Lancaster County is located in the south-central area of South Carolina and is home to a population of nearly 81,000 people. The county has a rich political history, with both local and national politics having an impact on life here. On the local level, the Lancaster County Council is the decision-making body for most issues within the county. Members are voted in by their constituents every four years and take care of everything from budgets to deciding roadwork projects. At the national level, Lancaster County is part of South Carolina’s 5th District, which is represented by Congressman Ralph Norman in Congress. Lastly, residents also have the opportunity to participate in political activities such as town hall meetings or rallies led by candidates running for office at both the local and state levels.
The political climate in Lancaster County, SC is moderately conservative.
In Lancaster County, SC 38.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 60.8% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.2% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Lancaster county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 60.8% to 38.0%.
Lancaster county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Lancaster County, SC is moderately conservative.
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia Metro Area is leaning 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.
Lancaster, South 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 Lancaster County, SC
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 1,171 contributions totaling $65,913 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $56 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,022 contributions totaling $286,025 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $280 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)