Columbia, Minnesota is a small city located in Sherburne County and is part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. While the city is small, it plays an important role in local politics. The City Council is composed of five members elected at-large with a Mayor presiding over them. Each council member serves a two-year term and all are Republicans. The City’s Board of Adjustment also consists of five members who are appointed by the Mayor and approved by the Council. This board acts as an appeals body for citizens who feel they have been treated unfairly or not offered due process by the City’s staff. In addition, there are a number of school boards, library boards, and other committees that work to ensure that Columbia remains an enjoyable place to live and work. All these boards have members appointed by the Mayor as well as members elected from within their respective wards.
The political climate in Columbia, MN is strongly conservative.
Polk County, MN is strongly conservative. In Polk County, MN 34.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 63.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.9% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Polk county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 63.3% to 34.9%.
Polk county voted Republican in five of the last six Presidential elections (2008 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Columbia, MN is strongly conservative.
Polk County, Minnesota is strongly conservative.
Grand Forks Metro Area is moderately conservative.
Minnesota is leaning 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.
Columbia, Minnesota: 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 Columbia, MN
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 71 contributions totaling $6,178 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $87 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 65 contributions totaling $5,582 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $86 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)