DeKalb County in Tennessee has a long and varied history in politics. The county was established in 1837, and since then, both local and statewide elections have often been contentious. In recent years, the county has seen its fair share of political debate as candidates from a variety of parties have run for office. DeKalb County is also part of the larger state politics, with prominent local politicians such as U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander having served as Governor of Tennessee from 1979-1987. Other notable local politicians include House Representatives Phil Roe and Diane Black, who currently serve in leadership roles in their respective chambers. Regardless of party affiliation or position, all candidates are held to a high standard of accountability by the people of DeKalb County when it comes to making sure their constituents are well represented at the local and state levels.
The political climate in DeKalb County, TN is very conservative.
In DeKalb County, TN 20.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 78.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, DeKalb county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 78.4% to 20.6%.
DeKalb county voted Republican in the last five Presidential elections, after voting Democratic in 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
DeKalb County, TN is very conservative.
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Tennessee is moderately 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.
DeKalb, Tennessee: D 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 DeKalb County, TN
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 326 contributions totaling $18,161 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $56 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 91 contributions totaling $25,459 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $280 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)