Beaufort County, located in South Carolina, is a fairly politically active area. Voter turnout for elections tends to be high and residents are passionate about their local politicians. The county is currently represented at the state level by Senator Tom Davis and House Representatives Weston Newton and Joe Daning. On the county level, recent races have included candidates such as Richard Geihegan, Phil Bethune, Jody Bourick, and Robert Hofheinz. Beaufort has typically leaned toward more conservative candidates but in recent years there has been an increased number of progressive voices emerging into the political sphere. Residents of Beaufort County take great pride in engaging with their local politics and meetings between constituents and elected officials are not uncommon.
The political climate in Beaufort County, SC is somewhat conservative.
In Beaufort County, SC 44.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 54.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.2% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Beaufort county remained moderately Republican, 54.4% to 44.4%.
Beaufort county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Beaufort County, SC is somewhat conservative.
Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Metro Area is somewhat 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.
Beaufort, 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 Beaufort County, SC
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 11,041 contributions totaling $1,008,416 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $91 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 4,965 contributions totaling $1,674,085 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $337 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)