Chicago, IL is a vibrant city with a rich history of politics. It is home to many political movements and organizations that have shaped the city and its surrounding region. Over the years, Chicago has been known for its strong leadership and involvement in national politics. On the local level, there are many politicians who serve in various offices throughout the city. The City Council consists of 50 aldermen, with each ward electing one to represent their constituents. In addition, there are numerous other elected officials such as the Mayor, Cook County State's Attorney, Clerk of Circuit Court and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District President. All these officials work together to ensure that Chicago remains an attractive place to live and visit for all its citizens.
The political climate in Chicago, IL is strongly liberal.
Cook County, IL is very liberal. In Cook County, IL 74.2% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 24.0% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Cook county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 74.2% to 24.0%.
Cook county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Chicago, IL is strongly liberal.
Cook County, Illinois is very liberal.
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin Metro Area is very liberal.
Illinois is moderately liberal.
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.
Chicago, Illinois: D D D D D D
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 Chicago, IL
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 248,329 contributions totaling $145,717,636 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $587 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 19,714 contributions totaling $52,543,420 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $2,665 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)