The small city of Gainesville, TX, located in the heart of Cooke County, is home to a diverse population of about 16,000 people. The city is currently served by a Mayor-Alderman form of government. The Mayor and five City Council members are elected at-large in non-partisan elections held on the first Saturday in May every two years. Since 2020, the mayor has been Barry “BK” Kirkham and other council members include Amanda Miller, Nate Whiteaker, Jeanene Edwardsen, Will Trantham and Bruton Etheridge. Together they work to ensure that citizens have quality services including police protection; fire safety; water supply and wastewater services; street maintenance; a library; parks and recreation programs; economic development initiatives; animal control services; and more. The City Council also focuses on developing strong partnerships with local organizations to support the growth and well-being of Gainesville's citizens. In addition to their civic duties, the council members strive to make sure that all voices are heard in Gainesville - from business owners to community members - so that everyone can have a say in what affects them.
The political climate in Zip 76240 (Gainesville, TX) is strongly conservative.
Cooke County, TX is very conservative. In Cooke County, TX 16.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 82.0% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.2% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Cooke county remained overwhelmingly Republican, 82.0% to 16.9%.
Cooke county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 76240 (Gainesville, TX) is strongly conservative.
Gainesville, Texas is strongly conservative.
Cooke County, Texas is very conservative.
Gainesville Metro Area is very conservative.
Texas 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.
Gainesville, Texas: 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 76240 (Gainesville)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 232 contributions totaling $20,981 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $90 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 472 contributions totaling $139,606 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $296 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)