diff --git a/Lib/argparse.py b/Lib/argparse.py
index 690b2a9db9481b..6b99be80591ec4 100644
--- a/Lib/argparse.py
+++ b/Lib/argparse.py
@@ -2290,8 +2290,9 @@ def _parse_optional(self, arg_string):
             if not self._has_negative_number_optionals:
                 return None
 
-        # if it contains a space, it was meant to be a positional
-        if ' ' in arg_string:
+        # if it contains a space (before any equal sign), it was meant to be a
+        # positional
+        if ' ' in arg_string.split("=", 1)[0]:
             return None
 
         # it was meant to be an optional but there is no such option
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_argparse.py b/Lib/test/test_argparse.py
index ef05a6fefcffcc..efa0fd764dd0af 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_argparse.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_argparse.py
@@ -2311,6 +2311,15 @@ def test_parse_known_args(self):
             self.parser.parse_known_args('0.5 -W 1 b -X Y -w 7 Z'.split()),
             (NS(foo=False, bar=0.5, w=7, x='b'), ['-W', '-X', 'Y', 'Z']),
         )
+        self.assertEqual(
+            self.parser.parse_known_args(['0.5', '--opt="with space"']),
+            (NS(foo=False, bar=0.5), ['--opt="with space"']),
+        )
+        self.assertRaisesRegex(
+            ArgumentParserError,
+            "invalid choice: '--opt with space'",
+            self.parser.parse_known_args,
+            ['0.5', '--opt with space'])
 
     def test_parse_known_args_with_single_dash_option(self):
         parser = ErrorRaisingArgumentParser()
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2020-07-06-15-25-29.bpo-22433.JBnwdX.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2020-07-06-15-25-29.bpo-22433.JBnwdX.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..aa0adb5a732987
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2020-07-06-15-25-29.bpo-22433.JBnwdX.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Fixed handling of "--foo='bar baz'" as non-positional argument with
+:mod:`argparse`.