The 2020 United States presidential election in California was held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020, as part of the 2020 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated.^[2] California voters chose electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote, pitting the Republican Party's nominee, incumbent President Donald Trump, and running mate Vice President Mike Pence against Democratic Party nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his running mate Kamala Harris, the junior senator from California. California had, in the 2020 election 55 electoral votes in the Electoral College, the most of any state. California was one of six states where Trump received more percentage of the two-party vote than he did in 2016.^{[lower-alpha 1]} This election also marked the first time since 2004 that the Republican candidate won more than one million votes in Los Angeles County, due to increased turnout statewide.

Quick Facts Turnout, Nominee ...

2020 United States presidential election in California

← 2016 November 3, 2020 2024 →
Turnout	80.67% (of registered voters) 5.40 pp 70.88% (of eligible voters) 12.14 pp[1]
Nominee Joe Biden Donald Trump Party Democratic Republican Home state Delaware Florida Running mate Kamala Harris Mike Pence Electoral vote 55 0 Popular vote 11,110,250 6,006,429 Percentage 63.48% 34.32%
County results Congressional district results Census block group results Biden   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%   90–100% Trump   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%   90–100% Tie/No Votes
President before election Donald Trump Republican Elected President Joe Biden Democratic

Close

California is considered a safe blue state in presidential elections, due to significant concentrations of Democratic voters in large urban regions such as the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Los Angeles, and San Diego. As predicted, Biden easily carried California on election day, earning 63.5% of the vote and a margin of 29.2% over Trump. Biden earned the highest percentage of the vote in the state for any candidate since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936, although Biden's margin of victory was slightly smaller than Hillary Clinton's 30.1% in 2016, making it one of just six states in which Trump improved on his 2016 margin. Biden became the first candidate in any race for any office in U.S. history to win more than 10 million votes in a single state, while Trump also received the most votes a Republican has ever received in any state in any race since the country's founding, even narrowly besting his vote total in Texas, a state that he won.^[3] Biden's vote margin was the largest vote margin for a presidential candidate in a singular state.

Per exit polls by Edison Research, Biden dominated key Democratic constituencies in the state including Latinos with 75%, African Americans with 82%, Asian Americans with 76%, and union households with 63%.^[4] Post-election analysis by Cook Political Report showed Trump made inroads with some Asian American constituencies, particularly Vietnamese American and Filipino American voters.^[5]

Biden flipped Butte County and Inyo County into the Democratic column, which had not voted Democratic since 2008 and 1964, respectively. Biden's victory in Orange County was only the second time a Democrat carried the county since 1936, as well as only the fourth time in the county's history. In contrast, while he improved his total vote share by nearly three percentage points, Trump did not flip any counties and his main regions of strength came from Republican strongholds in Gold Country, Shasta Cascade, and parts of the Central Valley. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla certified the results on December 4, and took Harris's seat in the Senate upon her resignation to become Vice President, having been appointed by Governor Gavin Newsom.^[6]

California was one of five states in the nation in which Biden's victory margin was larger than 1 million raw votes, the others being New York, Maryland, Massachusetts and Illinois. Over 5 million votes of Biden's 7 million vote lead nationwide were Californian votes.

In a departure from previous election cycles, California held its primaries on Super Tuesday, March 3, 2020.^[7] Early voting began several weeks earlier.

Donald Trump secured the Republican nomination on March 17, 2020, defeating several longshot candidates, most notably former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld. Kamala Harris, the state's junior U.S. senator, was among the Democratic candidates declared until she dropped out on December 3, 2019. Representative Eric Swalwell from the 15th district was also a Democratic candidate but dropped out of the race on July 8, 2019. Other prominent state figures, including former Governor Jerry Brown, current Governor Gavin Newsom, and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti declined to run.^[8][9][10]

Democratic primary

Main article: 2020 California Democratic presidential primary

Candidates began filing their paperwork on November 4, 2019, and the final list was announced on December 9.

Leading California Democrats complained that Joe Biden and Senator Elizabeth Warren were snubbing the state by refusing to attend a forum at the State's "endorsement convention".^[15] Early voting began on February 11 and ended the day before primary day.

More information Candidate, Votes ...

