Seward, Alaska is located in the Kenai Peninsula Borough and is governed by a mayor-council form of government. The current mayor is Ben Kopp, who was re-elected in 2020. The Seward City Council consists of five members who are all elected at large from the city and serve staggered four year terms. They oversee policies and provide guidance to the city staff on community issues. Additionally, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly serves as the legislative body for all residents of Seward, employing a variety of services such as public safety, roads and highways, planning and zoning regulations. The assembly is made up of seven members with each representing a specific district. They serve three year terms that are staggered so that only two to four seats are up for election each year. Seward citizens also have a voice in state politics through their elected representatives in the Alaska State Legislature as well as voting in national elections for president and other federal offices.
The political climate in Seward, AK is moderately conservative.
Kenai Peninsula Borough County, AK is very conservative. In Kenai Peninsula Borough County, AK 31.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 64.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 3.6% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Kenai Peninsula Borough remained overwhelmingly Republican, 64.5% to 31.8%.
Kenai Peninsula county voted Republican in the last five Presidential elections, after voting Democratic in 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Seward, AK is moderately conservative.
Kenai Peninsula Borough County, Alaska is very conservative.
Alaska is somewhat 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.
Seward, Alaska: D 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 Seward, AK
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 1,138 contributions totaling $26,914 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $24 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 78 contributions totaling $18,739 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $240 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)