Williston, North Dakota is a small city with a population of around 15,000 people. It is located in the northwest part of North Dakota and serves as the county seat for Williams County. The local politics of Williston are handled by the Williston City Commission, which consists of five Commissioners that are elected at large for four-year terms. The Mayor is also elected at large for four-year terms and serves as the presiding officer for the City Commission meetings. Recent elections have seen candidates from both major political parties running for office and voter turnout has been relatively high. Important issues discussed in these elections have included oil extraction regulations, tax policies, economic development strategies, and improving public safety.
The political climate in Williston, ND is moderately conservative.
Williams County, ND is very conservative. In Williams County, ND 15.1% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 81.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 3.0% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Williams county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 81.9% to 15.1%.
Williams county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Williston, ND is moderately conservative.
Williams County, North Dakota is very conservative.
Williston Metro Area is very conservative.
North Dakota is very 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.
Williston, North Dakota: 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 Williston, ND
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 1,312 contributions totaling $48,026 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $37 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 429 contributions totaling $99,144 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $231 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)