St. Matthews is a small town located in South Carolina known for its beautiful landscape, friendly people and rich history. As of 2020, the population of St. Matthews is estimated to be around 4,000 people. Political views within St. Matthews vary greatly among its citizens with many differing perspectives on how the town should be run and which candidates they should vote for. Local politics often reflect these differences of opinion with the current Mayor Randy Shelton and City Council members Sandy Dean, Janie Childs, Jeffery Browning and Dave Stewart working together to find solutions that benefit the entire community. There have been several mayoral and city council elections over the years and each election cycle brings new ideas to consider for the betterment of St. Matthew's citizens.
The political climate in St. Matthews, SC is leaning conservative.
Calhoun County, SC is leaning conservative. In Calhoun County, SC 47.1% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 51.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.0% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Calhoun county remained Republican, 51.9% to 47.1%.
Calhoun county voted Republican in four of the six previous Presidential elections (2008 and 2012 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
St. Matthews, SC is leaning conservative.
Calhoun County, South Carolina is leaning conservative.
Columbia Metro Area is leaning liberal.
South Carolina is somewhat 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.
St. Matthews, South Carolina: r r 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 St. Matthews, SC
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 32 contributions totaling $16,763 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $524 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 45 contributions totaling $17,311 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $385 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)