The city of Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, located in the 18706 zip code area, has a long history of politics that dates back to its founding in 1769. Its political landscape is made up of a wide variety of elected officials at the local and state levels. At the local level, Wilkes Barre elects representatives for their City Council which is responsible for enacting laws within the city limits. In addition, Wilkes Barre also elects a Mayor who is responsible for leading executive functions and taking care of day-to-day operations. Elected officials at the state level include two Senators and four Representatives from Pennsylvania’s 11th Congressional district who are members of the US Congress. They are tasked with representing the interests of their constituents on issues such as healthcare reform, education reform, job creation, energy policy, criminal justice reform and other important legislation before Congress. As such, understanding Wilkes Barre's political landscape is essential to those living in this area.
The political climate in Zip 18706 (Wilkes Barre, PA) is somewhat conservative.
Luzerne County, PA is somewhat conservative. In Luzerne County, PA 42.3% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 56.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Luzerne county remained strongly Republican, 56.6% to 42.3%.
Luzerne county voted Republican in the two most recent Presidential elections, after voting Democratic in the previous four.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 18706 (Wilkes Barre, PA) is somewhat conservative.
Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania is somewhat conservative.
Luzerne County, Pennsylvania is somewhat conservative.
Scranton--Wilkes-Barre Metro Area is leaning conservative.
Pennsylvania is leaning liberal.
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.
Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania: 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 18706 (Wilkes Barre)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 120 contributions totaling $8,481 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $71 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 123 contributions totaling $13,069 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $106 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)