Rochester, MA is a small town in Plymouth County, located on the South Shore of Massachusetts. As of 2019, Rochester had a population of 5,582 people. In terms of politics, Rochester is an overwhelmingly Democratic town. The town's current state representative is Norman Orrall, who has been in office since 2013 and was re-elected in 2018. The town also has a Board of Selectmen whose members are elected every two years to manage the day-to-day operations of the town. Additionally, Rochester is part of the 12th Plymouth District and its state senator is Michael Brady (D). On a national level, Rochester supported Hilary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential election by a wide margin with more than 74% of votes cast. All in all, Rochester is politically active and supports progressive causes.
The political climate in Rochester, MA is leaning conservative.
Plymouth County, MA is moderately liberal. In Plymouth County, MA 57.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 40.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Plymouth county remained very strongly Democratic, 57.5% to 40.2%.
Plymouth county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Rochester, MA is leaning conservative.
Plymouth County, Massachusetts is moderately liberal.
Boston-Cambridge-Newton Metro Area is very liberal.
Massachusetts is very 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.
Rochester, Massachusetts: 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 Rochester, MA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 398 contributions totaling $26,948 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $68 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 160 contributions totaling $26,342 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $165 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)