2020 United States Senate election in Nebraska

The 2020 United States Senate election in Nebraska was held on November 3, 2020, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Nebraska, concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.

Incumbent Republican Senator Ben Sasse was challenged by Democratic nominee Chris Janicek, who was disavowed by his party after numerous scandals; by write-in candidate Preston Love Jr., who received the support of the state Democratic Party; and by Libertarian nominee Gene Siadek.

Sasse won election to a second term with 62.7% of the vote and a 38.3% margin. He outperformed President Donald Trump by almost 27,000 votes, or 8.9%, compared to the concurrent presidential election, the largest overperformance by any Republican US Senate candidate in the country that year. Trump won the state by 19.05%. In contrast, Janicek was the worst performing Democratic Senate candidate in the country compared to Joe Biden, underperforming him by 13.1%. This was attributed to a sexual misconduct scandal affecting Janicek and split-ticket voting in Omaha suburbs.

• Ben Sasse, incumbent U.S. senator

• Matt Innis, businessman and former chair of the Lancaster County Republican Party

• Charles Herbster, farmer

• Pete Ricketts, Governor of Nebraska

Republican primary results by county .mw-parser-output .legend{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .legend-color{display:inline-block;min-width:1.25em;height:1.25em;line-height:1.25;margin:1px 0;text-align:center;border:1px solid black;background-color:transparent;color:black}.mw-parser-output .legend-text{}  Sasse   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%   Innis   50–60%   60–70%

• Chris Janicek, businessman and candidate for U.S. Senate in 2018

On June 16, 2020, Janicek lost the support of the Nebraska Democratic Party after allegations surfaced of sending sexually explicit text messages about a female campaign staff member and allegedly using racist slurs to insult a guest at a party 20 years prior. Nonetheless, Janicek refused to drop out of the race and his name remained on the ballot in the general election. In September the state Democratic party supported Preston Love Jr. via a write-in candidacy.

• Dennis Frank Maček

• Larry Marvin, perennial candidate

• Angie Philips, mental health advocate

• Alisha Shelton, behavioral health clinical supervisor

• Andy Stock, former candidate for Lancaster County Treasurer

• Dan Wik, physician

• Chris Beutler, former mayor of Lincoln

Democratic primary results by county   Janicek   30–40%   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   Philips   20–30%   30–40%   40–50%   Shelton   20–30%   30–40% Tie   20–30%

• Gene Siadek, former chairman of the Libertarian Party of Nebraska

• Eric Dilliard

• Preston Love Jr., first vice president of the Omaha NAACP chapter and second associate chairman of the Nebraska Democratic Party, endorsed by the party after the allegations against Janicek

• Brad Ashford, former Democratic Congressman from NE-02

• Write-ins for Love Jr. by county:

  10-11%  6-7%  4–5%  3–4%  2–3%  1–2%  <1%

• Government Documents Round Table of the American Library Association, "Nebraska", Voting & Elections Toolkits
• "Nebraska: Election Tools, Deadlines, Dates, Rules, and Links", Vote.org, Oakland, CA
• "League of Women Voters of Nebraska". (state affiliate of the U.S. League of Women Voters)
• Nebraska at Ballotpedia

Official campaign websites

• Ben Sasse (R) for Senate Archived March 13, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
• Chris Janicek (D) for Senate
• Gene Siadek (L) for Senate Archived November 3, 2020, at the Wayback Machine
• Preston Love Jr. (D) for Senate Archived November 1, 2020, at the Wayback Machine