Lake Wales, FL (33859) is a small town located in central Florida, with a population of around 14,000 residents. The local government provides many essential services to the community and is managed by an elected Mayor and five-member City Commission. The city’s form of government is based on the commission-manager system, wherein the City Commission sets policy while the manager offers administrative direction to staff and departments. The City Commission meets regularly to discuss relevant issues facing the community such as zoning regulations, public safety initiatives, and public works projects. While there are no current candidates for local political positions in Lake Wales at this time, the city’s elections are important events that bring attention to civic matters and allow citizens to have their voices heard through their vote. Residents of this close-knit community strive to keep up with local politics in order to maintain a safe and thriving environment for all its members.
The political climate in Zip 33859 (Lake Wales, FL) is somewhat 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 33859 (Lake Wales, FL) is somewhat conservative.
Lake Wales, Florida is somewhat 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 33859 (Lake Wales)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 294 contributions totaling $18,066 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $61 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 269 contributions totaling $130,782 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $486 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)