The city of Charleston, IL is located in Coles County and has a population of 21,532 people. It is represented in the Illinois State Senate by Chapin Rose and in the Illinois House of Representatives by Adam Brown. Other local political candidates include Mayor Brandon Combs, City Clerk Cathy Smith, City Treasurer Sondra Baker, and City Council members Bill Eakins, Kyle Harrison, Mike Blount, George Patterson, and Lori Rich. Charleston's politics are driven by both local issues such as infrastructure improvement projects and statewide concerns such as education reform. This city is home to several institutions like Eastern Illinois University that bring important resources to the residents of Charleston and its surrounding communities. City officials strive to ensure that decisions made will benefit the people of Charleston while creating a safe environment for businesses to thrive. The people of Charleston have an active voice in local politics which enables them to influence their current situation for the betterment of their community.
The political climate in Zip 61920 (Charleston, IL) is somewhat conservative.
Coles County, IL is strongly conservative. In Coles County, IL 35.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 61.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.5% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Coles county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 61.9% to 35.6%.
Coles county voted Republican in five of the last six Presidential elections (2008 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 61920 (Charleston, IL) is somewhat conservative.
Charleston, Illinois is somewhat conservative.
Coles County, Illinois is strongly conservative.
Charleston-Mattoon Metro Area is very conservative.
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.
Charleston, Illinois: r R d 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 61920 (Charleston)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 1,424 contributions totaling $70,826 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $50 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 133 contributions totaling $19,634 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $148 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)