Chaffee County, Colorado: Realigning Affluent Suburb county. In 2024, voted D+14%. Democratic peak: D+89 in 1896.
Key facts
- 2024 presidential margin
- D+14MIT Election Lab
- Political typology
- Realigning Affluent SuburbAkashic typology
- Population
- 20,1782024 5-year
- Median household income
- $84,1322024 5-year
- White (non-Hispanic)
- 87.3%2024 5-year
- Black
- 1.3%2024 5-year
- Hispanic / Latino
- 9.8%2024 5-year
- Peak Democratic margin
- D+89 in 1896MIT Election Lab
- Peak Republican margin
- R+40 in 1892MIT Election Lab
- Most similar
- Deschutes County, OR · similarity 0.94
2024 results by precinct
2024 precinct map of Chaffee CountyPrecinct-level 2024 presidential results for Chaffee County, with each precinct boundary colored by Democratic-vs-Republican margin.
—
Margin—
Turnout—
Harris +50Trump +50
Real precinct boundaries. Hover for vote totals.
presidential history
Presidential margin, 1876–2024
Democratic minus Republican, by election
| Year | Margin (D minus R) |
|---|---|
| 1876 | No data |
| 1880 | +2.3% |
| 1884 | −7.3% |
| 1888 | −14.8% |
| 1892 | −40.1% |
| 1896 | +89.2% |
| 1900 | +28.5% |
| 1904 | −0.3% |
| 1908 | +13.8% |
| 1912 | +27.0% |
| 1916 | +47.9% |
| 1920 | −9.4% |
| 1924 | −23.5% |
| 1928 | −20.6% |
| 1932 | +36.7% |
| 1936 | +37.6% |
| 1940 | +5.3% |
| 1944 | +1.6% |
| 1948 | +16.5% |
| 1952 | −13.8% |
| 1956 | −27.3% |
| 1960 | −4.4% |
| 1964 | +25.0% |
| 1968 | −10.9% |
| 1972 | −35.1% |
| 1976 | −16.7% |
| 1980 | −31.8% |
| 1984 | −34.3% |
| 1988 | −9.3% |
| 1992 | −2.1% |
| 1996 | −4.4% |
| 2000 | −20.1% |
| 2004 | −12.6% |
| 2008 | −0.1% |
| 2012 | +0.2% |
| 2016 | −4.5% |
| 2020 | +6.8% |
| 2024 | +13.6% |
DemocraticRepublican
38 presidential elections
| Year | Won | Margin | Democratic | Republican | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D | 7,992 | 6,034 | 14,423 | ||
| D | 7,160 | 6,222 | 13,717 | ||
| R | 4,888 | 5,391 | 11,250 | ||
| D | 5,086 | 5,070 | 10,462 | ||
| R | 4,861 | 4,873 | 9,920 | ||
| R | 3,766 | 4,875 | 8,770 | ||
| R | 2,768 | 4,300 | 7,610 | ||
| R | 2,768 | 3,052 | 6,515 | ||
| R | 2,284 | 2,419 | 6,282 | ||
| R | 2,548 | 3,080 | 5,714 | ||
| R | 1,779 | 3,680 | 5,550 | ||
| R | 1,583 | 3,327 | 5,478 | ||
| R | 2,064 | 2,925 | 5,162 | ||
| R | 1,354 | 2,859 | 4,291 | ||
| R | 1,667 | 2,121 | 4,153 | ||
| D | 2,463 | 1,476 | 3,951 | ||
| R | 1,918 | 2,094 | 4,016 | ||
| R | 1,303 | 2,284 | 3,587 | ||
| R | 1,643 | 2,171 | 3,829 | ||
| D | 2,065 | 1,476 | 3,580 | ||
| D | 1,731 | 1,675 | 3,430 | ||
| D | 2,153 | 1,933 | 4,121 | ||
| D | 2,447 | 1,069 | 3,664 | ||
| D | 2,393 | 1,061 | 3,628 | ||
| R | 1,230 | 1,880 | 3,160 | ||
| R | 612 | 1,336 | 3,078 | ||
| R | 1,233 | 1,501 | 2,837 | ||
| D | 2,546 | 864 | 3,513 | ||
| D | 1,641 | 723 | 3,395 | ||
| D | 1,679 | 1,233 | 3,225 | ||
| R | 1,601 | 1,611 | 3,435 | ||
| D | 1,890 | 1,033 | 3,002 | ||
| D | 2,606 | 141 | 2,762 | ||
| O | 0 | 678 | 1,690 | ||
| R | 941 | 1,277 | 2,272 | ||
| R | 986 | 1,142 | 2,136 | ||
| D | 1,188 | 1,135 | 2,340 | ||
| — | — | — | — |
Demographics
2024 ACS
Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
German
20.7%
English
17.5%
Irish
13.1%
Italian
6.2%
Scottish
4.9%
Polish
3.6%
American
3.6%
African American
1.0%
Multiple ancestry combinations reported; no single grouping above 1%.
