Hughes County in South Dakota has a population of just over 17,000 and is part of the Pierre Micropolitan Statistical Area. The county is governed by an elected Board of Commissioners and also features many local political candidates that are vying for various positions in the county. There are currently two major parties in Hughes County that compete for public office: the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Local elections are held every two years with most races featuring candidates from both parties. Issues important to Hughes County residents include economic growth, law enforcement, education, infrastructure and public safety. Residents have regularly voted for candidates who prioritize these issues in their platforms and this has led to positive outcomes for the county as a whole. With a focus on finding common ground between party lines, Hughes County politics strive to ensure all citizens' voices are heard in their government decisions.
The political climate in Hughes County, SD is strongly conservative.
In Hughes County, SD 33.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 63.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Hughes county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 63.3% to 33.9%.
Hughes county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Hughes County, SD is strongly conservative.
Pierre Metro Area is very conservative.
South Dakota is strongly 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.
Hughes, South Dakota: 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 Hughes County, SD
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 599 contributions totaling $35,394 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $59 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 479 contributions totaling $150,075 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $313 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)