Rusk County, Texas is a largely rural area in the northeastern part of the state. It is home to many small towns and farming communities. The political landscape in Rusk County is a mix of local and state politics. On the local level, citizens are represented by their county commissioners and their precinct chairs, who oversee local elections and serve on the county's governing board. At the state level, Texas senators and representatives are responsible for representing Rusk County in Austin. They are responsible for introducing legislation that affects residents' lives as well as advocating for their constituents' interests on issues such as taxation, education, health care and infrastructure investment. In addition, presidential elections also have an impact on politics in Rusk County due to its proximity to the state capital of Austin.
The political climate in Rusk County, TX is very conservative.
In Rusk County, TX 21.7% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 77.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.0% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Rusk county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 77.3% to 21.7%.
Rusk county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Rusk County, TX is very conservative.
Longview Metro Area is very conservative.
Texas is leaning 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.
Rusk, Texas: 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 Rusk County, TX
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 333 contributions totaling $17,994 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $54 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 297 contributions totaling $99,621 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $335 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)