Sanford, North Carolina is a growing city with a population of approximately 30,000 people. It is located in Lee County and is governed by a mayor-council government system. The current mayor of Sanford is Chet Mann, who was elected in 2019 and serves a four-year term. The municipal council consists of seven members, each elected to serve staggered four-year terms. The city council meets monthly to review matters such as budget allocation for different departments, zoning and development projects, public safety initiatives, and economic development strategies. In addition to local politics, voters in Sanford participate in state and federal elections to determine representatives for the district and beyond. Sanford residents are actively engaged in political discussions and issues that directly affect their community.
The political climate in Sanford, NC is leaning conservative.
Lee County, NC is somewhat conservative. In Lee County, NC 41.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 56.8% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Lee county remained strongly Republican, 56.8% to 41.9%.
Lee county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Sanford, NC is leaning conservative.
Lee County, North Carolina is somewhat conservative.
Sanford Metro Area is somewhat conservative.
North Carolina is leaning 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.
Sanford, North Carolina: R R r 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 Sanford, NC
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 3,495 contributions totaling $500,573 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $143 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 2,373 contributions totaling $421,116 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $177 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)