Oberlin, KS is located in Decatur county and has a population of just over 1,000 people. This small town has its own city government, which operates under the mayor-council form of government. The Mayor of Oberlin is Jamie Harrell, who was elected in 2019 to serve a four-year term. He presides over the five city council members: Dick Whitehead, Jim Johnson, Renee Vigilante, Joe Anderson, and Dave McEntire. These five individuals are responsible for making decisions that affect the local residents within Oberlin’s jurisdiction. To ensure an equitable representation of their constituents’ interests, these elected officials hold regular public hearings in order to keep abreast of the local issues and concerns that impact their constituents. With this strong system of leadership and accountability in place for the citizens of Oberlin, KS, they can be assured that their voices are being heard on matters important to them.
The political climate in Oberlin, KS is strongly conservative.
Decatur County, KS is very conservative. In Decatur County, KS 14.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 84.1% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Decatur county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 84.1% to 14.6%.
Decatur county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Oberlin, KS is strongly conservative.
Decatur County, Kansas is very conservative.
Kansas 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.
Oberlin, Kansas: 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 Oberlin, KS
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 1 contributions totaling $200 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $200 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 20 contributions totaling $15,019 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $751 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)