2020 California Democratic presidential primary[16]
Candidate	Votes	%	Delegates[17]
Bernie Sanders	2,080,846	35.97	225
Joe Biden	1,613,854	27.90	172
Elizabeth Warren	762,555	13.18	11
Michael Bloomberg	701,803	12.13	7
Pete Buttigieg (withdrawn)[lower-alpha 2]	249,256	4.31
Amy Klobuchar (withdrawn)[lower-alpha 2]	126,961	2.19
Tom Steyer (withdrawn)[lower-alpha 2]	113,092	1.96
Andrew Yang (withdrawn)[lower-alpha 3]	43,571	0.75
Tulsi Gabbard	33,769	0.58
Julian Castro (withdrawn)	13,892	0.24
Michael Bennet (withdrawn)[lower-alpha 3]	7,377	0.13
Marianne Williamson (withdrawn)	7,052	0.12
Cory Booker (withdrawn)	6,000	0.10
John Delaney (withdrawn)	4,606	0.08
Joe Sestak (withdrawn)	3,270	0.06
Deval Patrick (withdrawn)[lower-alpha 3]	2,022	0.03
Other candidates / Write-in	[lower-alpha 4]14,438	0.25
Total	5,784,364	100%	415

Close

More information District, Bernie Sanders ...

Votes (percentage) and delegates by district^[17][18][19]

