Winchester, VA is an historic city located in the Shenandoah Valley with a rich heritage and culture. As its political landscape has evolved over the years, it has become a diverse community with a vibrant local government. With close proximity to both Washington D.C. and Richmond, there is a unique blend of state and federal politics at play in Winchester. Local representatives take part in conversations on issues such as transportation, education, healthcare, taxes and economic development that affect the citizens of Winchester. The city council consists of seven members elected from wards within the city limits who are tasked with deciding on local ordinances that will shape the future of Winchester. Through their efforts, they strive to create lasting policies that benefit citizens and ensure Winchester remains an attractive place to live for current and future generations.
The political climate in Winchester, VA is somewhat liberal.
Winchester City County, VA is somewhat liberal. In Winchester City County, VA 54.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 43.1% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Winchester city county remained strongly Democratic, 54.6% to 43.1%.
Winchester city county voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Winchester, VA is somewhat liberal.
Winchester City County, Virginia is somewhat liberal.
Winchester Metro Area is strongly conservative.
Virginia is somewhat 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.
Winchester, Virginia: 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 Winchester, VA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 1,484 contributions totaling $234,496 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $158 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 339 contributions totaling $147,759 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $436 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)