Berkshire County is located in Massachusetts, and it is a largely rural county. The county has several communities within its borders, including Pittsfield, North Adams and Great Barrington. Politics in Berkshire County are primarily focused on the local level, where residents elect officials to serve as their representatives in town government. These officials work together to address important issues that affect residents’ lives, such as schools, public safety, and transportation infrastructure. Local politicians also play an important role in advocating for economic development initiatives that can bring jobs and investment into the county. At the state level, citizens of Berkshire County have elected representatives who sit in both the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate. Their primary focus is on issues such as healthcare reform, education policy, environmental regulations and taxation policy. In addition to state-level politics, Berkshire County also participates in national elections through its eight electoral votes allocated for presidential contests.
The political climate in Berkshire County, MA is very liberal.
In Berkshire County, MA 72.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 25.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Berkshire county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 72.4% to 25.3%.
Berkshire county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Berkshire County, MA is very liberal.
Pittsfield Metro Area is very liberal.
Massachusetts 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.
Berkshire, Massachusetts: 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 Berkshire County, MA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 23,946 contributions totaling $2,002,033 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $84 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 879 contributions totaling $139,177 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $158 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)