Louisiana's 4th Congressional District election, 2020
- Primary date: Nov. 3
- Primary type: Majority-vote
- Registration deadline(s): Oct. 5; Oct. 14 (hand-delivered, online)
- Online registration: Yes
- Same-day registration: No
- Early voting starts: Oct. 16
- Absentee/mail voting deadline(s): Nov. 2 (received)
- Voter ID: Photo ID
- Poll times: 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
2022 →
← 2018
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| Louisiana's 4th Congressional District |
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 |
| General election |
| Election details |
| Filing deadline: July 24, 2020 |
| Primary: November 3, 2020 General: December 5, 2020 Pre-election incumbent: Mike Johnson (Republican) |
| How to vote |
| Poll times: 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Tuesday elections) 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Saturday elections) |
| Race ratings |
Inside Elections: Solid Republican Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Republican |
| Ballotpedia analysis |
| U.S. Senate battlegrounds U.S. House battlegrounds Federal and state primary competitiveness Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2020 |
| See also |
U.S. Senate • 1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th • 5th • 6th Louisiana elections, 2020 U.S. Congress elections, 2020 U.S. Senate elections, 2020 U.S. House elections, 2020 |
Louisiana held an election for the 4th Congressional District on November 3, 2020, for all candidates.
Louisiana elections use the Louisiana majority-vote system. All candidates compete in the same primary, and a candidate can win the election outright by receiving more than 50% of the vote. If no candidate does, the top two vote recipients from the primary advance to the general election, regardless of their partisan affiliation.
For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article. If necessary, the general election was held on December 5, 2020.
Incumbent Mike Johnson (R) won re-election in the primary for U.S. House Louisiana District 4.
| Candidate filing deadline | Primary election | General election |
|---|---|---|
Heading into the election the incumbent was Republican Mike Johnson, who was first elected in 2016.
Louisiana's 4th Congressional District was located in the western portion of the state. Allen, Beauregard, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Claiborne, De Soto, Evangeline, Natchitoches, Red River, Sabine, Union, Vernon, and Webster parishes and a portion of St. Landry Parish made up the district.[1]
Post-election analysis
The table below compares the vote totals in the 2020 presidential election and 2020 U.S. House election for this district. The presidential election data was compiled by Daily Kos.
| Presidential and congressional election results, Louisiana's 4th Congressional District, 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Race | Presidential | U.S. House |
Democratic candidate  |
37 | 33.3 |
Republican candidate  |
61.5 | 66.7 |
| Difference | 24.5 | 33.4 |
Election procedure changes in 2020
Ballotpedia provided comprehensive coverage of how election dates and procedures changed in 2020. While the majority of changes occurred as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, some changes occurred for other reasons.
Louisiana modified its absentee/mail-in voting and candidate filing procedures for the November 3, 2020, general election as follows:
- Absentee/mail-in voting: The absentee ballot application used in the general election included COVID-19 specific reasons for requesting an absentee ballot.
- Candidate filing procedures: The candidate qualifying deadline was extended to July 24, 2020. The deadline by which a ballot-qualified party must notify the state of its presidential nominee was extended from August 18, 2020, to August 25, 2020.
For a full timeline about election modifications made in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, click here.
Candidates and election results
Louisiana elections use the majority-vote system. All candidates compete in the same primary, and a candidate can win the election outright by receiving more than 50 percent of the vote. If no candidate does, the top two vote recipients from the primary advance to the general election, regardless of their partisan affiliation.
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House Louisiana District 4
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Mike Johnson (R) | 60.4 | 185,265 |
 | Kenny Houston (D)  | 25.5 | 78,157 | |
 | Ryan Trundle (D) | 7.8 | 23,813 | |
| Ben Gibson (R) | 6.3 | 19,343 | ||
| Total votes: 306,578 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Pivot Counties
- See also: Pivot Counties by state
There are no Pivot Counties in Louisiana. Pivot Counties are counties that voted for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012 and for Donald Trump (R) in 2016. Altogether, the nation had 206 Pivot Counties, with most being concentrated in upper midwestern and northeastern states.
District analysis
- See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index
- See also: FiveThirtyEight's elasticity scores
The 2017 Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was R+13, meaning that in the previous two presidential elections, this district's results were 13 percentage points more Republican than the national average. This made Louisiana's 4th Congressional District the 109th most Republican nationally.[2]
FiveThirtyEight's September 2018 elasticity score for states and congressional districts measured "how sensitive it is to changes in the national political environment." This district's elasticity score was 1.02. This means that for every 1 point the national political mood moved toward a party, the district was expected to move 1.02 points toward that party.[3]
Campaign finance
This section contains campaign finance figures from the Federal Election Commission covering all candidate fundraising and spending in this election.[4] It does not include information on fundraising before the current campaign cycle or on spending by satellite groups. The numbers in this section are updated as candidates file new campaign finance reports. Candidates for Congress are required to file financial reports on a quarterly basis, as well as two weeks before any primary, runoff, or general election in which they will be on the ballot and upon the termination of any campaign committees.[5] The chart below contains data from financial reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission.
