Swain County, NC is a rural county located in the western part of North Carolina. It is known for its scenic beauty featuring the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Nantahala National Forest, and numerous rivers and waterfalls. The county seat of Swain County is Bryson City. In terms of politics, Swain County leans heavily towards the Republican Party with 72% of residents voting for Donald Trump in 2016. Most of the local political candidates running for office are Republicans as well. The county government follows a three-member board structure, overseen by the Board Chairman and Vice-Chairman who are elected at-large by all county voters. The other members serve in an advisory capacity and represent the different districts within the county.
The political climate in Swain County, NC is moderately conservative.
In Swain County, NC 39.3% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 58.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Swain county remained very strongly Republican, 58.9% to 39.3%.
Swain county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Swain County, NC is moderately conservative.
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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.
Swain, North Carolina: 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 Swain County, NC
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 292 contributions totaling $359,855 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $1,232 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 116 contributions totaling $232,230 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $2,002 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)