Waite Park, MN is a small city located in Stearns County. It has a mayor-council form of government, in which the mayor and four council members work together to set policy and make decisions for the city. The current mayor is Rick Miller, who was elected in November 2016 and reelected in November 2020. The four council members are Mark Kubes, Steve Heinen, Daryl Standke, and Bill Goedeke. Together they strive to ensure that Waite Park remains an inviting place for citizens to live and work while also working to attract new businesses and development into the area. They have worked hard to keep taxes low while providing essential services such as police, fire, parks & recreation, public works, and more. With their collaborative efforts Waite Park remains a great place for families and businesses alike.
The political climate in Waite Park, MN is leaning conservative.
Stearns County, MN is moderately conservative. In Stearns County, MN 37.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 60.1% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Stearns county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 60.1% to 37.6%.
Stearns county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Waite Park, MN is leaning conservative.
Stearns County, Minnesota is moderately conservative.
St. Cloud Metro Area is strongly 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.
Waite Park, Minnesota: 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 Waite Park, MN
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 546 contributions totaling $54,620 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $100 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 395 contributions totaling $407,281 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $1,031 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)