The city of Topeka, KS is located in Shawnee County and is the state capital of Kansas. As the county seat, it has a population of approximately 127,000 people. Politics in 66612 Topeka are largely centered around local and state political issues. The city is represented by the Kansas House of Representatives, with four representatives serving its constituency. At the state level, there are two senators from Topeka serving in the Kansas Senate. The current mayor of Topeka is Michelle De La Isla, who was elected to office in 2019. Residents of Topeka participate actively in local and state politics, campaigning for their favored candidates and taking part in city and county initiatives concerning the environment, public safety, economic development, education, health care and other important issues. With citizens so involved in politics at both the local and state levels, 66612 Topeka remains an important area for political activity across Kansas.
The political climate in Zip 66612 (Topeka, KS) is somewhat liberal.
Shawnee County, KS is leaning liberal. In Shawnee County, KS 49.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 47.0% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 3.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Shawnee county flipped Democratic, 49.9% to 47.0%.
Shawnee county flipped Democratic after voting Republican in the previous five Presidential elections.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 66612 (Topeka, KS) is somewhat liberal.
Topeka, Kansas is somewhat liberal.
Shawnee County, Kansas is leaning liberal.
Topeka Metro Area is leaning conservative.
Kansas 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.
Topeka, Kansas: r r r r r 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 66612 (Topeka)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 26 contributions totaling $9,197 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $354 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 14 contributions totaling $8,943 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $639 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)