New Hanover County is a vibrant and diverse area located in the southeastern corner of North Carolina. The county offers a variety of activities, culture, education, and business opportunities for its citizens. Politically speaking, New Hanover County is part of North Carolina's 10th Congressional District and is represented by U.S. Representative David Rouzer. On the state level, the county is part of the 19th Senate District and the 19th House District, which are both represented by Senator Harper Peterson and Representative Ted Davis respectively. In addition to federal and state representatives, New Hanover County also has strong local representation with several elected officials representing the cities that make up the county: Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo, Wrightsville Beach Mayor Robert O'Neal III, Kure Beach Mayor Dean Lambeth, Carolina Beach Mayor Joe Benson III, Southport Mayor Jerry Dove, Oak Island Mayor Jody Smith, Bald Head Island Mayor Chuck Carroll Jr., Caswell Beach Commissioner Jean Dowless (also serves as mayor pro-tem), Navassa Commissioner Lonzie Herring Sr., Belville Alderman Ed Parvin Jr., Winnabow Alderman John Anderson III., Leland Alderman Jim Babb Sr., and Town Creek Alderman William Hastings Jr. Together these elected officials work hard to ensure that all residents of New Hanover County have their voices heard in local government decisions.
The political climate in New Hanover County, NC is leaning liberal.
In New Hanover County, NC 50.2% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 48.0% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, New Hanover county flipped narrowly Democratic, 50.2% to 48.0%.
New Hanover county flipped Democratic after voting Republican in the previous five Presidential elections.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
New Hanover County, NC is leaning liberal.
Wilmington Metro Area is leaning 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.
New Hanover, North Carolina: R R r r r 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 New Hanover County, NC
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 13,236 contributions totaling $1,123,539 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $85 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 3,544 contributions totaling $1,838,402 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $519 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)