Sterling, IL · which candidate this place backed in each party’s presidential nominating contest, cycle by cycle. A primary is a contest inside one party, so it has no Democratic–Republican margin and is not part of the general-election record above.
Akashic reports votes cast, not delegates awarded. The two can disagree: Clinton led the 2008 national primary popular vote by less than half a point and did not win the nomination.
Primary returns are published at county grain, and this place is a single county: Whiteside County, Illinois. The figures below are that county’s, which is the same territory — not a larger unit standing in for it.
Presidential nominating contests in Sterling, IL, by party and cycle.
○no contest record — Akashic holds no result for that party and cycle here. It is not a claim that no contest was held. Telling apart a contest that was cancelled, one that went uncontested, and one simply not yet ingested needs a nominating-contest calendar, which is a separate ingest from results and does not exist yet.
Republican presidential primaries are not yet ingested — the Republican series runs from 1856 and is in scope. The row is kept so its absence is visible: a Democratic-only panel would otherwise read as though no one else held a contest.
Akashic carries 10 states for 2012 and 3 states for 2024. Cycles in which an incumbent president seeks renomination are thin by nature — few states run a contested primary — so a sparse column is politics, not a hole in the record.
County returns carry a leader and a lead over the runner-up, and nothing more. The full candidate field with vote shares is published at state grain — follow a cycle above to the state contest for it.
voter registration
Registered voters
Total registered voters, over time
Registered voters
Voter registration in Sterling, IL
Year
Total registered
2016
41,435
2018
39,657
2020
39,768
2022
38,953
2024
38,035
domestic migration
Who moves in and out
Net domestic migration over time
−97 net domestic migration · 2025
20112025
Net −3,469 over 2011–2025 · gain loss
Domestic migration in Sterling, IL in Sterling, IL: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
−227
2012
−473
2013
−272
2014
−434
2015
−149
2016
−415
2017
−460
2018
−274
2019
−330
2021
−40
2022
−540
2023
+102
2024
+140
2025
−97
The Sterling-Rock Falls micropolitan area in Whiteside County leans Republican in federal races but has competitive local contests, reflecting a working-class industrial base that once anchored steel and wire production along the Rock River.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 17.6 points in 2008 and a Republican high of 67.3 points in 1920. Between 2020 and 2024 the metro moved 6.4 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 14.7 points.
A population of 54,947, a 81% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $67,500 describe the metro. The metro's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Clinton, IA and Platteville, WI.
Akashic
Political twins — metros
The metros whose fingerprint — 2000–2024 trajectory, demographics, ancestry, religion — sits closest to this one, and why.
Twin score (0–100) = weighted cosine between tier-standardized fingerprints: presidential margins 2000–2024 with 12-yr trend and elasticity, ACS income, age, education, population and race, top reported ancestries, and religious adherence — chips name the closest-shared dimensions and the widest gap. Re-weight the groups in the twins explorer.
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
Cite this page
All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Sterling, IL, Illinois. Akashic. https://akashic.app/cbsa/44580/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
Embed this page
A live widget for your site — no API key, attribution built in, CC BY 4.0. All widgets & sizes →
In 2024, Sterling, IL, Illinois voted Republican by 14.7 points (R+14.7), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 26,447 votes cast, 11,012 went Democratic and 14,898 went Republican.
When did Sterling, IL, Illinois last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Sterling, IL, Illinois voted Democratic was 2012.
How many people live in Sterling, IL, Illinois?
Sterling, IL, Illinois has a population of 54,947 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Sterling, IL, Illinois?
Median household income in Sterling, IL, Illinois is $67,500 — below the national median of $80,734. The Illinois state median is $83,390.
What is the political history of Sterling, IL, Illinois?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in Sterling, IL, Illinois from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 6 went Democratic and 27 went Republican.
