Polk County, FL is a vibrant and diverse area that has seen its fair share of politics over the years. The county is part of the Central Florida region and is represented in the US House of Representatives by Dennis A. Ross (R) and Darren Soto (D), both of whom have served since 2017. In addition, Polk County residents are also represented by their local state representatives, all from various political parties. These representatives work hard to make sure that the needs of their constituents are met and that they are fighting for important issues related to their district. Through their advocacy, they have been able to bring much needed attention to issues such as education, health care, mental health, housing, taxes, and other quality-of-life issues that affect people across Polk County on a daily basis.
The political climate in Polk County, FL is somewhat conservative.
In Polk County, FL 42.2% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 56.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Polk county remained strongly Republican, 56.6% to 42.2%.
Polk county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Polk County, FL is somewhat conservative.
Lakeland-Winter Haven Metro Area is somewhat conservative.
Florida 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.
Polk, Florida: 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 for the Democrat and I for the Independent. 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 Polk County, FL
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 12,535 contributions totaling $896,692 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $72 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 5,726 contributions totaling $2,659,585 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $464 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)