Athens, Texas is a small city located in Henderson County. It has a total area of 7.3 square miles and is home to approximately 13,000 residents. As the county seat of Henderson County, Athens serves as the governmental and administrative hub for the area. Political activity in Athens is heavily involved with local issues such as education, infrastructure and economic growth. The most dominant political organization in Athens is the Democratic Party. Local elections are held every two years for city council members, mayor and other elected positions. These elections typically draw strong interest from citizens who care deeply about the future of their community and work together to ensure success for their chosen candidates. The current mayor of Athens is Bobby McEntyre who was elected in 2016. With his leadership, he has implemented initiatives that have improved public safety and encouraged economic development throughout the city.
The political climate in Athens, TX is moderately conservative.
Henderson County, TX is very conservative. In Henderson County, TX 19.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 79.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.0% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Henderson county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 79.6% to 19.4%.
Henderson county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Athens, TX is moderately conservative.
Henderson County, Texas is very conservative.
Athens Metro Area is very conservative.
Texas is leaning 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.
Athens, Texas: 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 Athens, TX
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 363 contributions totaling $27,197 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $75 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 442 contributions totaling $108,510 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $246 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)