Editing Mercer County, West Virginia (section)

==Politics==
Mercer County's political history is largely typical of West Virginia. It was supportive of remaining with [[Virginia in the American Civil War|Confederate Virginia]] when the state was created and voted Democratic in the first few post-[[American Civil War|Civil War]] elections.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/historyofmiddlen00john/page/186/mode/2up Johnston, David E., ''A History of Middle New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory'', Standard Ptg. & Pub. Co., 1908, pg. 187]</ref> However, the influence of coal industry executives turned the county towards the GOP during the [[Fourth Party System|"System of 1896"]].<ref>Drake, Richard B.; ''A History of Appalachia'' {{ISBN|0813137934}}</ref> As with most of West Virginia, extensive unionization caused the county to swing to the Democratic Party during most of the twentieth century, but an extremely rapid swing towards the Republican Party has occurred since 2000, due to declining unionization,<ref>Schwartzman, Gabe; [http://www.dailyyonder.com/how-coalfields-went-gop/2015/01/13/7668/ ‘How Central Appalachia Went Right’]; ''Daily Yonder'', January 13, 2015</ref> along with regional views on environmental, social and cultural issues that are increasingly at odds with the national Democratic Party.<ref>Cohn, Nate; [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/upshot/southern-whites-loyalty-to-gop-nearing-that-of-blacks-to-democrats.html "Demographic Shift: Southern Whites’ Loyalty to G.O.P. Nearing That of Blacks to Democrats"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', April 24, 2014</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" |Political Party
!Number of registered voters (March 31, 2022)<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 31, 2022 |title=Mar2022 |url=https://sos.wv.gov/elections/Documents/VoterRegistrationTotals/2022/Mar2022.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://sos.wv.gov/elections/Documents/VoterRegistrationTotals/2022/Mar2022.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live |access-date=April 17, 2022 |website=sos.wv.gov}}</ref>
!%
|-
| {{party color cell|Republican Party (United States)}}
|[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
|14,120
|39.57
|-
| {{party color cell|Democratic Party (United States)}}
|[[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
|10,861
|30.43
|-
| {{party color cell|Independent (United States)}}
|[[Independent voter|Independent]]
|9,266
|25.96
|-
| {{party color cell|Libertarian Party (United States)}}
|[[Libertarian Party (United States)|Libertarian]]
|222
|0.62
|-
| {{party color cell|Mountain Party}}
|[[Mountain Party|Mountain]]
|78
|0.22
|-
|
|[[Third party (United States)|Other]]
|1,141
|3.20
|-
! colspan="2" |Total
!35,688
!100.00
|}
{{PresHead|place=Mercer County, West Virginia|source=<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS|title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections|last=Leip|first=David|website=uselectionatlas.org|access-date=March 27, 2018}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Republican|18,372|4,851|422|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|2020|Republican|19,237|5,556|342|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|2016|Republican|17,404|4,704|1,089|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|2012|Republican|15,450|5,432|431|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|2008|Republican|13,246|7,450|393|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|2004|Republican|13,057|9,178|144|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|2000|Republican|10,206|8,347|322|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1996|Democratic|7,768|8,721|2,211|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1992|Democratic|7,888|9,511|2,876|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|10,221|10,152|57|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|13,910|9,164|81|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1980|Republican|12,273|11,804|664|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1976|Democratic|10,791|14,761|0|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|17,846|7,826|0|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1968|Democratic|9,985|12,739|3,363|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1964|Democratic|8,905|18,298|0|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1960|Democratic|11,719|17,289|0|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1956|Republican|14,648|13,236|0|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1952|Democratic|14,267|16,694|0|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1948|Democratic|10,065|15,201|82|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1944|Democratic|10,034|14,861|0|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1940|Democratic|11,395|18,163|0|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|10,762|18,391|30|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|11,088|15,900|105|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1928|Republican|12,887|10,273|50|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1924|Democratic|9,159|10,058|2,153|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1920|Republican|8,613|7,981|56|West Virginia}}
{{PresRow|1916|Democratic|4,788|4,836|55|West Virginia}}
{{PresFoot|1912|Democratic|1,507|3,497|3,116|West Virginia}}