Mille Lacs County, Minnesota is located in the Central part of the state and has a robust political system. It is represented at a local level by commissioners elected to 4-year terms and at a national level by two US Representatives and two US Senators. The county is predominantly Democratic, with Republicans holding narrow margins in recent elections. There are currently five county commissioners, including four from the DFL Party whilst the fifth is an Independent. The current mayor of Mille Lacs County is Matt Bostrom who was elected on a nonpartisan ballot in 2020. At a national level, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith represent Mille Lacs County in the US Senate, while Angie Craig and Betty McCollum serve as their US Representatives. The local political environment is characterized by active involvement from all sides of the political spectrum, with citizens participating in protests, rallies, and town halls to make their voices heard.
The political climate in Mille Lacs County, MN is very conservative.
In Mille Lacs County, MN 30.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 67.8% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Mille Lacs county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 67.8% to 30.0%.
Mille Lacs county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Mille Lacs County, MN is very conservative.
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington Metro Area is moderately liberal.
Minnesota is leaning 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.
Mille Lacs, Minnesota: 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 Mille Lacs County, MN
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 315 contributions totaling $153,122 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $486 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 204 contributions totaling $17,597 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $86 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)