Ottawa County, Ohio is a rural county located in the northwest part of the state and has a population of over 41,000 people. Politically, Ottawa County is largely conservative and heavily Republican-leaning. The county is represented by Republican State Senators Rob McColley and Theresa Gavarone in the Ohio Senate. At the federal level, Ottawa County is represented by Bob Latta in the House of Representatives. In recent years, local elections have seen Republicans gaining even more ground as they have held onto their seats with strong margins of victory. Elections are held every four years for all local government positions including mayor, auditor, sheriff, prosecutor, coroner, engineer and commissioners. Voter turnout for local elections tend to be quite high due to the importance placed on these offices by residents of Ottawa County.
The political climate in Ottawa County, OH is moderately conservative.
In Ottawa County, OH 37.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 60.8% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.7% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Ottawa county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 60.8% to 37.5%.
Ottawa county voted Republican in four of the six previous Presidential elections (2008 and 2012 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Ottawa County, OH is moderately conservative.
Not Found Metro Area is 0.
Ohio 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.
Ottawa, Ohio: 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 Ottawa County, OH
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 2,127 contributions totaling $119,654 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $56 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 486 contributions totaling $112,386 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $231 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)