Clay County, Kentucky is a small rural county located in the Eastern Mountains region of the state. The county has a rich history, with its roots going back to the early 1800s when it was first organized as Clay County Court District. Politically, Clay County has typically been very conservative and Republican-leaning in its voting preferences. Recently, the Republican Party has continued to dominate elections at the local level. In 2018, Republican candidate Tyler Deere won the race for Clay County Judge Executive, and all of the justices of the peace elected were Republicans. Issues such as education funding, job growth, infrastructure improvements have been important issues for local politicians in Clay County to focus on. In addition to these more traditional concerns, there has also been increased focus on environmental protection measures and sustainability initiatives that would benefit both citizens and businesses alike. Local leaders have sought to create an environment that provides economic opportunities while also maintaining ecological integrity.
The political climate in Clay County, KY is very conservative.
In Clay County, KY 10.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 88.0% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Clay county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 88.0% to 10.9%.
Clay county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Clay County, KY is very conservative.
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Kentucky is strongly 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.
Clay, Kentucky: 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 for the Democrat and I for the Independent. 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 Clay County, KY
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 11 contributions totaling $526 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $48 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 127 contributions totaling $12,267 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $97 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)