Sweetwater County is located in the southwestern part of Wyoming and is known for its wide open spaces and vast natural beauty. Politically, Sweetwater County has been a largely Republican-leaning area for several decades, although there have been some changes in recent years. The county includes several smaller towns such as Rock Springs, Farson, Green River, and Granger. In the 2018 midterms, Sweetwater County voted heavily for Republicans in both state and federal races with some exceptions among local elections. For instance, incumbent Sheriff Mike Lowell was re-elected despite a large campaign by his challenger to unseat him. Additionally, many county-level offices are held by Republicans but a few offices are held by Democrats including the county clerk and treasurer positions. Overall, Sweetwater County is politically engaged with many residents actively participating in local politics each year.
The political climate in Sweetwater County, WY is very conservative.
In Sweetwater County, WY 23.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 73.7% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 3.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Sweetwater county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 73.7% to 23.0%.
Sweetwater county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Sweetwater County, WY is very conservative.
Rock Springs Metro Area is very conservative.
Wyoming 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.
Sweetwater, Wyoming: 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 Sweetwater County, WY
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 879 contributions totaling $85,665 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $97 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 460 contributions totaling $103,771 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $226 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)