The politics of Chapel Hill, NC (27517) are largely influenced by the college town’s location in Orange County. The county is home to a number of national and state elected officials such as Senator Thom Tillis, Congressman David Price, and State Representative Graig Meyer. Chapel Hill itself has a seven-member Town Council that works with the Town Manager to govern the city and enact local laws and ordinances on behalf of its citizens. Residents of Chapel Hill are generally progressive in their political views, leaning heavily towards Democratic candidates in local and national elections. Voter turnout is typically strong in Chapel Hill as residents are engaged in their local government affairs and take part in discussions surrounding national and state politics.
The political climate in Zip 27517 (Chapel Hill, NC) is strongly liberal.
Orange County, NC is very liberal. In Orange County, NC 74.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 23.7% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Orange county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 74.8% to 23.7%.
Orange county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 27517 (Chapel Hill, NC) is strongly liberal.
Chapel Hill, North Carolina is strongly liberal.
Orange County, North Carolina is very liberal.
Durham-Chapel Hill Metro Area is very liberal.
North Carolina 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.
Chapel Hill, North Carolina: D D 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 27517 (Chapel Hill)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 10,140 contributions totaling $1,901,788 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $188 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,284 contributions totaling $593,415 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $462 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)