The small town of Salem, SD is governed by a local mayor and city council. The mayor is elected to serve a four-year term, while members of the city council are elected to serve two-year terms. The current mayor of Salem is Christopher Stewart and the current city councilors are Yvonne Smith, Jessica Thompson, William Johnson, and Joe White. They all work together to ensure that the people of Salem have a safe and caring community. The main areas they focus on are infrastructure development, public safety, economic growth, and improving educational opportunities for residents. They also strive to promote civic engagement throughout their time in office. With their efforts, the people of Salem can be proud to call it their home.
The political climate in Salem, SD is strongly conservative.
McCook County, SD is very conservative. In McCook County, SD 26.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 71.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.2% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, McCook county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 71.3% to 26.5%.
McCook county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Salem, SD is strongly conservative.
McCook County, South Dakota is very conservative.
Sioux Falls Metro Area is somewhat 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.
Salem, 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 Salem, SD
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 3 contributions totaling $900 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $300 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 20 contributions totaling $6,067 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $303 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)