Columbia, MO is a thriving college town located in central Missouri. It has a population of over 115,000 people and is home to the University of Missouri. Politically, the city is largely Democratic leaning but also has a healthy Republican base that usually shows up in larger numbers during election season. Local elections are highly contested and serve as an important platform for debates on major issues within the city such as taxes, infrastructure, education funding, public safety and housing. The City Council consists of nine members who create laws concerning local policy. They work with the Mayor to make sure the residents of Columbia have a safe environment that offers quality services. This year’s election will be one of the most important in Columbia’s history as several key issues are being debated by candidates from both parties. Voters will have to decide which policies best represent their interests and how they want their city to move forward in the coming years.
The political climate in Zip 65215 (Columbia, MO) is moderately liberal.
Boone County, MO is somewhat liberal. In Boone County, MO 54.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 42.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.9% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Boone county remained strongly Democratic, 54.8% to 42.3%.
Boone county voted Democratic in five of the last six Presidential elections (2004 went Republican).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 65215 (Columbia, MO) is moderately liberal.
Columbia, Missouri is moderately liberal.
Boone County, Missouri is somewhat liberal.
Columbia Metro Area is somewhat liberal.
Missouri 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.
Columbia, Missouri: d 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 65215 (Columbia)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 0 contributions totaling $0 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $0 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 0 contributions totaling $0 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $0 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)