Black Hawk County, Iowa is a political hotspot in the state. With an ever-growing population of over 129,000 people, the county has become an important player in Iowa's politics. Every four years, local and statewide elections are held to determine who will represent Black Hawk County in Congress and in the state legislature. On the local level, politicians work hard to understand and respond to the needs of their constituents. In addition to electing city council members, school board members, mayors, sheriffs, and other officials that oversee the operation of local government services, Black Hawk County residents also have a say in who represents them on higher levels of government. Politicians from both major parties strive to listen to voters’ concerns about issues such as education reform, economic development initiatives, and criminal justice reform. The decisions made by elected officials have direct impacts on all residents of Black Hawk County.
The political climate in Black Hawk County, IA is somewhat liberal.
In Black Hawk County, IA 53.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 44.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.0% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Black Hawk county remained moderately Democratic, 53.5% to 44.5%.
Black Hawk county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Black Hawk County, IA is somewhat liberal.
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Metro Area is leaning liberal.
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.
Black Hawk, Iowa: 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 Black Hawk County, IA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 4,447 contributions totaling $303,998 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $68 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,222 contributions totaling $313,745 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $257 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)