McDonald County is located in Missouri and is part of the Joplin area. This area has been a traditionally conservative region, with the Republican party dominating state elections in recent years. On the local level, there have been a few Democrats elected to public office, but they have remained a minority. There are currently two members of the county board representing each major political party, along with several other independents. The area's main issues include infrastructure development and investment in local businesses. As McDonald County continues to grow, it will be interesting to see how this changing environment could affect future political races and outcomes.
The political climate in McDonald County, MO is very conservative.
In McDonald County, MO 15.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 82.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, McDonald county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 82.4% to 15.9%.
McDonald county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
McDonald County, MO is very conservative.
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers Metro Area is moderately conservative.
Missouri is somewhat 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.
McDonald, Missouri: 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 McDonald County, MO
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 310 contributions totaling $18,749 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $60 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 567 contributions totaling $85,412 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $151 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)