The Portland-South Portland, ME Metro Area is an important political hub in the state of Maine. It is home to the state’s capital city of Augusta and some of the most influential politicians in the nation. The residents of this area are politically engaged and their votes play an important role in deciding who will represent them in Congress and statewide offices. Politicians from both major parties actively campaign to earn the support of voters here, making it a key battleground during election season. All laws passed by the Maine Legislature must reflect the values and wishes of this electorate, so local politicians work hard to ensure that they remain well informed on issues important to their constituents. In addition, many organizations dedicated to supporting progressive candidates throughout Maine are based within this metro area. This provides an even greater opportunity for citizens here to make their voices heard and play a part in creating positive change through meaningful political participation.
The political climate in Portland-South Portland Metro Area is strongly liberal.
In Portland-South Portland Metro Area 61.3% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 35.8% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, the Portland-South Portland metro area remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 61.3% to 35.8%.
The Portland-South Portland metro area voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Portland-South Portland Metro Area is strongly liberal.
Maine is somewhat liberal.
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.
Portland-South Portland, Maine: d D D D D D
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 four elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Portland-South Portland Metro Area
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 66,093 contributions totaling $9,863,331 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $149 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 6,320 contributions totaling $2,227,641 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $352 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)