Forest Township is located in Rice County, Minnesota. It is a small rural community with a population of just over 2,000 people. The local politics are centered around the Forest Township Board of Supervisors which consists of five members elected by the township's residents to manage all aspects of town governance. These five members work together to ensure the well-being of the town by making decisions regarding financial management, infrastructure projects, and other local matters. The board meets regularly and encourages residents to give their input on issues that affect them directly or indirectly in the township. Important elections in Forest Township are for supervisor positions as well as other county offices such as sheriff and county attorney. In addition to local candidates running for office in Forest Township, citizens can also vote on state and national politicians who will help shape policy decisions affecting their lives.
The political climate in Forest township (Rice County), MN is somewhat conservative.
Rice County, MN is leaning liberal. In Rice County, MN 48.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 48.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Rice county remained narrowly Republican, 48.9% to 48.8%.
Rice county voted Republican in the two most recent Presidential elections, after voting Democratic in the previous four.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Forest township (Rice County), MN is somewhat conservative.
Rice County, Minnesota is leaning liberal.
Faribault-Northfield Metro Area is leaning 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.
Forest township (Rice County), Minnesota: d d D d 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 township (Rice County), MN
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 6,323 contributions totaling $348,395 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $55 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 505 contributions totaling $93,312 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $185 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)