Calhoun County, Illinois is home to a vibrant and engaged political culture. The county has a long history of actively participating in local elections, with each election cycle bringing out new candidates who are eager to make their voices heard. A wide variety of political affiliations are represented in the area, ranging from Republican to Democratic and everything in between. Each year, local residents come together to debate important issues facing the county, including economic development, education policy and infrastructure investment. It is this spirit of civic engagement that makes Calhoun County such a great place to live and work.
The political climate in Calhoun County, IL is very conservative.
In Calhoun County, IL 24.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 73.8% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Calhoun county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 73.8% to 24.4%.
Calhoun county voted Republican in three most recent Presidential elections, after voting Democratic in the previous three.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Calhoun County, IL is very conservative.
St. Louis 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.
Calhoun, Illinois: 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 Calhoun County, IL
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 27 contributions totaling $2,935 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $109 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 14 contributions totaling $3,950 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $282 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)