Watford City, North Dakota is a small town in the heart of the Bakken Oil Region. With just over 8,000 people, Watford City is known for its rural charm and dependable energy industry. Politically, Watford City is traditionally conservative with most of the population voting Republican in national elections. Locally, residents of Watford City elect representatives to the McKenzie County Commission to represent their interests in city and county government. In addition, the citizens also elect a mayor as well as a six-member city commission to oversee local policy decisions such as budgeting, infrastructure, public safety and land use regulations. The city also has numerous committees and boards such as Parks and Recreation Board, Planning & Zoning Board and Historic Preservation Commission which are filled with volunteers appointed by the Mayor or City Commission members. With these elected officials Watford City strives to create a safe environment while preserving economic growth and quality of life for its citizens.
The political climate in Watford City, ND is strongly conservative.
McKenzie County, ND is very conservative. In McKenzie County, ND 15.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 82.7% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, McKenzie county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 82.7% to 15.0%.
McKenzie county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Watford City, ND is strongly conservative.
McKenzie County, North Dakota is very conservative.
North Dakota is very conservative.
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.
Watford City, North Dakota: 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 Watford City, ND
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 304 contributions totaling $29,818 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $98 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 242 contributions totaling $218,529 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $903 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)