Rock Island County in Illinois is a vibrant and engaged community, with citizens who take an active role in determining the political future of their county. Local politics in Rock Island are largely driven by local voting trends and voter turnout, as well as the efforts of local candidates and elected officials. The Rock Island County Board serves as the legislative body for the county's government, with members being elected from each precinct on a nonpartisan basis. In addition to the County Board, Rock Island is also home to numerous state representatives and senators, all of whom work to ensure that their constituents' interests are represented in state-level policy-making. Though there are many political issues facing Rock Island County today, residents remain hopeful that through active engagement and participation they will be able to create positive change for their community.
The political climate in Rock Island County, IL is somewhat liberal.
In Rock Island County, IL 54.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 42.7% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.5% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Rock Island county remained strongly Democratic, 54.8% to 42.7%.
Rock Island county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Rock Island County, IL is somewhat liberal.
Davenport-Moline-Rock Island Metro Area is leaning 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.
Rock Island, Illinois: D D 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 Rock Island County, IL
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 5,412 contributions totaling $530,265 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $98 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,479 contributions totaling $386,113 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $261 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)