Marlboro County is a small rural county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As with most counties in the area, politics plays an important role in its social and economic development. The county is represented by elected officials at the local, state, and federal level who work together to provide services to their constituents. At the local level, Marlboro County has a Board of Commissioners comprised of seven members who are elected by the citizens during general elections. These commissioners set policy and make decisions regarding taxation, public works construction, zoning regulations and other matters that affect the daily lives of residents. At the state level, Marlboro County is represented by members of both houses of the General Assembly - one Senator and two Representatives who advocate for legislation that benefits their constituents. At the federal level, Marlboro County is represented by one member of Congress - a Representative who brings issues affecting their district to Washington D.C. In addition to these elected officials, there are also several political parties actively participating in Marlboro County's political discourse: Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians and Independents all run candidates for offices across all levels of government in order to have their views heard and advocated for within their communities.
The political climate in Marlboro County, SC is somewhat liberal.
In Marlboro County, SC 55.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 44.1% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.0% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Marlboro county remained strongly Democratic, 55.0% to 44.1%.
Marlboro county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Marlboro County, SC is somewhat liberal.
Bennettsville Metro Area is somewhat liberal.
South Carolina is somewhat 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.
Marlboro, South Carolina: D D 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 Marlboro County, SC
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 98 contributions totaling $8,795 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $90 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 56 contributions totaling $16,040 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $286 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)