York County, Pennsylvania is a growing and diverse county located in the southeastern corner of the state. With a population of over 435,000 people, it is the 14th largest county in Pennsylvania. Politically, York County has a variety of views represented by its citizens. The County is largely Republican with the majority voting for Donald Trump in 2016. Many of the local races are contested with candidates from both major political parties competing. There are also some independent and third party candidates as well as non-partisan offices up for election each year. Local politics reflects the various interests and values of York Countians in many areas such as education, health care, economic development, transportation infrastructure, and more. In addition to electing representatives to higher levels of government, residents also take part in municipal elections for their townships or boroughs every two years or four years depending on the office up for election. All these elections ensure that York County remains an engaged and vibrant community with representatives fighting for its citizens' best interests.
The political climate in York County, PA is strongly conservative.
In York County, PA 36.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 61.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, York county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 61.4% to 36.8%.
York county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
York County, PA is strongly conservative.
York-Hanover Metro Area is strongly conservative.
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.
York, Pennsylvania: 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 York County, PA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 11,568 contributions totaling $1,180,426 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $102 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 4,723 contributions totaling $912,627 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $193 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)