Sample size too small to break out by ancestry reliably.
American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander combined.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release. Hispanic/Latino is an ethnicity that overlaps the race categories, so these shares can total more than 100%. Ancestry is a self-reported, multiple-response item; ancestry percentages do not sum to the parent race percentage.
2024 ACS
Age distribution by sex
Median age: 48.7 in this county, 39.1 nationally
Male
Age
Female
85+
75–84
65–74
55–64
45–54
35–44
25–34
18–24
5–17
<5
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Median household income
Inflation-adjusted dollars
$84,132
Chaffee County ranks in the top 25% of US counties.
Chaffee County$84,132
Colorado$95,470
United States$80,734
Chaffee County ranks in the top 25% of US counties by median household income.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Poverty rate
All persons below federal poverty line
8.3%
Child poverty is below the national average.
Children under 187.0%
Working age (18–64)8.8%
Seniors (65+)6.6%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
94.8%
speak English only
Spanish3.7%
Other Indo-European1.2%
Asian & Pacific Islander0.3%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
2020 religion census
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 62.2% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.
Chaffee County, anchored by Salida and Buena Vista along the Arkansas River, swung Democratic by nearly 14 points in 2024—an unusually strong margin for a rural Colorado county shaped by outdoor recreation and in-migration from urban Colorado.
Once reliably Republican — a margin of forty points in 1892 at its widest — Chaffee County has trended Democratic. Between 2020 and 2024 the county moved seven points toward the Democratic candidate; the 2024 margin was fourteen points.
A median household income of $84,132 — among the higher at this geographic scale — and a population of 20,178 describe the county. The county's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Deschutes County and Newton County.
Most similar counties
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.
Chaffee County, Colorado. Akashic. https://akashic.app/county/08015/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
More realigning affluent suburb counties
Frequently asked questions
How did Chaffee County, Colorado vote in 2024?
In 2024, Chaffee County, Colorado voted Democratic by 13.6 points (D+14), carried by the Democratic candidate. Out of 14,423 votes cast, 7,992 went Democratic and 6,034 went Republican.
What is Chaffee County, Colorado's political typology?
Akashic places Chaffee County, Colorado in the "Realigning Affluent Suburb" typology — College-educated, affluent suburbs — the one bloc moving toward the Democratic Party. The typology is a data-driven cluster built from vote share, vote swing, race and ethnicity, income, language spoken at home, religion, and ancestry. Across 38 elections in the dataset, the county has voted Democratic 15 times, Republican 21 times, and other 1 times.
When did Chaffee County, Colorado last vote Republican?
The most recent presidential election in which Chaffee County, Colorado voted Republican was 2016.
How many people live in Chaffee County, Colorado?
Chaffee County, Colorado has a population of 20,178 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Chaffee County, Colorado?
Median household income in Chaffee County, Colorado is $84,132 — above the national median of $80,734. The Colorado state median is $95,470.
What is the political history of Chaffee County, Colorado?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in Chaffee County, Colorado from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 15 went Democratic and 21 went Republican. The county's typology — "Realigning Affluent Suburb" — captures where that record, its demographics, and its recent swing place it among American communities.