Harlan County in Kentucky is a small community with a population of around 28,000 people. The county is served by the Harlan County Fiscal Court which is made up of five magistrates elected by the citizens of the county. The Fiscal Court oversees important matters such as roads and bridges, public safety, and economic development within the county. Elections are held every two years for these posts, and there are currently three candidates running for office this year: Joe Smith, Tom Jones, and Jenny Brown. Each candidate has their own platform that focuses on issues such as job creation, investing in education, improving infrastructure, and expanding access to health care. All three candidates are committed to creating a better future for Harlan County residents by working together with the local government to build a more prosperous community.
The political climate in Harlan County, KY is very conservative.
In Harlan County, KY 13.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 85.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.0% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Harlan county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 85.4% to 13.6%.
Harlan county voted Republican in the last five Presidential elections, after voting Democratic in 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Harlan County, KY is very conservative.
Not Found Metro Area is 0.
Kentucky is strongly 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.
Harlan, Kentucky: d 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 Harlan County, KY
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 51 contributions totaling $37,238 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $730 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 180 contributions totaling $21,263 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $118 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)