Sturgis, South Dakota is located in the Black Hills in western South Dakota and is a small city of 7,000 people. The politics of the city are often guided by local leaders who serve on the City Council. These individuals are elected by residents of Sturgis to represent their community and their interests. The current mayor of Sturgis is Mark Carstensen, who has been in office since 2018 and is a member of the Republican Party. Other members of the City Council include Matt Kilian, Steven O'Leary, Stephen Mathews, John Stradley, and Mary Jo Thimjon. Together they help guide and shape the political atmosphere in Sturgis. Each member brings different perspectives to decision-making that affects Sturgis citizens and creates an inclusive political atmosphere within the city.
The political climate in Sturgis, SD is moderately conservative.
Meade County, SD is very conservative. In Meade County, SD 24.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 72.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 3.7% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Meade county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 72.2% to 24.0%.
Meade county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Sturgis, SD is moderately conservative.
Meade County, South Dakota is very conservative.
Rapid City 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.
Sturgis, 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 Sturgis, SD
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 72 contributions totaling $6,201 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $86 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 132 contributions totaling $23,254 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $176 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)