Panama City Beach, FL is a popular vacation destination located on the Gulf Coast in Florida. It is known for its stunning white sand beaches and family-friendly attractions. Despite being a tourist destination, Panama City Beach also has a local government with a mayor and city council who are responsible for making decisions about the city’s development, infrastructure, and services. The mayor and city council are elected by local residents to represent their interests when it comes to politics in Panama City Beach. The current mayor is Mark Sheldon, who was re-elected in 2016 after running unopposed. Mayor Sheldon has been instrumental in preserving the natural beauty of Panama City Beach while adapting it to become more modern and accommodating to tourists. There have been several initiatives during his tenure to improve public safety, infrastructure, and other services that benefit residents of Panama City Beach as well as visitors to the area.
The political climate in Panama City Beach, FL is moderately conservative.
Bay County, FL is very conservative. In Bay County, FL 27.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 70.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.6% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Bay county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 70.9% to 27.5%.
Bay county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Panama City Beach, FL is moderately conservative.
Bay County, Florida is very conservative.
Panama City Metro Area is very conservative.
Florida 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.
Panama City Beach, Florida: 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 if the Democratic Party candidate won and I if the Independent Party candidate won. 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 Panama City Beach, FL
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 1,608 contributions totaling $258,642 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $161 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,902 contributions totaling $1,379,025 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $725 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)