The small town of Van Wert, Iowa (50262) is a tight knit community with a population of only approximately 230 people. Despite its size, the city takes an active part in local politics and has representatives on both local and state levels. At the local level, the city is led by Mayor Jeff Pohlman and City Council members Robert Abels, Heather Smidt, Travis Triplett, Mary Jo Tiedeman, Delbert Klesner, and Melinda Stouffer. On the state level, Van Wert is represented by State Representative Dean Fisher in the Iowa House of Representatives. Each year residents are invited to vote for their candidates of choice during elections that decide who will hold these positions and continue representing them in government affairs.
The political climate in Zip 50262 (Van Wert, IA) is very conservative.
Decatur County, IA is very conservative. In Decatur County, IA 29.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 68.7% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Decatur county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 68.7% to 29.4%.
Decatur county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 50262 (Van Wert, IA) is very conservative.
Van Wert, Iowa is very conservative.
Decatur County, Iowa is very 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.
Van Wert, Iowa: 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 50262 (Van Wert)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 1 contributions totaling $500 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $500 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1 contributions totaling $500 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $500 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)