Sioux Falls, South Dakota is a city of over 180,000 people and is the largest city in the state. It has a vibrant and active political culture, with local councils and representatives from all levels of government making decisions that affect residents every day. Local politicians have been particularly involved in recent years in fighting for improvements to education, public infrastructure, and quality of life issues. There have been many initiatives by the Sioux Falls City Council to make the area safer and more livable for citizens. Additionally, there are numerous advocacy organizations that focus on specific social justice issues. These advocacy groups work directly with local politicians to ensure their views are heard and their needs are met. In sum, politics in Sioux Falls is very important to its citizens and is a regular topic of discussion for many of them.
The political climate in Sioux Falls, SD is leaning conservative.
Minnehaha County, SD is somewhat conservative. In Minnehaha County, SD 43.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 53.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Minnehaha county remained moderately Republican, 53.3% to 43.8%.
Minnehaha county voted Republican in five of the last six Presidential elections (2008 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Sioux Falls, SD is leaning conservative.
Minnehaha County, South Dakota is somewhat conservative.
Sioux Falls Metro Area is somewhat conservative.
South Dakota is strongly conservative.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota: R R d r R r
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D if the Democratic Party candidate won and I if the Independent Party candidate won. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last three elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Sioux Falls, SD
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 8,607 contributions totaling $1,043,296 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $121 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 5,193 contributions totaling $2,843,848 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $548 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)