Luzerne County is a county located in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania and it has a rich political history. In the early 2000s, the county was the focus of nationally-covered political corruption scandals that included numerous elected officials from both parties. Since then, the county has had a series of successful elections with competitive races between candidates from both major parties. Currently, there are several local politicians representing Luzerne County in Harrisburg including Senator John Yudichak (D), Representative Gerald Mullery (D), Senator Lisa Baker (R), and Representative Aaron Kaufer (R). Other key players in local politics include County Executive Mark Ciavarella Jr. and District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis, both Republicans. With heated debates over important issues such as education funding and economic development, Luzerne County's politics remain complex and dynamic.
The political climate in Luzerne County, PA is somewhat conservative.
In Luzerne County, PA 42.3% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 56.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Luzerne county remained strongly Republican, 56.6% to 42.3%.
Luzerne county voted Republican in the two most recent Presidential elections, after voting Democratic in the previous four.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Luzerne County, PA is somewhat conservative.
Scranton--Wilkes-Barre Metro Area is leaning conservative.
Pennsylvania is leaning 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.
Luzerne, Pennsylvania: d d 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 Luzerne County, PA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 6,274 contributions totaling $1,149,948 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $183 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 2,971 contributions totaling $1,540,841 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $519 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)