River Forest, IL is a small village located in Cook County, Illinois. It is known for its quaint charm and close knit community. Though the village does not have any local political candidates, River Forest has a strong political presence in the area. The village board meets regularly to discuss matters of local governance, from budgeting to parks and recreation. The village board also works alongside the Cook County government to ensure that the interests of River Forest residents are represented in county-wide decisions. Furthermore, River Forest residents actively engage in federal and state politics by attending town hall meetings with their representatives and volunteering with various campaigns. In this way, they help to shape both local and national politics.
The political climate in River Forest, IL is moderately 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
River Forest, IL is moderately 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.
River Forest, 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 River Forest, IL
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 4,720 contributions totaling $973,500 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $206 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 297 contributions totaling $150,576 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $507 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)