Mercer County, West Virginia is a rural county located in the Appalachian region of the United States. It is home to over 62,000 people and has a strong sense of community. The county is governed by a three-member board of commissioners who are elected by the citizens and serve four year terms. The governor appoints the Board Chair and the other two members are chosen from the majority party in office at that time. Local elections are held every two years in May for county officials ranging from County Commissioner, Sheriff, Prosecuting Attorney, Assessor and Clerk of Court. Elections also take place for local townships within Mercer County on different schedules. All residents of Mercer County have an opportunity to be involved in their local politics and make sure their voices are heard through ballot initiatives, public meetings or voting during elections.
The political climate in Mercer County, WV is very conservative.
In Mercer County, WV 22.1% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 76.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Mercer county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 76.5% to 22.1%.
Mercer county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Mercer County, WV is very conservative.
Bluefield Metro Area is very conservative.
West Virginia is very 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.
Mercer, West Virginia: 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 Mercer County, WV
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 365 contributions totaling $41,937 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $115 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 271 contributions totaling $166,202 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $613 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)