Pottawatomie County, KS is an area with a rich political history. The county has seen its fair share of elections and has seen many representatives from both parties in power. In recent years, the county has become more reliably Democratic, although there are still many conservative strongholds throughout the county. Currently, the county is represented by Senator Laura Kelly, who was elected in 2019 after previously serving in the Kansas House of Representatives since 2005. On the local level, Pottawatomie County is represented by several Republicans and Democrats on the Board of Commissioners. These commissioners oversee various aspects of local government including education, law enforcement and public health initiatives. As with any other county across the nation, Pottawatomie County is a part of larger state and federal politics as well.
The political climate in Pottawatomie County, KS is very conservative.
In Pottawatomie County, KS 25.3% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 72.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Pottawatomie county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 72.2% to 25.3%.
Pottawatomie county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Pottawatomie County, KS is very conservative.
Manhattan Metro Area is leaning conservative.
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.
Pottawatomie, Kansas: 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 Pottawatomie County, KS
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 331 contributions totaling $26,604 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $80 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 187 contributions totaling $121,374 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $649 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)