Overland Park, KS is a vibrant city with a diverse population and thriving political climate. The city has an interesting history of politics due to the number of different ethnicities that have called it home over the years. The city is governed by a six-member commission which makes decisions on behalf of the citizens. The current mayor is Carl Gerlach and he has been in office since 2017. He is joined by council members Jack Bogle, Andy Huckaba, Jim Wassmer, Heather Schlegel, and Scott Hamblin who all represent their constituencies as elected representatives in local government. Overland Park also has two public school districts and numerous community organizations that are actively involved in the political process. The city has no shortage of political activism from its residents and visitors alike, making it an exciting place to be involved in politics.
The political climate in Overland Park, KS is leaning liberal.
Johnson County, KS is somewhat liberal. In Johnson County, KS 52.7% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 44.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.7% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Johnson county flipped moderately Democratic, 52.7% to 44.5%.
Johnson county flipped Democratic after voting Republican in the previous five Presidential elections.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Overland Park, KS is leaning liberal.
Johnson County, Kansas is somewhat liberal.
Kansas City Metro Area is leaning liberal.
Kansas is somewhat 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.
Overland Park, Kansas: R R r R r 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 Overland Park, KS
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 24,723 contributions totaling $4,556,893 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $184 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 6,767 contributions totaling $3,314,298 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $490 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)