The city of Lake Wales, FL located in zip code 33853 is a small community with a population of around 14,000 people. This area is governed by the City Commission which consists of five members who are elected to serve four-year terms. The current Mayor is Eugene Fultz and the Vice Mayor is Robin Gibson. The other three Commissioners are Gordon Eagleson, Brad Dennis and Marjorie Riddle. Each Commissioner focuses on different issues that affect the city such as public safety, development and quality of life for residents. Local elections take place every two years to determine who will represent the residents of Lake Wales on the City Commission. The citizens have the opportunity to cast their vote for each member of the Commission during these elections to ensure their voices are heard and taken into consideration when decisions are made about their community.
The political climate in Zip 33853 (Lake Wales, FL) is leaning conservative.
Polk County, FL is somewhat conservative. In Polk County, FL 42.2% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 56.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Polk county remained strongly Republican, 56.6% to 42.2%.
Polk county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 33853 (Lake Wales, FL) is leaning conservative.
Lake Wales, Florida is leaning conservative.
Polk County, Florida is somewhat conservative.
Lakeland-Winter Haven Metro Area is somewhat conservative.
Florida 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.
Lake Wales, Florida: 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 three elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in zip 33853 (Lake Wales)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 231 contributions totaling $13,340 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $58 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 27 contributions totaling $11,280 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $418 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)