Shelby County, Indiana is a small rural county located in the midwest United States. The county seat is Shelbyville and its total population is about 44,000 people. The county has a strong local government presence, with elected officials at the state and county levels. At the state level, representatives from Shelby County serve in both the Indiana House of Representatives and Senate. Additionally, County Commissioners are elected to represent each district in the county. These elected officials often have similar goals like promoting economic growth and job opportunities while still preserving local traditions and values. Local political candidates running for office typically focus on issues that affect Shelby County residents such as taxes, infrastructure improvements, public safety initiatives, and environmental protection efforts.
The political climate in Shelby County, IN is very conservative.
In Shelby County, IN 25.1% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 72.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.0% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Shelby county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 72.9% to 25.1%.
Shelby county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Shelby County, IN is very conservative.
Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson Metro Area is leaning liberal.
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.
Shelby, 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 Shelby County, IN
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 632 contributions totaling $85,827 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $136 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 575 contributions totaling $321,658 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $559 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)