West Bend, IA is a small, rural community located in Kossuth County. Like many other rural towns, the politics in West Bend are largely conservative and focused around local issues. The local government is comprised of a mayor and city council members who are elected by the citizens of West Bend. The city council meets on a regular basis to discuss and vote on policies that directly affect their residents. The most pressing issues for West Bend include maintaining road infrastructure, managing economic development, promoting tourism, and ensuring the safety of its citizens. In addition to local political candidates, the citizens also take part in state electoral processes to voice their opinion on matters such as taxes, judicial appointments, education reform and more.
The political climate in West Bend, IA is strongly conservative.
Palo Alto County, IA is very conservative. In Palo Alto County, IA 30.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 68.0% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Palo Alto county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 68.0% to 30.6%.
Palo Alto county voted Republican in five of the last six Presidential elections (2008 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
West Bend, IA is strongly conservative.
Palo Alto County, Iowa is very 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.
West Bend, Iowa: r 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 West Bend, IA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 2 contributions totaling $1,000 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $500 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 104 contributions totaling $18,032 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $173 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)