Austin, IN is a small town located in Scott County, Indiana with a population of approximately 1,900 people. The local government is made up of a mayor and four town council members who act as the legislative body for the citizens of Austin. Each year citizens are able to vote for their community leaders. The current mayor is Tom Shepperd and the current town council members include Mark Cherry, Michael Smith, Debra Moore and Matthew Collins. As a small community with an active citizenry, each election has become increasingly competitive as residents vie for positions on the town government. Local politics in Austin largely focus on issues such as economic development, quality of life improvements, public safety initiatives and infrastructure investments. Residents take an active role in ensuring that their elected officials prioritize important issues and that they are held accountable for their actions while in office.
The political climate in Austin, IN is moderately conservative.
Scott County, IN is very conservative. In Scott County, IN 26.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 72.0% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.5% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Scott county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 72.0% to 26.5%.
Scott county voted Republican in the last five Presidential elections, after voting Democratic in 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Austin, IN is moderately conservative.
Scott County, Indiana is very conservative.
Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Area is leaning conservative.
Indiana 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.
Austin, Indiana: d 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 Austin, IN
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 146 contributions totaling $27,804 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $190 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 104 contributions totaling $48,912 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $470 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)