Douglas County, Kansas is a small rural county located in the northeast part of the state. As such, most of its politics are focused on local matters such as taxes, education, and economic development for the area. The county is represented by a board of commissioners elected by the public. This board then hires a county manager who oversees the day-to-day operations of the county government. Additionally, Douglas County has numerous cities and townships each with their own local officials and representatives. These officials are responsible for addressing local issues that affect their particular communities, such as zoning laws or tax initiatives. Although there may not be any major political campaigns or big-name politicians in Douglas County, residents take great interest in their local politics and have a voice in how their community operates.
The political climate in Douglas County, KS is very liberal.
In Douglas County, KS 68.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 28.8% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 3.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Douglas county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 68.0% to 28.8%.
Douglas county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Douglas County, KS is very liberal.
Lawrence Metro Area is very liberal.
Kansas 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.
Douglas, Kansas: 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 Douglas County, KS
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 16,235 contributions totaling $1,316,553 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $81 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,240 contributions totaling $602,919 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $486 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)