| Name | Party | Receipts* | Disbursements** | Cash on hand | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mike Johnson | Republican Party | $1,323,911 | $1,063,517 | $669,686 | As of December 31, 2020 |
| Kenny Houston | Democratic Party | $34,227 | $33,957 | $270 | As of December 15, 2020 |
| Ryan Trundle | Democratic Party | $18,008 | $14,902 | $2,748 | As of November 23, 2020 |
| Ben Gibson | Republican Party | $0 | $0 | $0 | Data not available*** |
|
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2020. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." |
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Race ratings
- See also: Race rating definitions and methods
Ballotpedia provides race ratings from four outlets: The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and DDHQ/The Hill. Each race rating indicates if one party is perceived to have an advantage in the race and, if so, the degree of advantage:
- Safe and Solid ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge and the race is not competitive.
- Likely ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge, but an upset is possible.
- Lean ratings indicate that one party has a small edge, but the race is competitive.[6]
- Toss-up ratings indicate that neither party has an advantage.
Race ratings are informed by a number of factors, including polling, candidate quality, and election result history in the race's district or state.[7][8][9]
| Race ratings: Louisiana's 4th Congressional District election, 2020 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Race tracker | Race ratings | ||||||||
| November 3, 2020 | October 27, 2020 | October 20, 2020 | October 13, 2020 | ||||||
| The Cook Political Report | Solid Republican | Solid Republican | Solid Republican | Solid Republican | |||||
| Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales | Solid Republican | Solid Republican | Solid Republican | Solid Republican | |||||
| Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball | Safe Republican | Safe Republican | Safe Republican | Safe Republican | |||||
| Note: Ballotpedia updates external race ratings every week throughout the election season. | |||||||||
District election history
2018
Louisiana elections use the majority-vote system. All candidates compete in the same primary, and a candidate can win the election outright by receiving more than 50 percent of the vote. If no candidate does, the top two vote recipients from the primary advance to the general election, regardless of their partisan affiliation.
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House Louisiana District 4
Incumbent Mike Johnson won election outright against Ryan Trundle and Mark Halverson in the primary for U.S. House Louisiana District 4 on November 6, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Mike Johnson (R) | 64.2 | 139,326 |
| Ryan Trundle (D) | 33.6 | 72,934 | |
 | Mark Halverson (Independent) | 2.1 | 4,612 | |
| Total votes: 216,872 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2016
Heading into the election, Ballotpedia rated this race as safely Republican. The seat was open following incumbent John Fleming's decision to run for Senate. A total of eight candidates filed to run and competed in the primary election on November 8, 2016. Of those eight, Marshall Jones (D) and Mike Johnson (R) advanced to the general election which was held on December 10, 2016. Johnson subsequently defeated Jones in the general election.[10]
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican |  Mike Johnson |
65.2% | 87,370 | |
| Democratic | Marshall Jones | 34.8% | 46,579 | |
| Total Votes | 133,949 | |||
| Source: Louisiana Secretary of State | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Marshall Jones |
28.2% | 80,593 | |
| Republican | Mike Johnson |
24.7% | 70,580 | |
| Republican | Trey Baucum | 17.6% | 50,412 | |
| Republican | Oliver Jenkins | 15.6% | 44,521 | |
| Republican | Elbert Guillory | 7.3% | 21,017 | |
| Republican | Rick John | 4.6% | 13,220 | |
| Independent | Mark Halverson | 1.1% | 3,149 | |
| Independent | Kenneth Krefft | 0.9% | 2,493 | |
| Total Votes | 285,985 | |||
| Source: Louisiana Secretary of State | ||||
2014
The 4th Congressional District of Louisiana held an election for the U.S. House of Representatives on November 4, 2014. John Fleming (R) defeated Randall Lord (L) in the election.
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | John Fleming Incumbent |
73.43% | 152,683 | |
| Libertarian | Randall Lord | 26.57% | 55,236 | |
| Total Votes | 207,919 | |||
| Source: Louisiana Secretary of State | ||||
See also
- United States House of Representatives elections in Louisiana, 2020
- United States House of Representatives elections, 2020
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ United States Census Bureau, "Counties by Congressional Districts," accessed June 8, 2016
- ↑ Cook Political Report, "Introducing the 2017 Cook Political Report Partisan Voter Index," April 7, 2017
- ↑ FiveThirtyEight, "Election Update: The Most (And Least) Elastic States And Districts," September 6, 2018
- ↑ Fundraising by primary candidates can be found on the race's respective primary election page. Fundraising by general election candidates can be found on the race's general election page.
- ↑ Federal Election Commission, "2022 Quarterly Reports," accessed March 2, 2022
- ↑ Inside Elections also uses Tilt ratings to indicate an even smaller advantage and greater competitiveness.
- ↑ Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Nathan Gonzalez," April 19, 2018
- ↑ Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Kyle Kondik," April 19, 2018
- ↑ Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Charlie Cook," April 22, 2018
- ↑ Louisiana Secretary of State, "Candidate Inquiry," accessed July 25, 2016
