Ocala, Florida is a city located in Marion County, with a population of 57,468 people according to the 2019 census. The politics of Ocala are largely centered around the Republican party. In 2018, both the state Senate and House Representatives for Districts 22 and 24 respectively were Republican. The current mayor of Ocala is Kent Guinn who was elected in 2016 as part of the Republicans' sweep of all three major offices in the local government. At the county level, all five members of the Marion County Commission are currently Republican-elected officials. Ocala has a medium percentage of registered Democrats (39 percent) when compared to registered Republicans (51 percent). Though there are no local political candidates running for office in 2020, their presence will be felt on election day when residents cast their vote for their preferred party's candidate.
The political climate in Ocala, FL is somewhat conservative.
Marion County, FL is strongly conservative. In Marion County, FL 36.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 62.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.0% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Marion county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 62.4% to 36.6%.
Marion county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Ocala, FL is somewhat conservative.
Marion County, Florida is strongly conservative.
Ocala Metro Area is strongly conservative.
Florida is leaning 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.
Ocala, Florida: 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 Ocala, FL
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 4,834 contributions totaling $395,759 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $82 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 2,305 contributions totaling $761,327 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $330 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)