $200,000 and $249,999 (62 percent), and those making over $250,000 (54 percent).

The President's victory also carried across region. He annihilated Dickenson in urban areas (76 percent), sweeping all of the country's major cities, including the capital city of each state, and earning record percentages across the board. In Democratic strongholds, fueled by strong support from the traditional Democratic voting blocks, his commanding majority among independents, and defections of Republican voters, Holland outdistanced his opponent by significant margins: Baltimore (97 percent), San Francisco (97 percent), Philadelphia (94 percent), Denver (90 percent), New York City (88 percent), St. Louis (87 percent), Los Angeles (84 percent), Detroit (84 percent), Austin (83 percent), Boston (83 percent), Portland (83 percent), Chicago (82 percent), Cleveland (80 percent), Seattle (80 percent), Indianapolis (78 percent), Gary (78 percent), Milwaukee (77 percent), Atlanta (76 percent), Pittsburgh (74 percent), the Twin Cities (73 percent), Columbia (71 percent), Las Vegas (71 percent), Kansas City (70 percent), San Antonio (70 percent), Orlando (69 percent), Miami (69 percent), Houston (69 percent), Nashville (66 percent), and Dallas (64 percent). Holland also broke into normally Republican strongholds, carrying Columbus (68 percent), Birmingham (67 percent), Salt Lake City (62 percent), Cincinnati (59 percent), Jacksonville (59 percent), Phoenix (56 percent), and Oklahoma City (56 percent), among others.

A similar pattern was seen in suburbs, where the President won by a commanding margin (63 percent). He dominated traditionally Democratic suburban regions, such as those of Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Boston, Newark, San Francisco, Denver, the Twin Cities, and New York City, but also carried the traditionally Republican suburbs of Phoenix, Dallas, Atlanta, Charleston, Columbus, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas. Holland also won in traditionally Republican Orange County, California, south of Los Angeles. Dickenson held only the suburbs of Nashville, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati. Holland's success also extended into towns (57 percent) and into rural areas (58 percent), showing a particularly marked dominance in the Northeast, Midwest, North Carolina, Florida, New Mexico, and his home state of Texas. Holland also won decisively in every region of the country, carrying the Northeast (71 percent), West (69 percent), Midwest (65 percent), and South (62 percent) by double-digit margins.

Party Strength

The Holland sweep helped the Democrats achieve their greatest Congressional majorities in 83 years, since the convening of the 75th Congress in January 1937. They scored net gains of five seats in the Senate and 38 seats in the House of Representatives, making the new Senate party breakdown 66-34 in their favor and the new House breakdown 304-131 in their favor. The 2020 election brought Democratic gains and Republican losses in every region of the country, except for Republican gains in Minnesota, West Virginia, Arkansas, and Florida. The membership of the Houses in January 2021 is shown as below:

Partisan Breakdown of the United States Senate, January 3, 2021.

Partisan Breakdown of the United States House of Representatives, January 3, 2021.

Democrats defeated the following Republicans in the House:

1. Timothy Griffin (AR-02)
2. Jeff Denham (CA-10)
3. David Valadao (CA-21)
4. Steve Knight (CA-25)
5. Ken Calvert (CA-42)
6. Mimi Walters (CA-45)
7. Dana Rohrabacher (CA-48)
8. Dan Webster (FL-10)
9. David Jolly (FL-13)
10. Carlos Curbelo (FL-26)
11. Karen Handel (GA-06)
12. Peter Roskam (IL-06)
13. Joe Walsh (IL-08)
14. Randy Hultgren (IL-14)
15. Larry Bucshon (IN-08)
16. Mike Johnson (LA-04)
17. Garret Graves (LA-06)
18. Tim Walberg (MI-07)
19. Jason Lewis (MN-02)
20. Erik Paulsen (MN-03)
21. Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO-03)
22. Greg Gianforte (MT-AL)
23. Steve Russell (OK-05)
24. Tom MacArthur (NJ-03)
25. Leonard Lance (NJ-07)
26. Tom Reed (NY-23)
27. Pat Meehan (PA-07)
28. Lou Barletta (PA-11)
29. Ralph Norman (SC-05)
30. Chuck Flesichmann (TN-03)
31. Joe Barton (TX-06)
32. Michael McCaul (TX-10)
33. Will Hurd (TX-23)
34. Blake Farenthold (TX-27)
35. Mia Love (UT-04)
36. Barbara Comstock (VA-10)
37. Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA-03)
38. Michael Logan (WI-01)

Democrats also gained five open seats:

1. CA-49 (retiring Republican incumbent Darrell Issa)
2. KS-02 (retiring Republican incumbent Lynn Jenkins)
3. MI-11 (retiring Republican incumbent Dave Trott)
4. WA-05 (retiring Republican incumbent Dave Reichert)
5. VA-04 (retiring Republican incumbent Randy Forbes)

