Porter County, Indiana is an area in the northern part of the state that is home to many towns and rural areas. Politically, it is a mix of conservative and progressive ideals. At the local level, Porter County has a number of offices filled by elected officials who work to represent their communities. Those offices include county commissioners, sheriff, auditor, treasurer, clerk and surveyor among other positions. All are elected for four year terms and are responsible for ensuring that the county runs smoothly. The county also plays host to local political campaigns during elections as candidates vie for residents’ votes in order to gain office. These campaigns often involve conversations about taxes, services, infrastructure improvements and other issues that impact Porter County’s quality of life. With such a diverse swath of opinions among voters in Porter County, politicians must find common ground on issues in order to be successful in their campaigns.
The political climate in Porter County, IN is leaning conservative.
In Porter County, IN 45.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 51.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Porter county remained moderately Republican, 51.9% to 45.8%.
Porter county voted Republican in four of the six previous Presidential elections (2008 and 2012 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Porter County, IN is leaning conservative.
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin Metro Area is very liberal.
Indiana is somewhat 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.
Porter, Indiana: r r d d 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 Porter County, IN
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 5,101 contributions totaling $529,144 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $104 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,581 contributions totaling $345,933 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $219 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)