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Mississippi's 4th Congressional District election, 2020 (March 10 Republican primary)

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2022
2018
Mississippi's 4th Congressional District
Ballotpedia Election Coverage Badge.png
Democratic primary
Republican primary
General election
Election details
Filing deadline: January 10, 2020
Primary: March 10, 2020
Primary runoff: June 23, 2020
General: November 3, 2020

Pre-election incumbent:
Steven Palazzo (Republican)
How to vote
Poll times: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Voting in Mississippi
Race ratings
Cook Political Report: Solid Republican
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
Mississippi's 4th Congressional District
U.S. Senate1st2nd3rd4th
Mississippi elections, 2020
U.S. Congress elections, 2020
U.S. Senate elections, 2020
U.S. House elections, 2020

A Republican Party primary took place on March 10, 2020, in Mississippi's 4th Congressional District to determine which Republican candidate would run in the district's general election on November 3, 2020.

Incumbent Steven Palazzo advanced from the Republican primary for U.S. House Mississippi District 4.

Candidate filing deadline Primary election General election
January 10, 2020
March 10, 2020
November 3, 2020


Heading into the election, the incumbent was Steven Palazzo (Republican), who was first elected in 2010.

A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. Mississippi state law stipulates that an individual can only participate in a party's primary if he or she "intends to support the nominations made in the primary" in which he or she participates. However, this is generally considered an unenforceable requirement. Consequently, Mississippi's primary is effectively open.[1][2]

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

This page focuses on Mississippi's 4th Congressional District Republican primary. For more in-depth information on the district's Democratic primary and the general election, see the following pages:

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.

Mississippi modified its primary election process as follows:

  • Election postponements: The Republican primary runoff election for the state's 2nd Congressional District was postponed from March 31 to June 23.
  • Political party events: The Republican Party of Mississippi postponed its state convention, originally scheduled for May 15-16, indefinitely.

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


Candidates and election results

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House Mississippi District 4

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Steven Palazzo
Steven Palazzo
 
66.8
 
54,318
Robert Deming
 
14.1
 
11,463
Samuel Hickman
 
9.8
 
7,981
Image of Carl Boyanton
Carl Boyanton
 
9.3
 
7,533

Total votes: 81,295
Candidate Connection = 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.

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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+21, meaning that in the previous two presidential elections, this district's results were 21 percentage points more Republican than the national average. This made Mississippi's 4th Congressional District the 31st most Republican 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 0.99. This means that for every 1 point the national political mood moved toward a party, the district was expected to move 0.99 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
Steven Palazzo Republican Party $827,662 $758,749 $301,029 As of December 31, 2020
Carl Boyanton Republican Party $193,234 $191,550 $1,684 As of December 31, 2020
Robert Deming Republican Party $116,320 $113,515 $2,805 As of December 31, 2020
Samuel Hickman Republican Party $10,230 $2,378 $10,652 As of December 31, 2019

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.


General 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: Mississippi's 4th Congressional District election, 2020
Race trackerRace ratings
November 3, 2020October 27, 2020October 20, 2020October 13, 2020
The Cook Political ReportSolid RepublicanSolid RepublicanSolid RepublicanSolid Republican
Inside Elections with Nathan L. GonzalesSolid RepublicanSolid RepublicanSolid RepublicanSolid Republican
Larry J. Sabato's Crystal BallSafe RepublicanSafe RepublicanSafe RepublicanSafe Republican
Note: Ballotpedia updates external race ratings every week throughout the election season.

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. NCSL,"State Primary Election Types," accessed February 6, 2024
  2. Ballotpedia research conducted December 26, 2013, through January 3, 2014, researching and analyzing various state websites and codes.
  3. Cook Political Report, "Introducing the 2017 Cook Political Report Partisan Voter Index," April 7, 2017
  4. FiveThirtyEight, "Election Update: The Most (And Least) Elastic States And Districts," September 6, 2018
  5. 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.
  6. Federal Election Commission, "2022 Quarterly Reports," accessed March 2, 2022
  7. Inside Elections also uses Tilt ratings to indicate an even smaller advantage and greater competitiveness.
  8. Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Nathan Gonzalez," April 19, 2018
  9. Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Kyle Kondik," April 19, 2018
  10. Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Charlie Cook," April 22, 2018


Senators
Representatives
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
Republican Party (5)
Democratic Party (1)