Ash Township, located in Pennington County, South Dakota is a rural township with a small population. The politics of the township are largely determined by local elections, which see many local candidates running for positions such as town mayor and board members. While local issues are important here, many of the issues discussed in the halls of government affect all citizens’ daily lives. Residents often gather to discuss the policies that shape their lives and look for ways to make their voices heard. With an active citizenry that is passionate about local issues, Ash Township provides a great example of how individual voters can have an impact on their community's political landscape.
The political climate in Ash, SD is strongly conservative.
Pennington County, SD is strongly conservative. In Pennington County, SD 35.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 61.0% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 3.2% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Pennington county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 61.0% to 35.8%.
Pennington county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Ash, SD is strongly conservative.
Pennington County, South Dakota is strongly conservative.
Rapid City Metro Area is strongly conservative.
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.
Ash, South 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 Ash, SD
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 29 contributions totaling $725 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $25 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 51 contributions totaling $40,355 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $791 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)