Ames, IA is a vibrant town located in Story County. With an estimated population of 64,000 people, the area is bustling with activity and culture. Politically, Ames has been historically a Democratic-leaning city, though in recent elections the support for both parties has been fairly even. The current Mayor of Ames is John Haila, who was elected in 2020. The City Council consists of five members representing each ward and they are responsible for setting policies that shape the future of Ames. In addition to local politics, residents here also closely follow state and federal elections as well. All in all, politics play an important role in the life of the citizens of 50014 Ames, IA and their participation in politics helps shape the future of their community.
The political climate in Zip 50014 (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 50014 (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 50014 (Ames)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 3,514 contributions totaling $309,378 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $88 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 430 contributions totaling $76,849 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $179 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)