The small city of Canton, IL has a population of roughly 6,500 people. Canton is the county seat of Fulton County, making it an important location for local politics. The current mayor is Kip Spears and he has been in office since 2017. Council members are elected to 4-year terms in order to serve their constituents. There are currently six council members representing Canton’s citizens: Dennis Clawson, Bob Hester, Dereck Beckman, Magen Fouts, Jeff Berendt and Janine Giger. In addition to the mayor and council members, Canton also has a City Clerk and a City Treasurer responsible for managing the finances of the city. Elections are held each year for these positions as well as for council members who have reached their terms limit or who have chosen not to run for re-election. With such a small population, politics in Canton tend to be more contentious than in larger cities since all decisions will affect its citizens directly and deeply.
The political climate in Zip 61520 (Canton, IL) is somewhat conservative.
Fulton County, IL is moderately conservative. In Fulton County, IL 38.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 59.0% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Fulton county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 59.0% to 38.9%.
Fulton county voted Republican in the two most recent Presidential elections, after voting Democratic in the previous four.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 61520 (Canton, IL) is somewhat conservative.
Canton, Illinois is somewhat conservative.
Fulton County, Illinois is moderately conservative.
Not Found Metro Area is 0.
Illinois 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.
Canton, Illinois: D d D D 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 61520 (Canton)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 421 contributions totaling $21,332 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $51 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 181 contributions totaling $12,948 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $72 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)