Republicans gained five seats, defeating these incumbents:

1. Mike Ross (AR-04)
2. Bobby Bright (AL-02)
3. Robert Jackson (FL-11)
4. Matt Connealy (NE-01)

They also gained one open seat:

1. Timothy Walz (MN-01)

In the Senate, Democrats defeated five incumbents:

1. Dan Sullivan (R-AK)
2. Cory Gardner (R-CO)
3. David Perdue (R-GA)
4. Steve Daines (R-MT)
5. Thom Tillis (R-NC)

They also gained a open seat in Maine (retiring Republican incumbent Susan Collins).

Republicans picked up one seat, defeating:

1. Natalie Tennant (D-WV)

On the gubernatorial level, the Republicans scored a gain in New Hampshire but lost the governorships of Missouri and Indiana. The result: a net gain of one for the Democratic Party. Holland outperformed the Democratic gubernatorial candidates in every state except for North Carolina.

Marginal Seats

Map of the 2020 U.S. Senate election results by state.

Map of the 2020 U.S. House election results by state.

Map of the 2020 gubernatorial election results by state.

Of the eighteen Democratic senators elected in 2020, five were elected with less than 55 percent of the vote. The closest win was registered by Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), who was elected by just 318 votes (49.5 percent). Other marginal winners included Sens. Crisanta Duran of Colorado (50.3 percent), Steve Bullock of Montana (51.8 percent), Joshua Stein of North Carolina (52.6 percent), and Jason Carter of Georgia (54.6 percent), all of whom were carried to victory on Holland's coattails. Four other Democratic senators, Chellie Pingree of Maine (55.8 percent), Beto O'Rourke of Texas (56.6 percent), Jeff Merkley of Oregon (59.9 percent), and Mark Warner of Virginia (61.1 percent), also underperformed Holland. The remaining Democratic senators outperformed Holland, most notably Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan (75.5 percent), and one, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, ran completely unopposed.

Of the thirteen Republican senators elected in 2020, five were elected with less than 55 percent of the vote. The closest win on the Republican side was registered by Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina (50.2 percent). Other marginal winners included Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa (50.8 percent), Mitch McConnell of Kentucky (51.4 percent), Ben Sasse of Nebraska (52.5 percent), and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana (53.6 percent). Holland outperformed these five, carrying all but Kentucky by double-digit margins. One other Republican senator, Tom Cotton of Arkansas (55.7 percent), also underperformed Holland, who won the state with 56.1 percent. The remaining Republican senators ran ahead of Holland, including the sole Republican pickup, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia (58.8 percent), and Steven Palazzo of Mississippi (59.0 percent), the only senator elected from a state Holland lost. One Republican senator, Mike Enzi of Wyoming, ran completely unopposed, while Bill Haslam of Tennessee (71.7 percent), performed the best of those Republican senators with competition.

In the House, 61 Democrats and 49 Republicans were elected by less than 55 percent of the vote. Four Republicans had the closest calls, winning their races by a plurality of the votes cast. Each of their districts were carried by Holland by significant margins at the presidential level. These were Mike Bishop of Michigan (49.1 percent), Adam Kinzinger of Illinois (49.5 percent), Bruce Poliquin of Maine (49.8 percent), and Marc Amodei of Nevada (49.9 percent). Two others, Elise Stefanik of New York (50.0 percent) and Paul Cook of California (50.1 percent), won reelection with a narrow majority of the popular votes cast. Of the thirty-eight Republicans defeated for reelection, the one who lost by the largest margin was Steve Knight of California (35.4 percent); the one who suffered the most narrow defeat was Tom Reed of New York (49.2 percent). Of the five Democrats who lost reelection, the one who lost by the largest margin was Mike Ross of Arkansas (39.9 percent); the one who suffered the most narrow defeat was Bobby Bright of Alabama (49.7 percent). Each of these Democrats lost due to personal scandals, ranging from sexual misconduct to cronyism.

Of the 9 Democratic Governors elected, 2 were elected by less than 55 percent of the vote. The closest win was registered by Gov. Jim Justice of West Virginia (50.1 percent), while the other marginal winner was Gov. John R. Gregg of Indiana (50.5 percent). The largest win was registered by Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina (69.1 percent), the only Democratic Governor to outperform Holland.

Of the 3 Republican Governors elected, 1, Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, won with less than 55 percent of the vote (51.1 percent), winning even as Holland carried the state by a landslide margin. The Republican Governors of North Dakota and Utah both outperformed Holland, with the largest margin being registered by Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota (77.1 percent), who outperformed Dickenson by a whopping 35.22 percentage points.