Nelson County, KY is home to a strong and vibrant political atmosphere. The county is represented by local representatives at the state and federal levels, who work hard to ensure that the voice of Nelson County citizens is heard in the halls of government. At the local level, there are various civic organizations dedicated to promoting good governance in the county, such as the Nelson County Democratic Party and the Nelson County Republican Party. These two organizations regularly organize events and host debates about upcoming elections and important political issues. Additionally, many candidates for office throughout Kentucky come to Nelson County during election season to meet with constituents and ask for their support. The people of Nelson County take great pride in their civic engagement, and make sure that they have an active role in shaping their government.
The political climate in Nelson County, KY is very conservative.
In Nelson County, KY 30.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 67.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.6% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Nelson county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 67.5% to 30.9%.
Nelson county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Nelson County, KY is very conservative.
Bardstown Metro Area is very conservative.
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.
Nelson, Kentucky: 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 Nelson County, KY
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 486 contributions totaling $68,402 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $141 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 283 contributions totaling $56,182 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $199 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)