The Wilmington, NC Metro Area is an important political hub in the southeastern United States. The city of Wilmington lies within New Hanover County and serves as the county seat. In addition to Wilmington, there are also several other cities and towns that comprise the metro area including Wrightsville Beach, North Topsail Beach, Kure Beach, Carolina Beach, and others. The politics of this area are centered around the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners made up of five members each elected from their own districts. They make decisions on issues regarding public safety, taxes, zoning laws, economic development and more. Additionally, two representatives serve in the North Carolina General Assembly representing the people of Wilmington in Raleigh. Additionally, many federal and state representatives have offices in or near the Wilmington Metro Area and serve its citizens daily with their decision-making process.
The political climate in Wilmington Metro Area is leaning conservative.
In Wilmington Metro Area 46.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 51.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.7% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, the Wilmington metro area remained narrowly Republican, 51.5% to 46.8%.
The Wilmington metro area voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Wilmington Metro Area is leaning 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.
Wilmington, 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 four elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Wilmington Metro Area
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 14,628 contributions totaling $1,183,506 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $81 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 4,028 contributions totaling $1,910,331 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $474 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)