District	Bernie Sanders		Joe Biden		Michael Bloomberg		Elizabeth Warren		Total delegates	District region	Largest city
1st	34%	2	23.7%	2	10.3%	0	12.9%	0	4	Shasta Cascade	Chico, Redding
2nd	33.3%	3	25.3%	2	13.5%	0	15.9%	1	6	North Coast	Eureka
3rd	34.3%	3	29.3%	2	12%	0	12%	0	5	Sacramento Valley	Fairfield
4th	26.1%	2	29.6%	3	14.7%	0	11.4%	0	5	Sierras	Roseville
5th	32.7%	3	27.2%	3	14.9%	0	12.6%	0	6	Wine Country	Santa Rosa
6th	35.8%	3	28.1%	2	10.7%	0	14.3%	0	5	Sacramento Valley	Sacramento
7th	30.9%	2	31.4%	3	13%	0	11.2%	0	5	Sacramento Valley	Elk Grove
8th	35.7%	2	31.2%	2	11.8%	0	8.8%	0	4	Eastern Desert	Victorville
9th	32.9%	2	32.5%	2	15.9%	1	7%	0	5	San Joaquin Valley	Stockton
10th	35.5%	2	29.1%	1	15.3%	1	7.2%	0	4	San Joaquin Valley	Modesto
11th	29%	2	30.7%	3	15.3%	1	14.7%	0	6	Bay Area	Concord
12th	33.8%	3	23.9%	2	11%	0	23.4%	2	7	San Francisco Bay Area	San Francisco
13th	38.7%	3	22.4%	2	8.1%	0	24.7%	2	7	Bay Area	Oakland
14th	31.9%	3	26.4%	2	15.6%	1	14.8%	0	6	Bay Area	Daly City
15th	34.1%	3	29.5%	3	14.4%	0	11.5%	0	6	Bay Area	Hayward
16th	40.9%	3	26.2%	1	12.6%	0	7.2%	0	4	San Joaquin Valley	Fresno, Merced
17th	36.1%	3	25.9%	2	14.3%	0	12.5%	0	5	Bay Area	Fremont, Santa Clara
18th	26.6%	2	29%	2	15.4%	1	17.1%	1	6	Bay Area	Sunnyvale
19th	38.9%	4	25.9%	2	13.6%	0	10.7%	0	6	Bay Area	San Jose
20th	39.8%	3	25.5%	2	10.9%	0	13%	0	5	Central Coast	Salinas
21st	43.2%	3	25.3%	1	13.7%	0	5.1%	0	4	San Joaquin Valley	Kings, Kern, SW Fresno
22nd	34.4%	2	29.1%	2	13%	0	8.8%	0	4	San Joaquin Valley	Visalia
23rd	34.9%	2	30.2%	2	12.2%	0	9%	0	4	South Central California	Bakersfield
24th	35.3%	3	26.8%	2	10.5%	0	14.7%	0	5	Central Coast	Santa Maria
25th	35.6%	3	33.6%	2	10%	0	10%	0	5	LA County	Santa Clarita
26th	34.4%	3	31.1%	2	12.1%	0	11.5%	0	5	Central Coast	Oxnard
27th	35.9%	2	29.2%	2	10.2%	0	15.7%	1	5	LA County	San Gabriel Valley
28th	40%	3	22.7%	2	7.5%	0	21.7%	1	6	LA County	Glendale
29th	49.8%	3	21.5%	2	7.7%	0	11.2%	0	5	LA County	San Fernando Valley
30th	32.6%	3	31.2%	2	11.2%	0	15.4%	1	6	LA County	San Fernando Valley
31st	39.1%	3	32.3%	2	11%	0	8.3%	0	5	Southern California	San Bernardino
32nd	44.7%	3	28.2%	2	10.5%	0	7.5%	0	5	LA County	El Monte
33rd	26.2%	2	34.2%	3	14.3%	0	16.1%	1	6	LA County	Santa Monica, Coastal LA
34th	53.7%	4	16.8%	1	8.1%	0	14.7%	0	5	LA County	Downtown Los Angeles
35th	46.6%	2	28.2%	2	10.9%	0	6.2%	0	4	Southern California	Fontana
36th	27.5%	1	29.8%	2	15.4%	1	8.1%	0	4	Eastern Desert	Indio
37th	35.6%	3	31.3%	2	10.1%	0	16.2%	1	6	LA County	West LA
38th	41.7%	3	30.8%	2	10.5%	0	7.6%	0	5	LA County	Norwalk
39th	36.7%	3	30.5%	2	12.6%	0	9.6%	0	5	Southern California	Fullerton
40th	56.4%	4	20.9%	1	8.9%	0	5.4%	0	5	LA County	East Los Angeles
41st	45%	3	27.9%	2	10.7%	0	7.5%	0	5	Southern California	Riverside
42nd	37%	3	31.6%	2	12.4%	0	7.9%	0	5	Southern California	Corona
43rd	36.5%	3	34.3%	2	10%	0	10.3%	0	5	LA County	Inglewood
44th	44%	3	29.6%	2	6.2%	0	9.6%	0	5	Los Angeles County	Compton
45th	34%	3	29.1%	2	13.5%	0	12%	0	5	Southern California	Irvine
46th	53.7%	2	20%	2	10.5%	0	7.7%	0	4	Southern California	Anaheim
47th	38.5%	3	27.3%	2	10.6%	0	12.2%	0	5	Southern California	Long Beach
48th	30.4%	2	30.3%	2	16.3%	1	11%	0	5	Southern California	Huntington Beach
49th	30.6%	3	30.5%	2	14.6%	0	12.2%	0	5	Southern California	Oceanside
50th	34.9%	2	27.6%	2	13%	0	11.3%	0	4	Southern California	Escondido
51st	49.2%	3	23.7%	2	11.3%	0	6.8%	0	5	Southern California	Downtown San Diego and Border Communities
52nd	30.6%	3	30%	3	13.4%	0	14.6%	0	6	Southern California	North San Diego
53rd	37.8%	3	27.3%	3	10.1%	0	14.5%	0	6	Southern California	Eastern San Diego and suburbs
Total	36.0%	144	27.9%	109	12.1%	7	13.2%	11	271

Close

More information Delegate type, Bernie Sanders ...

Pledged delegates^[18]

Delegate type	Bernie Sanders	Joe Biden	Michael Bloomberg	Elizabeth Warren
At-large	51	39	0	0
PLEO	30	24	0	0
District-level	144	109	7	11
Total	225	172	7	11

Close

Libertarian primary

Main article: 2020 Libertarian Party presidential primaries

Quick Facts Candidate, Home state ...

2020 California Libertarian presidential primary

← 2016 March 3, 2020 2024 →

← MN MA →

Candidate Jacob Hornberger Jo Jorgensen Vermin Supreme Home state Virginia South Carolina Massachusetts Popular vote 5,530 3,534 3,469 Percentage 19.4% 12.4% 12.2%   Candidate Ken Armstrong Kim Ruff (withdrawn) Adam Kokesh Home state Oregon Arizona Indiana Popular vote 3,011 2,330 2,161 Percentage 10.6% 8.2% 7.6%   Candidate Sam Robb Dan Behrman Max Abramson Home state Pennsylvania Nevada New Hampshire Popular vote 1,722 1,695 1,605 Percentage 6.0% 5.9% 5.6%

Election results by county   Jacob Hornberger   Vermin Supreme   Ken Armstrong   Kim Ruff   Sam Robb   Tie

Close

The Libertarian Party of California permitted non-affiliated voters to vote in their presidential primary.^[20]

More information Candidate, Votes ...

