Wood County, OH is a politically diverse area with multiple political parties represented in local government. The Democratic and Republican parties have been the two dominant players in recent years for local elections. Local candidates for office are typically selected by party caucuses that take place prior to the start of election season. These caucuses determine which candidates will be put forward to run for particular offices, usually based on experience, qualifications, and voter appeal. In Wood County, OH there are a variety of independent and third party candidates as well, allowing for a wide range of political views during each election cycle. Despite the diversity in local politics, voters in Wood County tend to coalesce around more moderate stances rather than extreme ideological positions. This has allowed for greater compromise between opposing sides on important issues facing the county.
The political climate in Wood County, OH is leaning conservative.
In Wood County, OH 45.3% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 52.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Wood county remained moderately Republican, 52.9% to 45.3%.
Wood county voted Republican in four of the six previous Presidential elections (2008 and 2012 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Wood County, OH is leaning conservative.
Toledo Metro Area is leaning liberal.
Ohio 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.
Wood, Ohio: r r d d 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 Wood County, OH
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 3,990 contributions totaling $335,223 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $84 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,083 contributions totaling $349,108 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $322 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)