Cedar Rapids, Iowa is a diverse community with an interesting political landscape. The city features a strong mayor-council government, with the mayor directly elected by the people and the council made up of nine members who are also directly elected from their respective wards in the city. Local elections for Cedar Rapids are held every two years and typically feature a variety of candidates from both major parties, as well as those running as independents. Issues that frequently come up during election cycles include economic development, public safety, budgeting and infrastructure improvements. Residents of Cedar Rapids have been active in voicing their opinions on political issues, and they have shown a commitment to engaging with their local representatives to advocate for change.
The political climate in Cedar Rapids, IA is leaning liberal.
Linn County, IA is somewhat liberal. In Linn County, IA 55.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 41.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.5% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Linn county remained strongly Democratic, 55.6% to 41.9%.
Linn county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Cedar Rapids, IA is leaning liberal.
Linn County, Iowa is somewhat liberal.
Cedar Rapids Metro Area is leaning liberal.
Iowa 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.
Cedar Rapids, Iowa: d d D D d D
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 Cedar Rapids, IA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 11,037 contributions totaling $1,087,430 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $99 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 2,643 contributions totaling $829,004 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $314 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)