The small town of Custer, South Dakota (57730) has a rich political history, dating back to the 1880s. Although the population is fairly small, with a total of around 2,500 people in 2018, Custer still plays an important role in local politics. The City Council consists of five members who are elected by registered voters on a nonpartisan basis for two-year terms. Federal and state elections are also held in Custer as part of larger county-wide races that are overseen by Pennington County's Board of Elections. The candidates for these elections come from all over the area and represent different political beliefs and ideals. While no local politicians currently represent Custer exclusively, their voices still manage to be heard through various forums and debates throughout the year.
The political climate in Zip 57730 (Custer, SD) is very conservative.
Custer County, SD is very conservative. In Custer County, SD 27.7% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 70.1% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.2% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Custer county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 70.1% to 27.7%.
Custer county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 57730 (Custer, SD) is very conservative.
Custer, South Dakota is very conservative.
Custer County, South Dakota is very conservative.
Rapid City Metro Area is strongly conservative.
South Dakota is strongly 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.
Custer, South Dakota: 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 57730 (Custer)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 190 contributions totaling $6,763 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $36 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 141 contributions totaling $52,071 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $369 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)