The city of Rockford, IL, located in Winnebago County with the zip code 61114, has a vibrant political scene. Rockford's mayor is Tom McNamara who was re-elected in 2021. The City Council consists of 14 members who represent different areas of the city and are responsible for setting public policy and overseeing fiscal matters. The City Council is also responsible for appointing the city's various departments such as the Police Department, Fire Department, Public Works Department and more. On the state level, Rockford is represented by two senators in the Illinois Senate: Steve Stadelman and Dave Syverson. In addition to their presence at the state level, Rockford is represented by Adam Kinzinger in Congress at the federal level. This combination of local, state and federal representatives provides Rockford with strong representation in government that can address a wide range of issues.
The political climate in Zip 61114 (Rockford, IL) is leaning conservative.
Winnebago County, IL is leaning liberal. In Winnebago County, IL 50.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 47.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.5% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Winnebago county remained narrowly Democratic, 50.0% to 47.5%.
Winnebago county voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 61114 (Rockford, IL) is leaning conservative.
Rockford, Illinois is leaning conservative.
Winnebago County, Illinois is leaning liberal.
Rockford Metro Area is leaning conservative.
Illinois is moderately 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.
Rockford, Illinois: r r D d d d
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 61114 (Rockford)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 2,188 contributions totaling $149,151 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $68 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 340 contributions totaling $66,908 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $197 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)