The Huntington-Ashland, WV Metro Area is a vibrant community with an important role to play in regional politics. As the largest metropolitan area in West Virginia, it has long been a key player in local and state politics. While the city of Huntington itself is governed by both a mayor and a council, the surrounding communities are predominantly governed by county commissioners. The political landscape in the area is diverse, with political parties from all sides represented at the local level. Local elections consistently draw attention from across the state as candidates compete for representation and influence on behalf of their constituents. In recent years, as many communities have seen an increase in new residents and businesses, there has been a need to increase support for economic development initiatives as well as for improved access to public infrastructure such as roads and schools. This has resulted in heightened levels of civic engagement from individuals throughout the region, making sure that their voices are heard when it comes to determining how resources will be allocated and used.
The political climate in Huntington-Ashland Metro Area is very conservative.
In Huntington-Ashland Metro Area 30.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 67.8% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.6% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, the Huntington-Ashland metro area remained overwhelmingly Republican, 67.8% to 30.6%.
The Huntington-Ashland metro area voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Huntington-Ashland Metro Area is very conservative.
West Virginia is very 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.
Huntington-Ashland, West Virginia: 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 Huntington-Ashland Metro Area
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 4,337 contributions totaling $466,892 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $108 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 2,643 contributions totaling $1,044,835 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $395 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)