Buffalo, West Virginia is a small town in Putnam County located about 5 miles east of the state capital Charleston. The town was established in 1883 and is home to about 400 residents today. Buffalo has a mayor-council form of government, with the mayor serving as the executive and the council providing legislative oversight. The current mayor is Joe Walker, who was elected in 2019, and there are five members on the city council. The council meets on the third Tuesday of each month to discuss issues affecting Buffalo residents. While Buffalo has generally been a quiet town politically, citizens living within its borders are deeply engaged with local politics, making sure their voices are heard through elected representatives at all levels of government.
The political climate in Buffalo, WV is strongly conservative.
Putnam County, WV is very conservative. In Putnam County, WV 27.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 70.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Putnam county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 70.3% to 27.6%.
Putnam county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Buffalo, WV is strongly conservative.
Putnam County, West Virginia is very conservative.
Huntington-Ashland Metro Area is very conservative.
West Virginia is very 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.
Buffalo, West Virginia: 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 Buffalo, WV
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 15 contributions totaling $1,183 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $79 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 4 contributions totaling $710 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $178 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)