Laurens County, South Carolina is an area steeped in political history and culture. Here, local and state politics are of major interest to residents. Although the county does not have its own mayor or council members, it does have representation in the South Carolina House of Representatives and Senate on both a district-level and statewide-level. Residents often get involved by attending town hall meetings and rallies for various political issues related to Laurens County, such as education, healthcare, and economic development. Additionally, many residents tend to participate in primaries and elections for state-level candidates who will represent them on state-level issues. Overall, politics in Laurens County is an ever evolving dynamic where residents can be engaged on a variety of levels that shape the future of their community.
The political climate in Laurens County, SC is very conservative.
In Laurens County, SC 33.3% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 65.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Laurens county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 65.6% to 33.3%.
Laurens county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Laurens County, SC is very conservative.
Greenville-Anderson Metro Area is strongly conservative.
South Carolina is somewhat 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.
Laurens, South 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 Laurens County, SC
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 253 contributions totaling $17,954 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $71 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 478 contributions totaling $99,066 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $207 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)