Forest City, IA is a small city with a population of about 8,000 people. While not widely known, this small town has an active political culture. With local elections taking place every few years, the citizens of Forest City take their civic duties seriously and are engaged in the politics of their community. The local government consists of two main branches: the mayor and the city council. The mayor is elected by the citizens and acts as chief executive officer for the municipality while the city council holds legislative power over decisions made in Forest City. All members of both branches are elected through democratic processes and strive to serve their constituents faithfully. In addition to elected officials, several community organizations exist to foster civic engagement in politics among all age groups in Forest City. Overall, Forest City is a vibrant and engaged political community that takes great pride in its democratic process.
The political climate in Forest City, IA is moderately conservative.
Winnebago County, IA is strongly conservative. In Winnebago County, IA 35.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 62.1% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Winnebago county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 62.1% to 35.8%.
Winnebago county voted Republican in 2020, 2016, 2012 and 2004, and Democratic in 2008 and 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Forest City, IA is moderately conservative.
Winnebago County, Iowa is strongly conservative.
Iowa is leaning 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.
Forest City, Iowa: d r d 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 Forest City, IA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 966 contributions totaling $14,916 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $15 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 75 contributions totaling $9,345 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $125 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)