Editing Champaign County, Illinois (section)

==Politics==
Like most of [[central Illinois]], Champaign County was powerfully Republican between [[American Civil War|the Civil War]] and the latter portion of the 20th century. From 1856 to 1988, it only supported a Democrat three times, in the national Democratic landslides of 1932, 1936 and 1964. Pockets of Democratic support existed in the cities of Champaign and Urbana, which frequently sent Democrats to the [[Illinois House of Representatives]].

Since 1992, Champaign County has been one of the few Democratic bastions in central Illinois, and has become one of the most Democratic counties in downstate Illinois. Since 2004, it has given a majority of the vote to Democratic candidates due to the county's liberalism, as home to the [[University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign]]. This tracks closely with the strong Democratic trend in other counties influenced by college towns since the 1990s. The county's more rural precincts are still heavily Republican, however, they are overpowered by the vote in Champaign and Urbana, which account for over 60 percent of the county's population. 

[[George H. W. Bush]] in 1988 was the last Republican to carry the county, and [[Barack Obama]]'s 2008 performance was the best by a Democrat until [[Joe Biden]]'s 2020 performance surpassed it. In 2024, Democrat [[Kamala Harris]] received over 60% of the vote in the county, the highest percentage ever received by a Democratic presidential nominee, despite losing the presidential election. Republican [[Donald Trump]] had particularly poor showings in the county, receiving less than 40% of the vote in 2016, 2020, and 2024, his third-worst showing in the state and his worst outside the Chicago area.

{{PresHead|place=<br>Champaign County, Illinois|source=<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS|title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections|first=David|last=Leip|website=uselectionatlas.org|access-date=March 18, 2018}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Democratic|32,965|54,314|2,977|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|2020|Democratic|35,285|57,067|3,221|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|2016|Democratic|33,368|50,137|8,123|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|2012|Democratic|35,312|40,831|2,466|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|2008|Democratic|33,871|48,597|1,940|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|2004|Democratic|39,896|41,524|1,014|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|2000|Democratic|34,645|35,515|4,125|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1996|Democratic|28,232|32,454|5,743|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1992|Democratic|27,096|35,003|13,993|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|33,247|29,733|519|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|39,224|27,266|435|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1980|Republican|33,329|21,017|11,014|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1976|Republican|34,546|26,858|1,703|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|33,700|24,743|236|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1968|Republican|26,027|18,425|4,196|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1964|Democratic|22,010|25,792|0|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1960|Republican|27,793|17,115|533|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1956|Republican|28,190|13,799|51|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1952|Republican|27,188|13,951|112|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1948|Republican|19,156|11,572|737|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1944|Republican|18,935|13,842|177|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1940|Republican|20,314|17,563|267|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|15,808|18,203|524|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|13,995|16,474|601|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1928|Republican|19,494|8,915|141|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1924|Republican|14,244|5,221|3,212|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1920|Republican|15,573|5,247|861|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1916|Republican|14,632|9,601|1,071|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1912|Progressive|3,220|4,454|4,896|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1908|Republican|7,162|4,830|539|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1904|Republican|6,954|3,754|674|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1900|Republican|6,660|5,015|420|Illinois}}
{{PresRow|1896|Republican|6,780|4,643|335|Illinois}}
{{PresFoot|1892|Republican|5,290|4,502|594|Illinois}}