Rutherford County, located in North Carolina, is a diverse area politically. The county is currently led by a Board of Commissioners, which consists of five members from different districts in the county. Each Commissioner is responsible for representing their district as well as the entire county in regards to local government decisions. Local elections are often heated and contested races as citizens strive to make sure that their voices are heard and they have a say in who represents them at the county level. Political engagement is high with many residents volunteering for campaigns and actively supporting their chosen candidates. Rutherford County also benefits from having excellent elected officials who understand the importance of serving the people of their district and making sure they have access to necessary resources and services.
The political climate in Rutherford County, NC is very conservative.
In Rutherford County, NC 26.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 72.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.2% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Rutherford county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 72.3% to 26.5%.
Rutherford county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Rutherford County, NC is very conservative.
Forest City 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.
Rutherford, 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 Rutherford County, NC
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 743 contributions totaling $42,102 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $57 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 617 contributions totaling $137,744 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $223 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)