Pekin, IL is a city in Tazewell County, Illinois that has a vibrant political landscape. The city has a mayor-council form of government, with the current Mayor being Mark Luft. The City Council consists of nine members who are all elected from individual wards within the city. Pekin residents elect representatives to the Tazewell County Board and the Illinois General Assembly. On the national level, Pekin is part of the 18th Congressional District which is currently represented by Republican Darin LaHood. As for issues local to Pekin, these range from infrastructure concerns such as water supply and roads to public safety initiatives like crime prevention and fire department funding and even education policy involving taxes and school board elections.
The political climate in Pekin, IL is somewhat conservative.
Tazewell County, IL is strongly conservative. In Tazewell County, IL 35.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 61.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Tazewell county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 61.4% to 35.8%.
Tazewell county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Pekin, IL is somewhat conservative.
Tazewell County, Illinois is strongly conservative.
Peoria Metro Area is somewhat conservative.
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.
Pekin, Illinois: 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 Pekin, IL
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 2,643 contributions totaling $112,511 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $43 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,890 contributions totaling $269,665 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $143 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)