Salem, Virginia is a small city located in the Roanoke Valley of Virginia. It is home to a variety of businesses and places of interest including the Salem Civic Center and the Salem Museum. The politics in Salem are strongly influenced by the Republican party, although there are some Democrats as well. In recent years, the mayor has been from the Republican Party. There have also been several members of both parties who have run for office at the local level, but have not been successful in getting elected. All major decisions within Salem's government are made by an council of five who represent different areas of Salem and its economic interests. The council meets on a regular basis to discuss policies that affect all citizens in Salem as well as its surrounding area. The civic center also hosts meetings for local political candidates from each party during election years so that people can meet them and learn more about their platforms before voting.
The political climate in Salem, VA is somewhat conservative.
Salem City County, VA is moderately conservative. In Salem City County, VA 39.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 58.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.7% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Salem city county remained very strongly Republican, 58.9% to 39.4%.
Salem city county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Salem, VA is somewhat conservative.
Salem City County, Virginia is moderately conservative.
Roanoke Metro Area is somewhat conservative.
Virginia is somewhat liberal.
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, Virginia: 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, VA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 3,079 contributions totaling $352,868 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $115 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,801 contributions totaling $1,637,992 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $909 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)