In 1980, Wilmington, DE was a rapidly growing city with its population increasing by more than 25% since the mid-1970s. This growth and development brought many important changes to the political landscape in the area. During this time, both the Democratic and Republican parties had strong state organizations and participated in local races for mayor and city council. The mayoral race often included several candidates from different backgrounds vying for voter support. Additionally, during this time period, a number of prominent local activists were involved in the political process such as former mayor William T. McLaughlin who served as mayor from 1974 to 1986 and Eunice Sato who was a leader of the Citywide Citizens Coalition that advocated for tenant rights in Wilmington. As political power shifted in Wilmington through the 1980s, many of these activists would go on to hold positions of influence within their respective parties or within local government offices.
The political climate in Zip 19801 (Wilmington, DE) is very liberal.
New Castle County, DE is very liberal. In New Castle County, DE 67.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 30.7% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.5% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, New Castle county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 67.8% to 30.7%.
New Castle county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 19801 (Wilmington, DE) is very liberal.
Wilmington, Delaware is very liberal.
New Castle County, Delaware is very liberal.
Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metro Area is strongly liberal.
Delaware 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.
Wilmington, Delaware: D D 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 19801 (Wilmington)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 673 contributions totaling $233,603 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $347 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 78 contributions totaling $259,330 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $3,325 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)