Wilkes County, North Carolina is located in the Northwestern part of the state and has a long history of politics. The county is part of 3 Congressional Districts: 5th, 6th, and 10th. The current representatives for these districts are Virginia Foxx, Mark Walker, and Patrick McHenry. At the state level, Wilkes County falls within District 47 which is currently represented by Senator Deanna Ballard. At the local level, Wilkes County is made up of both city and county governments working together to serve the citizens of Wilkes. The Board of Commissioners is an elected body which governs the county with members coming from each district that makes up Wilkes. Additionally, there are many initiatives that have been taken to ensure quality representation on the local level such as voter registration drives and public forums. All these efforts demonstrate a commitment to ensuring that all residents are given an equal chance to participate in their local democracy.
The political climate in Wilkes County, NC is very conservative.
In Wilkes County, NC 21.2% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 77.8% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.0% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Wilkes county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 77.8% to 21.2%.
Wilkes county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Wilkes County, NC is very conservative.
North Wilkesboro Metro Area is very conservative.
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.
Wilkes, 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 Wilkes County, NC
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 485 contributions totaling $100,167 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $207 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 642 contributions totaling $90,782 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $141 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)