Durham, NC is located in Durham County and is part of a larger metropolitan area. The county has a strong political climate with representatives from both the Democratic and Republican parties actively involved in county-level politics. The current Board of Commissioners includes five members, each representing different parts of the county. There are also representatives from both parties present at the state legislature level. Elections are held regularly to determine who will represent the county on these boards. At the federal level, North Carolina is represented by three members of Congress and two senators who work together to ensure that Durham County's interests are represented on a national level.
The political climate in Durham County, NC is very liberal.
In Durham County, NC 80.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 18.0% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.5% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Durham county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 80.4% to 18.0%.
Durham county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Durham County, NC is very liberal.
Durham-Chapel Hill Metro Area is very liberal.
North Carolina is leaning 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.
Durham, North Carolina: 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 Durham County, NC
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 31,838 contributions totaling $4,316,979 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $136 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 2,548 contributions totaling $2,285,657 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $897 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)