The primaries for the major parties were on March 10, 2020. On March 14, 2019, Governor
Jay Inslee signed a bill moving the state's presidential primary up from May to the second Tuesday in March.
Republican primary Donald Trump,
Bill Weld,
Joe Walsh, and
Rocky de la Fuente had declared their candidacy for the
Republican Party, but only Trump met all of the state party's criteria by the official deadline of January 21, 2020, for being included on the ballot. Thus Trump essentially ran unopposed in the Republican primary, and thus he received all of Washington's 43 delegates to the
2020 Republican National Convention.
Democratic primary A number of
Democratic Party candidates ran or expressed interest in running. Additionally, Seattle-based billionaire
Howard Schultz announced a potential bid as an independent in early 2019, but backed out in September of that year. The party's candidates included on the ballot at the deadline were
Michael Bennet,
Joe Biden,
Michael Bloomberg,
Cory Booker,
Pete Buttigieg,
John Delaney,
Tulsi Gabbard,
Amy Klobuchar,
Deval Patrick,
Bernie Sanders,
Tom Steyer,
Elizabeth Warren and
Andrew Yang. (deadline was June 13). All candidates recognized by the Green Party of the United States by April 23 were on the ballot, plus a write-in option: •
Howie Hawkins •
Dario Hunter • David Rolde ==General election==