Oconee County, South Carolina is a rural county located in the northwest region of the state. It has a small population of around 75,000 people. The county is mostly made up of small towns and farming communities. Politically, Oconee County leans conservative, with most of the local races featuring Republican candidates. The county also sends two representatives from the district to the State Senate and House of Representatives, both of whom are typically Republican incumbents. The Oconee County Council is composed of seven members who are elected by popular vote for four year terms. Most recently, Republicans have held a majority on the council, though there are some independent candidates who have successfully served in office over recent years. In general, Oconee County residents tend to be politically engaged and supportive of their chosen candidates during election cycles.
The political climate in Oconee County, SC is very conservative.
In Oconee County, SC 25.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 73.0% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Oconee county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 73.0% to 25.6%.
Oconee county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Oconee County, SC is very conservative.
Seneca Metro Area is very conservative.
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.
Oconee, 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 Oconee County, SC
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 1,631 contributions totaling $107,912 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $66 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,136 contributions totaling $215,406 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $190 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)