Rockford, IL is a city of around 150,000 people located in Winnebago County. It is the county seat of Winnebago and the third-largest city in Illinois outside the Chicago Metropolitan area. Politically, Rockford is considered to be a Democratic stronghold as it has supported Democratic candidates for president since 1972. The mayor of Rockford is Tom McNamara who was reelected in 2019 for his second term. The current city council consists of thirteen members, ten of whom are Democrats. Local elections take place every two years and involve significant political campaigns by all involved parties vying for positions within the city government. There are several local political action committees that actively organize and voice their opinions on local issues throughout the year as well as during election cycles. These organizations work together to form coalitions to promote causes that they feel are important to Rockford's citizens such as economic development, education reform, public safety and environmental protection.
The political climate in Zip 61108 (Rockford, IL) is leaning liberal.
Winnebago County, IL is leaning liberal. In Winnebago County, IL 50.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 47.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.5% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Winnebago county remained narrowly Democratic, 50.0% to 47.5%.
Winnebago county voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 61108 (Rockford, IL) is leaning liberal.
Rockford, Illinois is leaning liberal.
Winnebago County, Illinois is leaning liberal.
Rockford Metro Area is leaning 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.
Rockford, Illinois: r r 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 61108 (Rockford)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 573 contributions totaling $37,355 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $65 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 173 contributions totaling $47,377 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $274 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)