The city of Helena, MT is the state capital and is home to a diverse population of around 30,000 people. It is governed by a mayor, an eight-member city commission and other elected officials. Helena is also the seat of Lewis and Clark County government where citizens are represented by both state and federal representatives. Political issues in Helena are varied and include economic growth, education reform, environmental protection, public safety initiatives, infrastructure improvement projects, and more. In recent years, local candidates have discussed these topics in debates to provide greater clarity for their constituents as to how they will address them if elected into office. Political engagement at the local level remains high here in Helena as citizens have the opportunity to directly influence their community through voting.
The political climate in Helena, MT is leaning conservative.
Lewis and Clark County, MT is leaning conservative. In Lewis and Clark County, MT 46.7% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 50.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.7% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Lewis and Clark county remained Republican, 50.6% to 46.7%.
Lewis and Clark county voted Republican in five of the last six Presidential elections (2008 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Helena, MT is leaning conservative.
Lewis and Clark County, Montana is leaning conservative.
Helena Metro Area is somewhat conservative.
Montana is moderately 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.
Helena, Montana: 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 Helena, MT
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 11,222 contributions totaling $1,192,655 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $106 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 854 contributions totaling $306,120 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $358 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)