Independence, IA is a small town with a population of about 6,500 located in Buchanan County. It does not have any local political candidates as the county is governed by a board of supervisors elected from the county’s nine Supervisor Districts. The Board of Supervisors are responsible for making decisions concerning the health and safety of residents, public works projects, budgets and other duties. Independence has a vibrant political scene as citizens attend city council meetings and participate in discussions on issues impacting their community. Citizens have the opportunity to voice their opinions by attending public forums or writing letters to their elected officials in order to advocate for change. With an engaged citizenry and active political landscape, Independence is an example of participatory democracy in action.
The political climate in Zip 50644 (Independence, IA) is moderately conservative.
Buchanan County, IA is moderately conservative. In Buchanan County, IA 38.7% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 59.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.7% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Buchanan county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 59.6% to 38.7%.
Buchanan county voted Republican in the two most recent Presidential elections, after voting Democratic in the previous four.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 50644 (Independence, IA) is moderately conservative.
Independence, Iowa is moderately conservative.
Buchanan County, Iowa is moderately conservative.
Not Found Metro Area is 0.
Iowa 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.
Independence, Iowa: 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 50644 (Independence)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 107 contributions totaling $7,783 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $73 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 52 contributions totaling $7,407 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $142 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)