The Durham-Chapel Hill, NC Metro Area is a vibrant and diverse community with strong political leanings. The region is home to many progressive activists working to increase the representation of marginalized communities in local politics. This movement has been largely successful as evident by the election of several progressive candidates in recent years, such as Mayor Steve Schewel from Durham and Mayor Pam Hemminger from Chapel Hill. In addition to these two leaders, the area is also represented by a number of state senators and representatives who collaborate on initiatives that benefit the local population. Each year these representatives take part in debates about issues like education funding, healthcare access, immigration reform, and criminal justice reform to ensure that their constituents have a voice at the state level. As a result, politics in this Metro Area are very active and influential.
The political climate in Durham-Chapel Hill Metro Area is very liberal.
In Durham-Chapel Hill Metro Area 73.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 25.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.5% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, the Durham-Chapel Hill metro area remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 73.0% to 25.6%.
The Durham-Chapel Hill metro area voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Durham-Chapel Hill Metro Area is very liberal.
North Carolina 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.
Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina: 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 Durham-Chapel Hill Metro Area
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 81,548 contributions totaling $12,061,577 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $148 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 6,067 contributions totaling $3,305,455 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $545 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)