Rapid City, located in Pennington County, South Dakota is a city of around 75,000 people. The city has a long history of political involvement in many different areas. Currently, Rapid City is governed by a Mayor and Council system with an executive mayor at the helm. The Rapid City Council consists of nine members who are elected by district for four-year staggered terms. Among those elected to represent the city are mayor Steve Allender and council President Lori Barnett. Both Mayor Allender and President Barnett have been re-elected multiple times due to their commitment to representing the interests of Rapid City residents to the best of their ability. They work hard to ensure that all issues facing Rapid City, from public safety to economic development, are addressed in a timely manner. Furthermore, they strive to maintain fiscal responsibility while also providing equal representation for all citizens regardless of socioeconomic status or ethnicity.
The political climate in Zip 57701 (Rapid City, SD) is somewhat conservative.
Pennington County, SD is strongly conservative. In Pennington County, SD 35.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 61.0% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 3.2% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Pennington county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 61.0% to 35.8%.
Pennington county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 57701 (Rapid City, SD) is somewhat conservative.
Rapid City, South Dakota is somewhat conservative.
Pennington County, South Dakota is strongly 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.
Rapid City, 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 57701 (Rapid City)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 1,401 contributions totaling $76,876 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $55 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 583 contributions totaling $135,491 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $232 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)