2020 California Libertarian presidential primary[21]
Candidate	Votes	%
Jacob Hornberger	5,530	19.4
Jo Jorgensen	3,534	12.4
Vermin Supreme	3,469	12.2
Ken Armstrong	3,011	10.6
Kim Ruff (withdrawn)	2,330	8.2
Adam Kokesh	2,161	7.6
Sam Robb	1,722	6.0
Dan Behrman	1,695	5.9
Max Abramson	1,605	5.6
Souraya Faas	999	3.5
Steven A. Richey	982	3.4
Erik Gerhardt	748	2.6
Keenan Dunham	720	2.5
Sorinne Ardeleanu (write-in)	27	0.1
Geby Eva Espinosa (write-in)	2	0.0
Total	28,535	100.0

Close

Joe Biden won California by a landslide margin of 29.2%. Despite Biden's overall victory closely mirroring Clinton's, under a point behind her margin, there were large swings underneath the statewide margins. Biden lost ground in large diverse counties while improving in mostly whiter and more suburban counties.^[42] While Trump yet again lost Los Angeles County by a landslide and yet again received less than 30% of the vote in the county, he improved his standing in Los Angeles County, thanks to growth in mainly Latino neighborhoods in the Gateway Cities and the San Fernando Valley, alongside improvements in mainly Asian communities in the San Gabriel Valley. Trump also managed to gain in white neighborhoods as well, with visible gains made in Beverly Hills and other Westside communities, mainly because of the region’s high Jewish population, Burbank and Glendale in the eastern San Fernando Valley, and the Valley's southern wealthy neighborhoods such as Encino and Tarzana.^[43][44] California is also one of the six states (along with Arkansas, Nevada, Utah, Florida, and Hawaii) as well as the District of Columbia in which Trump’s margin increased from 2016.

While Biden won Santa Clara County by a landslide margin of 72%, his margins shrank below that of Hillary Clinton's 2016 margins in the county. His margins slightly shrank in the more suburban communities of Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, even improving in very wealthy cities like Los Altos Hills and Saratoga, but his margins fell in the heavily Asian parts of San Jose, and Milpitas, which Biden won by a landslide, as Trump's comparison of Biden's proposed policies to socialism and communism drove Vietnamese American voters towards him. The issue over China in the South China Sea helped swing Vietnamese Americans, as well as Filipino American voters to the Republican Party. Nonetheless, Trump still received a small 25% of the vote in Santa Clara County, underperforming President Bush in 2004, John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012. ^[45] Trump also gained in Alameda and San Francisco County, but his improvements were smaller than Santa Clara County and Los Angeles County.^[42] Meanwhile, Biden gained in the more white and suburban San Diego County and Riverside County.^[46] In the former, Biden's improvements in wealthy suburban areas, like Carlsbad and Encinitas, alongside gains in more working-class Escondido and Oceanside,^[47] helped overcome Trump's growth in the more Hispanic neighborhoods in southern San Diego County. In Riverside County, Trump lost ground in whiter more Republican territory in the southern part of the county like Menifee and Temecula, and in very liberal communities like Palm Springs in the Coachella Valley, which overcame Biden's decline in Hispanic communities towards the county's northwest, including Moreno Valley and Perris.^[44] Trump also gained grounds in certain areas like West Covina and Carson.^[44]

Outside the large population centers and the Inland Empire, both parties largely ran in line with their 2016 performances. In the Central Valley, Biden's margin was roughly unchanged, though he lost some support in the northern counties like Merced and Stanislaus while gaining in the more Republican southern counties around Kern (Bakersfield).^[48] Biden improved by a point in Sacramento County but saw visible growth in suburban Placer County. However, Trump overwhelmingly outperformed his 2016 performance in rural and heavily Hispanic Imperial County, gaining 17 points.^[48]

• United States presidential elections in California
• 2020 California elections
• 2020 United States presidential election
• 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries
• 2020 Republican Party presidential primaries
• 2020 Libertarian Party presidential primaries
• 2020 Green Party presidential primaries
• 2020 United States elections