Burke, South Dakota is a small rural town in Gregory County. The population of Burke is approximately 829 people and the region has an interesting political landscape due to its unique geographical location. Though the president and other federal offices are represented by Democrats, Burke and surrounding areas generally lean more conservative for local offices. Locally, Burke residents have a variety of representatives who advocate for their interests on the county level including those in charge of public services, education, economic development, health care, environmental protection, and many other areas. There are too many candidates to list them all here but some of the current political leaders in Burke include Tom Brokaw as mayor, Homer Crossman as sheriff, and Renee Zajac as county auditor. In addition to these candidates there are a number of other local politicians dedicated to ensuring that the citizens of Burke have access to equal representation at all levels of government.
The political climate in Burke, SD is strongly conservative.
Gregory County, SD is very conservative. In Gregory County, SD 20.2% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 78.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Gregory county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 78.4% to 20.2%.
Gregory county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Burke, SD is strongly conservative.
Gregory County, South Dakota is very 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.
Burke, South Dakota: 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 Burke, SD
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 139 contributions totaling $15,336 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $110 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 18 contributions totaling $11,385 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $633 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)