Hershey, Pennsylvania is a small town located in Dauphin County near the Susquehanna River. Politics in Hershey are generally considered to be conservative-leaning and have been heavily influenced by the large industry of Hershey Foods Corporation. The current Mayor of Hershey is Dave Renaut who was elected in 2018 and has served as a city councilman for the past 10 years. When it comes to local politics, residents of Hershey tend to place an emphasis on fiscal responsibility, job growth, and community involvement, all of which Mayor Renaut has championed during his tenure. Local civic organizations also advocate heavily for causes such as education reform and environmental protection in order to better serve their community. Other issues that have been discussed in the political arena include infrastructure improvement for roads and utilities and maintaining a healthy balance between development projects and preserving the agricultural history of Hershey.
The political climate in Hershey, PA is leaning liberal.
Dauphin County, PA is somewhat liberal. In Dauphin County, PA 53.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 44.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.7% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Dauphin county remained moderately Democratic, 53.4% to 44.9%.
Dauphin county voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Hershey, PA is leaning liberal.
Dauphin County, Pennsylvania is somewhat liberal.
Harrisburg-Carlisle Metro Area is leaning conservative.
Pennsylvania is leaning 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.
Hershey, Pennsylvania: r r 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 Hershey, PA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 3,610 contributions totaling $518,421 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $144 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,550 contributions totaling $308,624 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $199 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)