Costilla County, Colorado is a small and rural county located in the San Luis Valley on the Colorado-New Mexico border. It has a total area of 786 square miles, making it the seventh smallest county in the state. The population of Costilla County is estimated to be around 3,200 people, with its largest town being San Luis. The politics in Costilla County are largely driven by issues that impact rural populations in the region. As such, much of the political discourse focuses on topics such as agriculture, water rights, education funding, economic development, and how to preserve traditional cultural values within modern life. Local candidates running for office often reflect these issues and prioritize them when campaigning. Generally speaking, local politics are more conservative than those found in larger cities throughout Colorado due to the strong family and religious values held by many individuals who live here.
The political climate in Costilla County, CO is strongly liberal.
In Costilla County, CO 62.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 35.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.0% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Costilla county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 62.6% to 35.4%.
Costilla county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Costilla County, CO is strongly liberal.
Not Found Metro Area is 0.
Colorado 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.
Costilla, Colorado: D D 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 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 Costilla County, CO
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 126 contributions totaling $5,394 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $43 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 22 contributions totaling $2,901 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $132 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)