Toledo, Ohio is a vibrant city with a rich history of political activism and involvement. With its deep roots in the labor movement and progressive causes, Toledo has long been known as a hotbed for grassroots political organizing. In recent years, local politics have grown increasingly divided along party lines as prominent issues such as economic inequality, education reform, and gun control divide communities across the country. Toledo’s City Council consists of nine members who are elected by district to serve four-year terms. Since 2011, there have been several initiatives to increase voter turnout in local elections with little success. Despite contentious disagreements between Democrats and Republicans on the City Council, they have worked together to address major issues such as infrastructure repair and police reform. Local politicians often focus on collaboration to ensure that all citizens of Toledo have their voices heard in local government decisions.
The political climate in Toledo, OH is somewhat liberal.
Lucas County, OH is moderately liberal. In Lucas County, OH 57.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 40.7% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.0% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Lucas county remained very strongly Democratic, 57.4% to 40.7%.
Lucas county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Toledo, OH is somewhat liberal.
Lucas County, Ohio is moderately liberal.
Toledo Metro Area is leaning liberal.
Ohio 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.
Toledo, Ohio: D D D D D D
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 Toledo, OH
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 9,288 contributions totaling $784,318 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $84 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 2,109 contributions totaling $935,266 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $443 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)