Bedford, IN is a small city with a population of just over 13,000 people. It is located in Lawrence County and is the county seat of government. The politics in Bedford are mainly governed by the Republican Party of Indiana, with their representatives holding most offices at the local level. Local elections in Bedford have been known to be fiercely contested, featuring candidates from both major parties as well as third party or independent candidates. The current Mayor of Bedford is Sam Craig, who was elected to his second term in 2019. Bedford’s City Council consists of members elected at-large by residents within each ward. Currently, its council members include Scott Jett (Ward 1), Brad Deckard (Ward 2), Dianna Grider (Ward 3), Kathy Sowder (Ward 4), and Ken Abbott (at large). All five members are affiliated with the Republican Party. In addition to local politics, Bedford also elects members to represent them on the state level in Indiana’s State Senate and House of Representatives offices.
The political climate in Zip 47421 (Bedford, IN) is strongly conservative.
Lawrence County, IN is very conservative. In Lawrence County, IN 23.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 74.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.2% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Lawrence county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 74.2% to 23.6%.
Lawrence county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 47421 (Bedford, IN) is strongly conservative.
Bedford, Indiana is strongly conservative.
Lawrence County, Indiana is very conservative.
Bedford Metro Area is very conservative.
Indiana is somewhat 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.
Bedford, Indiana: 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 47421 (Bedford)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 303 contributions totaling $40,985 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $135 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 251 contributions totaling $71,378 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $284 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)