Editing Ford County, Illinois (section)

==Politics==
Ford County is one of the state's most consistently Republican counties; since its 1859 organization it has voted for Republican presidential candidates in all but two elections. In 1912, the GOP was divided and [[Progressive Party (United States, 1912)|Progressive]] [[Theodore Roosevelt]] carried the county over the more conservative official nominee [[William Howard Taft]]; in 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] in the first of his four campaigns became and has remained the only Democrat to carry Ford County. Since 1968 no Democratic presidential candidate has topped 36% of the county's vote, and since the county first formed only three Democrats – all in landslide national victories – have managed 40% of Ford County's votes.

After the [[Libertarian Party (United States)|Libertarian Party's]] success in the 1998 election for Ford County Sheriff and other countywide offices, it achieved ''established party status''. At the time this made Ford County the only county in Illinois with three established parties. Due to its second place showing over the then-dormant Democratic Party in that election, the Libertarians received the minority party's seat on the Board of Review and one of the five seats on the Sheriff's Merit Commission.<ref>{{cite news|last=Stahly|first=Jim|title=Libertarians Make History in Ford County|date=June 3, 1999|newspaper=[[The Pantagraph]]|page=A1|via=[[NewsBank]]}}</ref> This status was lost by 2002 after the Libertarian Party failed to field any candidates in the 2002 general election.<ref>{{cite news|last=<!--none given-->|first=<!--none given-->|title=Election 2002|date=November 7, 2002|newspaper=[[The Pantagraph]]|page=A1|via=[[NewsBank]]}}</ref>

President [[Gerald Ford]] visited Ford County on October 24, 1974, to mark the retirement of Congressman [[Leslie C. Arends]] of [[Melvin, Illinois|Melvin]] who served in Congress for 40 years, including over 30 years as Republican [[Minority Whip]].<ref>[http://www.paxtonil.com/fordco.html Welcome to Paxton] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101212171741/http://www.paxtonil.com/fordco.html|date=December 12, 2010}}, accessed February 15, 2011.</ref>

{{PresHead|place=Ford County, Illinois|source=<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS|title=Atlas of US Presidential Elections|last=Leip|first=David|website=uselectionatlas.org|access-date=November 1, 2018}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Republican|4,778|1,643|154|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|2020|Republican|5,048|1,754|165|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|2016|Republican|4,480|1,414|502|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|2012|Republican|4,229|1,656|139|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|2008|Republican|4,079|2,227|94|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|2004|Republican|4,511|1,912|56|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|2000|Republican|3,889|2,090|174|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1996|Republican|3,077|2,065|628|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1992|Republican|3,046|2,175|1,260|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|4,059|2,026|60|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|4,871|1,763|29|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1980|Republican|5,024|1,803|387|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1976|Republican|4,801|2,690|62|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|5,656|1,934|1|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1968|Republican|5,233|2,216|555|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1964|Republican|4,650|3,427|0|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1960|Republican|5,779|2,698|1|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1956|Republican|6,027|2,152|3|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1952|Republican|6,216|2,121|8|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1948|Republican|4,903|2,079|33|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1944|Republican|5,317|2,270|18|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1940|Republican|5,770|3,062|30|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1936|Republican|4,524|3,715|171|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|3,342|4,175|99|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1928|Republican|4,668|2,098|27|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1924|Republican|4,672|1,093|859|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1920|Republican|4,995|958|109|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1916|Republican|4,670|2,054|319|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1912|Progressive|832|1,035|1,841|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1908|Republican|2,617|1,164|209|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1904|Republican|2,836|926|220|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1900|Republican|2,936|1,469|121|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1896|Republican|2,832|1,507|67|Illinois}}
{{PresFoot|1892|Republican|2,227|1,359|227|Illinois}}