Aberdeen, South Dakota is a small city located in northeast South Dakota. With a population of approximately 28,000 people, Aberdeen is the fourth-largest city in the state. The city is governed by an elected mayor and eight-member City Council. In recent years, Aberdeen has seen the emergence of several different political organizations advocating for various things such as economic development, public safety, and other civic initiatives. Local residents have recently seen the election of two new City Council members who are eager to make an impact on their community through thoughtful policymaking. Locals have also seen an increasing number of candidates running for office in recent years, making this a competitive electoral climate. All of these changes indicate that Aberdeen is becoming increasingly active politically and is poised to become an even more important player in South Dakota politics going forward.
The political climate in Aberdeen, SD is somewhat conservative.
Brown County, SD is moderately conservative. In Brown County, SD 37.3% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 60.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Brown county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 60.3% to 37.3%.
Brown county voted Republican in five of the last six Presidential elections (2008 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Aberdeen, SD is somewhat conservative.
Brown County, South Dakota is moderately conservative.
Aberdeen Metro Area is strongly conservative.
South Dakota is strongly 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.
Aberdeen, South Dakota: R R d 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 Aberdeen, SD
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 471 contributions totaling $57,204 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $121 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 754 contributions totaling $174,471 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $231 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)