Pierre, South Dakota is the capital of the state and has a population of about 13,800. It is a small city with politics that are centered around the state government. Pierre has two local representatives, Senator Deb Soholt and Representative Oren Lesmeister, who serve in the South Dakota Senate and House of Representatives respectively. They work to represent the interests of their constituents in Pierre as well as across the state. Politically, Pierre leans conservatively with most of its citizens voting Republican in Federal and State elections. Locally, Pierre also elects officials such as mayors and city council members who take on important roles in setting policy goals for the city. In addition to elected officials, there are several advocacy groups that seek to influence policy decisions in Pierre both at a local and state level. These organizations often play an important role in getting voters out to support or oppose specific pieces of legislation or initiatives that could have an effect on their lives.
The political climate in Pierre, SD is moderately conservative.
Hughes County, SD is strongly conservative. In Hughes County, SD 33.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 63.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Hughes county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 63.3% to 33.9%.
Hughes county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Pierre, SD is moderately conservative.
Hughes County, South Dakota is strongly conservative.
Pierre Metro Area is very 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.
Pierre, 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 Pierre, SD
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 584 contributions totaling $33,755 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $58 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 470 contributions totaling $145,891 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $310 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)