Tuscaloosa County, Alabama is a populous county located in the western part of the state. In the county, politics are dominated by the Republican Party, as is common throughout much of the state. The Republican Party holds majorities in both houses of the Tuscaloosa County Legislature, with 10 members to 4 Democrats. Currently, there are three elected Republicans serving on the Tuscaloosa County Commission. On the federal level, Tuscaloosa County is represented by three members of Congress from Alabama's 7th congressional district: Representatives Robert Aderholt and Mo Brooks and Senator Richard Shelby. Major issues facing Tuscaloosa include infrastructure improvements for roads and bridges, economic development, job creation, and education reform initiatives. Local political candidates are often focused on these issues when running for office in order to bring change to their communities and constituents.
The political climate in Tuscaloosa County, AL is somewhat conservative.
In Tuscaloosa County, AL 41.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 56.7% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Tuscaloosa county remained strongly Republican, 56.7% to 41.9%.
Tuscaloosa county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Tuscaloosa County, AL is somewhat conservative.
Tuscaloosa Metro Area is somewhat conservative.
Alabama is strongly 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.
Tuscaloosa, Alabama: 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 Tuscaloosa County, AL
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 3,665 contributions totaling $797,477 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $218 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,737 contributions totaling $738,116 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $425 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)