Maryland's 3rd Congressional District election, 2020

	2022 → ← 2018
Maryland's 3rd Congressional District
	Democratic primary; Republican primary; General election
Election details
	Filing deadline: January 24, 2020
	Primary: June 2, 2020; General: November 3, 2020; Pre-election incumbent:; John Sarbanes (Democrat)
How to vote
	Poll times: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Voting in Maryland
Race ratings
	Cook Political Report: Solid Democratic; Inside Elections: Solid Democratic; Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Democratic
Ballotpedia analysis
	U.S. Senate battlegrounds; U.S. House battlegrounds; Federal and state primary competitiveness; Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2020
See also
	Maryland's 3rd Congressional District; 1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th • 5th • 6th • 7th • 8th; Maryland elections, 2020; U.S. Congress elections, 2020; U.S. Senate elections, 2020; U.S. House elections, 2020; Alabama U.S. House racesAlaska U.S. House racesArizona U.S. House racesArkansas U.S. House racesCalifornia U.S. House racesColorado U.S. House racesConnecticut U.S. House racesDelaware U.S. House racesFlorida U.S. House racesGeorgia U.S. House racesHawaii U.S. House racesIdaho U.S. House racesIllinois U.S. House racesIndiana U.S. House racesIowa U.S. House racesKansas U.S. House racesKentucky U.S. House racesLouisiana U.S. House racesMaine U.S. House racesMaryland U.S. House racesMassachusetts U.S. House racesMichigan U.S. House racesMinnesota U.S. House racesMississippi U.S. House racesMissouri U.S. House racesMontana U.S. House racesNebraska U.S. House racesNevada U.S. House racesNew Hampshire U.S. House racesNew Jersey U.S. House racesNew Mexico U.S. House racesNew York U.S. House racesNorth Carolina U.S. House racesNorth Dakota U.S. House racesOhio U.S. House racesOklahoma U.S. House racesOregon U.S. House racesPennsylvania U.S. House racesRhode Island U.S. House racesSouth Carolina U.S. House racesSouth Dakota U.S. House racesTennessee U.S. House racesTexas U.S. House racesUtah U.S. House racesVermont U.S. House racesVirginia U.S. House racesWashington U.S. House racesWest Virginia U.S. House racesWisconsin U.S. House racesWyoming U.S. House racesSubmit

All U.S. congressional districts, including the 3rd Congressional District of Maryland, held elections in 2020.

Incumbent John Sarbanes won election in the general election for U.S. House Maryland District 3.

Candidate filing deadline	Primary election	General election
January 24, 2020	June 2, 2020	November 3, 2020

Heading into the election the incumbent was Democrat John Sarbanes, who was first elected in 2006. The race was one of 56 U.S. House rematches from 2018.

Maryland's 3rd Congressional District winds through parts of Anne Arundel, Montgomery, Howard and Baltimore counties and includes parts of Baltimore city.^[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, Maryland's 3rd Congressional District, 2020
Race	Presidential	U.S. House
Democratic candidate	68.7	69.8
Republican candidate	29.4	30
Difference	39.3	39.8

Election procedure changes in 2020

See also: Changes to election dates, procedures, and administration in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 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.

Maryland modified its absentee/mail-in and candidate filing procedures, early voting, and polling places for the November 3, 2020, general election as follows:

Absentee/mail-in voting: Absentee/mail-in ballot request forms sent to all qualified voters in the general election. The return deadline for absentee/mail-in ballot requests was October 20, 2020.
Candidate filing procedures: The petition signature requirement for obtaining party status for the Green and Libertarian parties was reduced from 10,000 to 5,000 signatures. The nomination petition signature requirement for unaffiliated candidates was reduced by 50 percent.
Early voting: An early voting period ran from October 26, 2020 through November 2, 2020.
Polling places: All early voting centers and Election Day polling locations were open on November 3, 2020. The Maryland State Board of Elections operated a limited number of centralized voting centers in lieu of precinct polling places for in-person voting in the general election.

For a full timeline about election modifications made in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, click here.

Candidates and election results

General election

General election for U.S. House Maryland District 3

Incumbent John Sarbanes defeated Charles Anthony in the general election for U.S. House Maryland District 3 on November 3, 2020.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	John Sarbanes (D)	69.8	260,358
	Charles Anthony (R)	30.0	112,117
	Other/Write-in votes	0.2	731

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 373,206
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Maryland District 3

Incumbent John Sarbanes defeated Joseph Ardito and John Rea in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Maryland District 3 on June 2, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		John Sarbanes	82.5	110,457
		Joseph Ardito	13.4	17,877
	Submit photo	John Rea	4.2	5,571

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 133,905
= 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.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Carole Brown (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Maryland District 3

Charles Anthony defeated Reba Hawkins, Thomas Harris, Rob Seyfferth, and Joshua Morales in the Republican primary for U.S. House Maryland District 3 on June 2, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Charles Anthony	41.7	12,040
		Reba Hawkins	22.6	6,535
	Submit photo	Thomas Harris	16.0	4,623
	Submit photo	Rob Seyfferth	11.1	3,210
		Joshua Morales	8.6	2,487

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 28,895
= 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.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Michael Jette (R)

Pivot Counties

See also: Pivot Counties by state

There are no Pivot Counties in Maryland. 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.

In the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton (D) won Maryland with 60.3 percent of the vote. Donald Trump (R) received 33.9 percent. In presidential elections between 1789 and 2016, Maryland voted Democratic 52 percent of the time and Republican 21 percent of the time. In the five presidential elections between 2000 and 2016, Maryland voted Democratic all five times.^[2]

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 D+13, meaning that in the previous two presidential elections, this district's results were 13 percentage points more Democratic than the national average. This made Maryland's 3rd Congressional District the 101st most Democratic nationally.^[3]

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.^[4]

Campaign finance

This section contains campaign finance figures from the Federal Election Commission covering all candidate fundraising and spending in this election.^[5] 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.^[6] The chart below contains data from financial reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission.

Name

Party

Receipts*

Disbursements**

Cash on hand

Date

John Sarbanes

Democratic Party

$578,602

$692,303

$1,036,784

As of December 31, 2020

Charles Anthony

Republican Party

$7,798

$6,742

$1,006

As of December 31, 2020

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."
** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election.

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.^[7]
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.^[8]^[9]^[10]

Race ratings: Maryland's 3rd 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 Democratic	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic
Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic	Solid Democratic
Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball	Safe Democratic	Safe Democratic	Safe Democratic	Safe Democratic
Note: Ballotpedia updates external race ratings every week throughout the election season.

Candidate ballot access

The table below details filing requirements for 3rd Congressional District candidates in Maryland in the 2020 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in Maryland, click here.

Filing requirements, 2020
State	Office	Party	Signatures required	Signature formula	Filing fee	Filing fee formula	Filing deadline	Source
Maryland	3rd Congressional District	Principal parties	0	N/A	$100.00	Fixed number	1/24/2020	Source
Maryland	3rd Congressional District	Unaffiliated	2,628	1% of the eligible voters for the district (reduced by 50% by judge's order)	$100.00	Fixed number	8/3/2020	Source

District election history