Polk County, Missouri is a small rural community with a population of just over 8,000. In terms of politics, the county has traditionally been a conservative stronghold, primarily voting for Republican candidates in both state and federal elections. The current Governor of Missouri is Mike Parson, who was elected in 2018. At the federal level, the county’s congressional representative is Billy Long. He was first elected in 2010 and has held onto his seat since then. Other local political figures include County Judge Johnnie McElyea, as well as State Senator Sandy Crawford and State Representative Craig Redmon. These politicians work to ensure the area remains safe and prosperous while representing their constituents at the state level.
The political climate in Polk County, MO is very conservative.
In Polk County, MO 19.1% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 78.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Polk county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 78.5% to 19.1%.
Polk county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Polk County, MO is very conservative.
Springfield Metro Area is very 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.
Polk, 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 Polk County, MO
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 679 contributions totaling $34,264 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $50 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 356 contributions totaling $56,302 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $158 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)