Buchanan County, Iowa is a rural county located in the eastern part of the state. Home to just over 20,000 people, Buchanan County is politically conservative. The county is served by the Republican Party in both state and national elections, with many local candidates also belonging to the party. In recent years, the county has supported Republican candidates for Governor, Senator, and U.S. Representative. Locally, most elected officials are Republicans including the mayor of Independence and several city council members across rural towns in the county. The local Republican Party typically plays an active role in mobilizing voters during election season and promoting their chosen political candidates through social media campaigns and grassroots outreach efforts.
The political climate in Buchanan County, IA is moderately conservative.
In Buchanan County, IA 38.7% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 59.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.7% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Buchanan county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 59.6% to 38.7%.
Buchanan county voted Republican in the two most recent Presidential elections, after voting Democratic in the previous four.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Buchanan County, IA is moderately conservative.
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Iowa is leaning 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.
Buchanan, Iowa: D d D D 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 Buchanan County, IA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 294 contributions totaling $20,791 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $71 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 160 contributions totaling $32,619 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $204 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)