Dorchester County, MD is a rural county located on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The county seat is Cambridge and its largest city is Hurlock. While it has an agricultural base, Dorchester County has seen a significant increase in economic activity over the past decade due to growth in tourism and new business development. Politically, the county is reliably Republican, with Republicans holding all five seats on the county council as well as both of its state legislative districts. The county also leans heavily towards the Republican party when it comes to municipal elections as well. The most recent mayoral election saw a Republican candidate win with nearly 70% of the vote. Dorchester County residents have been supportive of traditionally conservative values regarding taxes and regulations, while at the same time advocating for additional public safety measures and other infrastructure improvements that would benefit their communities.
The political climate in Dorchester County, MD is somewhat conservative.
In Dorchester County, MD 42.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 54.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.2% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Dorchester county remained strongly Republican, 54.9% to 42.9%.
Dorchester county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Dorchester County, MD is somewhat conservative.
Cambridge Metro Area is somewhat conservative.
Maryland is very liberal.
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.
Dorchester, Maryland: 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 Dorchester County, MD
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 1,924 contributions totaling $65,755 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $34 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 206 contributions totaling $52,121 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $253 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)