Bethel, SD is a small rural town in South Dakota with a population of just under 400 people. It is located in Aurora County and is governed by the Board of County Commissioners. The local political scene in Bethel consists of county, state, and federal representatives. At the county level, Bethel’s citizens are represented by an Aurora County Commissioner as well as his or her counterparts from the other counties that make up the region. At the state level, Bethel’s citizens are represented in Pierre by their State Senator and Representatives. Lastly, at the federal level, Bethel’s citizens are represented by their U.S. Representative and Senators who serve their district and state respectively. While there are currently no local candidates running for office in Bethel, these officials work to ensure that the people of Bethel receive proper representation on issues that matter to them such as economic development, infrastructure improvements, education reform and more.
The political climate in Bethel, SD is somewhat conservative.
Clay County, SD is somewhat liberal. In Clay County, SD 54.1% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 43.1% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Clay county remained strongly Democratic, 54.1% to 43.1%.
Clay county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Bethel, SD is somewhat conservative.
Clay County, South Dakota is somewhat liberal.
Vermillion Metro Area is somewhat liberal.
South Dakota is strongly 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.
Bethel, South Dakota: d D 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 Bethel, SD
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 8 contributions totaling $545 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $68 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1 contributions totaling $500 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $500 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)