The Olympia-Tumwater Metro Area is an important political hub in Washington State, as it is home to the state’s capital city of Olympia. The area is represented by two members in the US House of Representatives, Denny Heck (D) and Jamie Herrera Beutler (R), both of whom have served multiple terms since their respective elections. In addition to these two representatives, Olympia-Tumwater has three other elected officials at the state level: Sam Hunt (D), Dean Takko (D), and Brian Dansel (R). All three senators serve on various committees within the legislature, including education, health care, revenue and taxation, and transportation. At the local level, Olympia and Tumwater are each represented by a Mayor and City Council members who look after their individual cities’ affairs. While population size is not included in this information, the metro area is host to over 350,000 people according to recent census estimates. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that politics play an important role in day to day life for those living in the Olympia-Tumwater Metro Area.
The political climate in Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater Metro Area is moderately liberal.
In Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater Metro Area 57.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 38.8% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 3.7% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, the Olympia-Tumwater metro area remained very strongly Democratic, 57.5% to 38.8%.
The Olympia-Tumwater metro area voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater Metro Area is moderately liberal.
Washington is moderately 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.
Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater, Washington: 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 Olympia-Lacey-Tumwater Metro Area
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 31,479 contributions totaling $2,231,735 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $71 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 3,387 contributions totaling $651,557 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $192 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)