The politics in 50010 Ames, IA are largely influenced by the state government of Iowa. The Iowa State Legislature is responsible for passing laws and making decisions that impact the lives of people living in Ames and other cities across the state. At the local level, elections for City Council representatives and Mayor take place every two years to represent the interests of Ames residents. These elected officials are responsible for addressing issues related to public safety, infrastructure, economic development and more. The 50010 area is also represented in Congress by two members from Iowa's 4th Congressional District, who serve as advocates for their constituents at the federal level.
The political climate in Zip 50010 (Ames, IA) is somewhat liberal.
Story County, IA is moderately liberal. In Story County, IA 57.2% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 39.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 3.0% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Story county remained very strongly Democratic, 57.2% to 39.9%.
Story county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 50010 (Ames, IA) is somewhat liberal.
Ames, Iowa is somewhat liberal.
Story County, Iowa is moderately liberal.
Ames Metro Area is moderately liberal.
Iowa 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.
Ames, Iowa: 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 three elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in zip 50010 (Ames)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 4,152 contributions totaling $334,885 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $81 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 349 contributions totaling $66,651 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $191 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)