Howard County, Indiana is a rural county located in the Midwestern United States. The county is governed by three county commissioners, all of whom are elected to four-year terms during the general election cycle. The current county commissioners are Vivien Bridges, David Myers, and Robert Warriner. All three commissioners have been in office since 2017. Howard County’s government structure also includes an Auditor, Treasurer, Sheriff, Coroner, Surveyor, and Prosecutor that are each elected for four-year terms as well. Additionally, the County Council has seven seats that are filled by an annual appointment process.
The politics in Howard County generally lean conservative and Republican candidates are usually favored in local elections. Each year voters come out to weigh on local issues such as school funding allocations and public works projects. These decisions tend to reflect the values of the majority of citizens who live in Howard County which typically favor smaller government with lower taxes and less regulation.
The political climate in Howard County, IN is very conservative.
In Howard County, IN 32.7% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 65.1% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.2% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Howard county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 65.1% to 32.7%.
Howard county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Howard County, IN is very conservative.
Kokomo Metro Area is very conservative.
Indiana is somewhat 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.
Howard, Indiana: 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 Howard County, IN
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 1,646 contributions totaling $84,270 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $51 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 808 contributions totaling $173,846 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $215 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)