Guthrie County is located in the central part of Iowa and is home to a diverse and vibrant community. The county includes the cities of Guthrie Center, Jamaica, Panora, Stuart, and Yale as well as numerous rural townships. Politically, Guthrie County has always been a swing county, with both Democrats and Republicans making up a significant portion of the electorate. In recent years turnout has increased for both parties in local elections and overall voters are more engaged than before. The last presidential election saw an increase in votes for both major party candidates compared to previous elections. Local political races have become more competitive with multiple candidates running for office in each race. Issues that are important to residents include infrastructure improvements, job creation, education reform, and economic development. There is also debate over taxation levels and government oversight. As the 2020 election approaches, the people of Guthrie County will be watching to see if their voices will be heard at all levels of government or if they will be drowned out by national politics.
The political climate in Guthrie County, IA is very conservative.
In Guthrie County, IA 31.2% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 67.1% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Guthrie county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 67.1% to 31.2%.
Guthrie county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Guthrie County, IA is very conservative.
Des Moines-West Des Moines Metro Area is somewhat liberal.
Iowa 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.
Guthrie, Iowa: 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 Guthrie County, IA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 336 contributions totaling $19,884 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $59 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 145 contributions totaling $30,868 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $213 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)