Rio Rancho is a city located in northern New Mexico, about 15 miles north of Albuquerque. Rio Rancho is part of Sandoval County and has a mayor-council form of government. The current mayor is Gregg Hull, who was sworn in on June 12, 2018. Rio Rancho has six council members who are elected at large to four year terms. These council members serve as Rio Rancho's legislative body and oversee the city's budget and laws. They are also responsible for making decisions that affect the future development of the city. The city also has several advisory boards that consider issues such as public safety, economic development, transportation, parks and recreation, and community involvement. All political decisions in Rio Rancho are made by its citizens through their elected representatives or through voter referendums when necessary.
The political climate in Rio Rancho, NM is leaning liberal.
Sandoval County, NM is somewhat liberal. In Sandoval County, NM 53.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 44.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Sandoval county remained moderately Democratic, 53.0% to 44.6%.
Sandoval county voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Rio Rancho, NM is leaning liberal.
Sandoval County, New Mexico is somewhat liberal.
Albuquerque Metro Area is moderately liberal.
New Mexico is somewhat 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.
Rio Rancho, New Mexico: r r 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 Rio Rancho, NM
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 21,019 contributions totaling $1,383,821 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $66 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 3,009 contributions totaling $417,883 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $139 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)