The Political Leanings of Maryland Zip Codes

• November 2, 2012

by Shilpi Paul

In light of next week’s election, UrbanTurf has been digging into campaign donation data for the DC area to find out where Barack Obama and Mitt Romney contributors live, how much they are giving and which area’s tend to lean more to the left or more to the right.

Yesterday, we looked at DC, where Obama contributions outweigh Romney contributions by 4 to 1 on average.

Today, we’re focusing on Maryland. In the entire state of Maryland, Obama received more than twice the money that Romney did, $11,725,263 to Romney’s $4,897,836. For our purposes, however, we concentrated on the zip codes that are included in the DC Metro area. Using OpenSecrets.org, we unearthed Obama and Romney contributions for the 20 most populated, close-in Maryland zip codes.

Check out a few interesting findings that emerged below.

Romney Contributions Outpaced Those to Obama in 20853 and 20854

20853, the suburban area just east of Rockville and north of Wheaton, and 20854, which encompasses wealthy Potomac, both reported more campaign contributions for Mitt Romney than the sitting president. In 20853, residents contributed $46,650 to Romney and $41,091 to Obama, while 20854 residents contributed $734,121 to Romney and $685,361 to Obama. Of all the zip codes analyzed, 20854 donated the most to Romney.

Several Zip Codes in Prince George’s County Did Not Donate to Romney

20743, 20747, 20783 and 20784, all zip codes in Prince George’s County, recorded no donations for Mitt Romney. However, Obama didn’t gain too much from these zip codes either: all of the areas collected around $20,000 or less for the President.

20815 Donated the Most to Obama

20815, which includes Chevy Chase and the southern portion of Bethesda, contributed the most money to the Obama campaign, with contributions totaling $1,387,536. Obama supporters out-donated Romney supporters 4 to 1 in the area, with Romney receiving $338,544.

Note: The contribution data for this article was based on information recorded by OpenSecrets.org as of October 31, 2012. The website is constantly updated with new contribution amounts, so the numbers and rankings in this piece are subject to change.

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/the_political_leanings_of_maryland_zip_codes/6242