The Yankton, SD Metro Area is governed by a mayor-council government system, in which the mayor serves as the executive branch and the city council serves as the legislative branch. The city council is composed of five members who are elected for four-year terms, with elections held every two years. The mayor is elected to serve a four-year term and can be reelected without limit. The Yankton City Council meets on a monthly basis to debate and vote on measures that will affect local citizens. The council works alongside the mayor to ensure laws are enforced and issues addressed in order to maintain order and progress within the city. Policies such as public safety, infrastructure development, business regulation, public works projects, and maintaining enough funds for day-to-day operations are all discussed at these meetings. Local residents can stay informed about current political events through news outlets or by attending council meetings.
The political climate in Yankton Metro Area is moderately conservative.
In Yankton Metro Area 36.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 60.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, the Yankton metro area remained overwhelmingly Republican, 60.4% to 36.8%.
The Yankton metro area voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Yankton Metro Area is moderately conservative.
South Dakota is strongly 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.
Yankton, South Dakota: 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 four elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Yankton Metro Area
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 355 contributions totaling $29,791 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $84 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 463 contributions totaling $142,281 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $307 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)