DeKalb County, Illinois is an area with a rich political history and culture. The county is home to numerous local political parties and organizations, such as the DeKalb County Democrats, the DeKalb County Republicans, and the DeKalb County Libertarian Party. These organizations are actively involved in issues that affect the area and engage in local campaigns to support their respective candidates. Local elections in DeKalb are highly competitive and attract a large voter turnout each year. Additionally, many of the state's elected officials have roots in DeKalb County. Overall, politics in the county remains vibrant and citizens continue to take an active role in shaping its future.
The political climate in DeKalb County, IL is leaning liberal.
In DeKalb County, IL 51.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 45.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 3.0% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, DeKalb county remained moderately Democratic, 51.4% to 45.6%.
DeKalb county voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
DeKalb County, IL is leaning liberal.
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin Metro Area is very liberal.
Illinois is moderately 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.
DeKalb, Illinois: r r D d d d
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 DeKalb County, IL
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 8,823 contributions totaling $344,059 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $39 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 711 contributions totaling $200,896 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $283 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)