McDowell County, West Virginia is situated in the southern part of the state, and has a small population of just around 22,000 people. Despite its small size, there are still many important political issues that affect its citizens. The county is led by a board of supervisors, who are elected from each district to represent their constituents in matters such as taxation and education. There are also city councils in each municipality within the county, which handle municipal matters like zoning and public works. During election cycles, local residents can participate in voting for both national and local candidates who run to represent them on various levels of government. By engaging with their local politicians, McDowell County's citizens can ensure that they have a voice when it comes to the decisions that affect their daily lives.
The political climate in McDowell County, WV is very conservative.
In McDowell County, WV 20.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 78.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 0.7% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, McDowell county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 78.9% to 20.4%.
McDowell county voted Republican in three most recent Presidential elections, after voting Democratic in the previous three.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
McDowell County, WV is very conservative.
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West Virginia is very 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.
McDowell, West Virginia: D D d 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 McDowell County, WV
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 65 contributions totaling $6,977 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $107 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 22 contributions totaling $4,264 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $194 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)