Taos County, located in the northern part of New Mexico, is a rural and primarily agricultural area. The county is governed by a five-member Board of Commissioners which meets twice per month. The Commissioner's Court sets policy for the county and determines areas where spending is necessary. One of the primary tasks of the Board of Commissioners is to ensure that public services are provided equitably to all county residents. At the state level, Taos County is represented by three senators and two representatives who serve in the New Mexico State Legislature. These lawmakers choose bills to introduce, debate, and vote on that will become law if passed by both chambers. Additionally, each town within Taos County has an elected mayor who serves as head of their local government and works with a city council to pass laws specific to their area. Local elections happen every two years and provide citizens with a chance to have their voices heard in deciding who will represent them at all levels of government.
The political climate in Taos County, NM is very liberal.
In Taos County, NM 76.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 21.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.0% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Taos county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 76.4% to 21.6%.
Taos county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Taos County, NM is very liberal.
Taos Metro Area is very liberal.
New Mexico 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.
Taos, New Mexico: 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 Taos County, NM
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 9,020 contributions totaling $785,698 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $87 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 276 contributions totaling $64,911 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $235 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)