Buchanan, Virginia is a small rural community located in southwestern Virginia. Politically, Buchanan has traditionally been a stronghold of the Republican party. In recent years, however, there have been more Democratic candidates running for office in the area and some of them have had notable success. The current Mayor of Buchanan is a Democrat, as are several members of the town council. Despite this trend towards more Democratic representation, Buchanan remains largely conservative in nature politically. The local Republican Party holds many offices across the town and surrounding counties and they continue to be very influential on a local level. With two major parties competing for power within the community, it's clear that politics plays an important role in life here in Buchanan.
The political climate in Buchanan, VA is strongly conservative.
Botetourt County, VA is very conservative. In Botetourt County, VA 27.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 71.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.5% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Botetourt county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 71.5% to 27.0%.
Botetourt county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Buchanan, VA is strongly conservative.
Botetourt County, Virginia is very 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.
Buchanan, 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 Buchanan, VA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 44 contributions totaling $3,609 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $82 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 100 contributions totaling $15,630 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $156 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)