West Virginia is a vibrant state with a rich political and cultural history. In recent years, the state has seen an influx of federal funds for infrastructure projects, and better resources for public education. Politically, the state is largely conservative in outlook, while still holding some progressive views on certain issues. The two major political parties in West Virginia are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The current governor of West Virginia is Jim Justice, who was elected as a Democrat in 2016. At the local level, many cities have their own mayors and city councils who work to ensure that city services are managed efficiently and effectively. A number of local elections take place each year in West Virginia's cities and towns, as local residents come together to select their leaders and decide on the direction of their community.
The political climate in West Virginia is very conservative.
In West Virginia 29.7% of the people voted for the Democratic Party in the last presidential election, 68.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.7% voted for an Independent Party.
In the last Presidential election, West Virginia remained overwhelmingly Republican, 68.6% to 29.7%.
West Virginia voted Republican in the previous six Presidential elections.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
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.
West Virginia, 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 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 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 West Virginia
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 45,537 contributions totaling $4,128,932 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $91 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 14,155 contributions totaling $7,401,529 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $523 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)