McDowell County, North Carolina is an area located in the mountainous region of western North Carolina. It is home to a diverse population of over 45,000 people. Politically, McDowell County leans strongly towards the Republican party. In recent years, the county has seen a few local elections that have resulted in more conservative-leaning candidates being elected to local offices. The most recent election saw the popular Republican candidate for Sheriff win against the Democratic challenger by a wide margin. Other local offices such as county commissioners and school board members are also held primarily by Republicans. Overall, McDowell County remains one of the most conservative-leaning counties in North Carolina and is likely to remain so into the future.
The political climate in McDowell County, NC is very conservative.
In McDowell County, NC 25.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 73.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, McDowell county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 73.4% to 25.4%.
McDowell county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
McDowell County, NC is very conservative.
Marion Metro Area is very 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.
McDowell, 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 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 McDowell County, NC
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 1,160 contributions totaling $85,945 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $74 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 329 contributions totaling $43,023 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $131 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)