Columbia, SC (29212) is the state capital of South Carolina and is home to a diverse population of around 133,000 people. The city has always been an important political center of the state, hosting both state and local governments in its downtown area. At the local level, Columbia has a mayor-council government with eight council members representing each district in the city. Two Council members are also elected at-large to represent the entire city. Local politics in Columbia focuses on issues such as public safety, housing, economic development, transportation, and education. In addition to these issues, there are frequent debates about taxes and balancing the city budget. Local elections for mayor and council typically take place every four years with residents selecting their representatives through a democratic process.
The political climate in Zip 29212 (Columbia, SC) is moderately conservative.
Lexington County, SC is strongly conservative. In Lexington County, SC 34.1% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 64.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.7% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Lexington county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 64.2% to 34.1%.
Lexington county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 29212 (Columbia, SC) is moderately conservative.
Columbia, South Carolina is moderately conservative.
Lexington County, South Carolina is strongly conservative.
Columbia Metro Area is leaning liberal.
South Carolina 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, South Carolina: 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 29212 (Columbia)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 1,042 contributions totaling $55,855 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $54 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 369 contributions totaling $100,860 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $273 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)