Howard, KS is a small, rural town located in central Kansas. As such, politics in the area are relatively low-key compared to other, larger cities throughout the state. Howard is served by several local offices including mayor and city council members. The current mayor of Howard, KS is John Smith, who was elected in 2016. The city council consists of five members who serve 4-year terms and are responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the city and making decisions on issues that affect the entire community. All decisions made by these elected officials must be approved by a majority vote from the other members of the council. As a result of their efforts, Howard has been able to maintain its small-town charm while still keeping up with changes taking place across the state and nation.
The political climate in Howard, KS is strongly conservative.
Elk County, KS is very conservative. In Elk County, KS 14.3% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 83.8% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.9% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Elk county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 83.8% to 14.3%.
Elk county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Howard, KS is strongly conservative.
Elk County, Kansas is very conservative.
Kansas 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.
Howard, Kansas: 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 Howard, KS
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 0 contributions totaling $0 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $0 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 6 contributions totaling $630 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $105 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)