The politics of Carmel, IN are largely conservative. The city is represented at the federal level by Greg Pence, a Republican who serves as member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Indiana's 6th Congressional District. At the state level, Carmel is represented by District 32 State Senator Jim Merritt and District 32 State Representative Donna Schaibley, both Republicans. Locally, Carmel is governed by Mayor Jim Brainard who was first elected in 1995 and has been re-elected every four years since then. He was most recently re-elected in 2019 with almost 80% of the vote. In addition to Brainard, Carmel City Council members include Jeff Worrell (R), Kevin Rider (R), Bruce Kimball (R), Ron Carter (R) and Sue Finkam (D). Overall, political activities in Carmel tend to lean towards conservative ideals and values.
The political climate in Carmel, IN is somewhat conservative.
Hamilton County, IN is leaning conservative. In Hamilton County, IN 45.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 52.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Hamilton county remained moderately Republican, 52.2% to 45.4%.
Hamilton county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Carmel, IN is somewhat conservative.
Hamilton County, Indiana is leaning conservative.
Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson Metro Area is leaning liberal.
Indiana is somewhat 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.
Carmel, Indiana: 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 Carmel, IN
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 19,554 contributions totaling $32,315,150 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $1,653 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 10,375 contributions totaling $9,947,531 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $959 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)