Centre County, Pennsylvania is a vibrant and diverse region with many different political views. The county has an engaged population that regularly votes in local and national elections. However, despite the spirited conversations about politics, Centre County does not have any locally elected political candidates. Instead, various groups from across the state are represented at a federal level by senators and representatives in the Pennsylvania State Legislature as well as members of Congress. Despite the lack of local representation, residents of Centre County remain passionate about their political beliefs and actively participate in national politics to make sure their voices are heard.
The political climate in Centre County, PA is leaning liberal.
In Centre County, PA 51.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 46.7% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.9% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Centre county remained Democratic, 51.4% to 46.7%.
Centre county voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Centre County, PA is leaning liberal.
State College Metro Area is leaning liberal.
Pennsylvania is leaning liberal.
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.
Centre, Pennsylvania: r r 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 Centre County, PA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 13,658 contributions totaling $1,189,758 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $87 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,858 contributions totaling $689,167 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $371 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)