Watertown, SD · the strongest Democratic and Republican presidential performances recorded here, measured three ways.
1892–2024 · 34 presidential cycles
Highest vote share
Largest share of the presidential candidate vote cast here.
Democratic
Franklin D. Roosevelt1932
65.0%
4,806 votes · D+30.7
Runner-up · Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964 · 59.8%
Republican
Theodore Roosevelt1904
72.2%
1,741 votes · R+48.1
Runner-up · Donald Trump, 2024 · 69.2%
Most votes
Largest number of votes cast for the party’s presidential nominee here.
Democratic
Barack Obama2008
5,595votes
45.9% of the vote · R+6.4
Runner-up · Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964 · 5,353 votes
Republican
Donald Trump2024
9,349votes
69.2% of the vote · R+40.8
Runner-up · Donald Trump, 2020 · 8,958 votes
Best relative to the U.S.
This Place’s margin against the national margin in the same election — positive when it leaned toward the party more than the country did.
Democratic
Woodrow Wilson1912
+25.5pts D vs U.S.
Place D+45.0 · U.S. D+19.5 · a third-party candidate carried the Place
Runner-up · George McGovern, 1972 · +19.7 pts
Republican
Donald Trump2020
+43.4pts R vs U.S.
Place R+38.9 · U.S. D+4.5
Runner-up · Donald Trump, 2016 · +41.4 pts
presidential primaries
Nominating contests
Watertown, SD · 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: Codington County, South Dakota. The figures below are that county’s, which is the same territory — not a larger unit standing in for it.
Presidential nominating contests in Watertown, SD, 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
By party of registration, over time
Party registration · 2026R+38.5
vs
Presidential vote · 2024R+40.8
Registration and the presidential vote track closely here — within 2.3 points.
Domestic migration in Watertown, SD in Watertown, SD: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
+72
2012
+43
2013
+82
2014
−70
2015
−197
2016
−4
2017
−82
2018
−194
2019
−108
2021
+131
2022
+195
2023
+127
2024
+260
2025
+277
Watertown anchors the northeast corner of South Dakota, drawing workers and voters from a wide rural catchment. Its Codington County electorate has leaned heavily Republican in recent presidential cycles, often by margins exceeding 30 points.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 45.0 points in 1912 and a Republican high of 48.1 points in 1904. Between 2020 and 2024 the metro moved 1.9 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 40.8 points.
A population of 28,767, a 90% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $72,727 describe the metro. The metro's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Wahpeton, ND-MN and Spencer, IA.
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 →
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Watertown, SD, South Dakota. Akashic. https://akashic.app/cbsa/47980/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
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In 2024, Watertown, SD, South Dakota voted Republican by 40.8 points (R+40.8), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 13,510 votes cast, 3,840 went Democratic and 9,349 went Republican.
When did Watertown, SD, South Dakota last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Watertown, SD, South Dakota voted Democratic was 1976.
How many people live in Watertown, SD, South Dakota?
Watertown, SD, South Dakota has a population of 28,767 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Watertown, SD, South Dakota?
Median household income in Watertown, SD, South Dakota is $72,727 — below the national median of $80,734. The South Dakota state median is $75,081.
What is the political history of Watertown, SD, South Dakota?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in Watertown, SD, South Dakota from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 6 went Democratic and 26 went Republican.
