Highland Park, IL is a city in Lake County that has a strong commitment to good governance. The local political system in the city is very active and engaged, with many committed citizens running for office and actively participating in the community at large. There are a number of elected officials who represent Highland Park in the state and national legislatures, with their duties ranging from aiding constituents with various issues to creating legislation for the benefit of the city's citizens. In addition, there are numerous boards and committees dedicated to providing oversight of city services and programs. All of these activities involve careful planning and cooperation between local residents, business leaders, civic organizations, schools, and other stakeholders in order to ensure that Highland Park remains a thriving community with its best interests at heart.
The political climate in Highland Park, IL is somewhat liberal.
Lake County, IL is strongly liberal. In Lake County, IL 60.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 36.8% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Lake county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 60.8% to 36.8%.
Lake county voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Highland Park, IL is somewhat liberal.
Lake County, Illinois is strongly 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.
Highland Park, Illinois: r r 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 Highland Park, IL
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 38,729 contributions totaling $14,516,733 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $375 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 3,443 contributions totaling $2,761,097 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $802 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)