Evanston, IL is a vibrant city located near the shores of Lake Michigan. Politically, Evanston is a strong blue spot in a state that has long been considered politically diverse. The City Council serves as the governing body for the municipality and consists of nine members elected at-large. Representing Evanston, the City Council is responsible for managing city services and providing resources to its citizens. They also set policy on issues such as zoning regulations, development projects, public safety initiatives and budget allocations. Additionally, every two years residents of Evanston elect representatives to represent them in the Illinois General Assembly. With many active civic organizations working hard to make sure their voices are heard at all levels of government, it's no wonder that Evanston has become known as an engaged political community.
The political climate in Evanston, IL is strongly liberal.
Cook County, IL is very liberal. In Cook County, IL 74.2% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 24.0% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Cook county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 74.2% to 24.0%.
Cook county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Evanston, IL is strongly liberal.
Cook County, Illinois is very liberal.
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin Metro Area is very liberal.
Illinois is moderately liberal.
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.
Evanston, Illinois: 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 Evanston, IL
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 41,615 contributions totaling $5,505,582 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $132 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,480 contributions totaling $496,268 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $335 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)