Clay County, Kentucky: Evangelical Deep South county. In 2024, voted R+80%. Republican peak: R+80 in 2024.
Key facts
- 2024 presidential margin
- R+80MIT Election Lab
- Political typology
- Evangelical Deep SouthAkashic typology
- Population
- 19,9212024 5-year
- Median household income
- $40,9002024 5-year
- White (non-Hispanic)
- 92.2%2024 5-year
- Black
- 4.0%2024 5-year
- Hispanic / Latino
- 2.1%2024 5-year
- Peak Republican margin
- R+80 in 2024MIT Election Lab
- Most similar
- Barton County, MO · similarity 1.00
2024 results by precinct
2024 precinct map of Clay CountyPrecinct-level 2024 presidential results for Clay 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 | No data |
| 1884 | No data |
| 1888 | No data |
| 1892 | −34.3% |
| 1896 | −41.3% |
| 1900 | −47.8% |
| 1904 | −51.4% |
| 1908 | −47.8% |
| 1912 | −18.2% |
| 1916 | −46.8% |
| 1920 | −61.0% |
| 1924 | −50.6% |
| 1928 | −74.2% |
| 1932 | −23.9% |
| 1936 | −44.4% |
| 1940 | −45.8% |
| 1944 | −56.8% |
| 1948 | −35.8% |
| 1952 | −50.4% |
| 1956 | −65.2% |
| 1960 | −56.2% |
| 1964 | −2.0% |
| 1968 | −55.6% |
| 1972 | −40.4% |
| 1976 | −37.1% |
| 1980 | −36.5% |
| 1984 | −48.8% |
| 1988 | −41.6% |
| 1992 | −36.8% |
| 1996 | −24.7% |
| 2000 | −47.7% |
| 2004 | −49.8% |
| 2008 | −56.5% |
| 2012 | −68.6% |
| 2016 | −75.5% |
| 2020 | −77.0% |
| 2024 | −80.2% |
DemocraticRepublican
38 presidential elections
| Year | Won | Margin | Democratic | Republican | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | 692 | 6,729 | 7,526 | ||
| R | 831 | 6,677 | 7,591 | ||
| R | 752 | 5,861 | 6,767 | ||
| R | 1,111 | 6,176 | 7,383 | ||
| R | 1,552 | 5,710 | 7,364 | ||
| R | 1,901 | 5,726 | 7,687 | ||
| R | 1,723 | 4,926 | 6,719 | ||
| R | 2,135 | 3,716 | 6,401 | ||
| R | 2,012 | 4,747 | 7,427 | ||
| R | 1,709 | 4,156 | 5,884 | ||
| R | 1,634 | 4,772 | 6,426 | ||
| R | 2,121 | 4,594 | 6,778 | ||
| R | 1,674 | 3,652 | 5,336 | ||
| R | 1,709 | 4,046 | 5,781 | ||
| R | 1,213 | 4,663 | 6,204 | ||
| R | 3,098 | 3,223 | 6,343 | ||
| R | 1,381 | 4,922 | 6,303 | ||
| R | 1,027 | 4,897 | 5,934 | ||
| R | 1,365 | 4,161 | 5,544 | ||
| R | 1,468 | 3,142 | 4,676 | ||
| R | 1,185 | 4,307 | 5,495 | ||
| R | 1,632 | 4,395 | 6,027 | ||
| R | 1,572 | 4,087 | 5,659 | ||
| R | 2,133 | 3,474 | 5,620 | ||
| R | 651 | 4,439 | 5,104 | ||
| R | 1,144 | 3,613 | 4,877 | ||
| R | 960 | 4,015 | 5,008 | ||
| R | 820 | 2,271 | 3,102 | ||
| R | 625 | 1,034 | 2,253 | ||
| R | 691 | 1,991 | 2,717 | ||
| R | 532 | 1,685 | 2,243 | ||
| R | 681 | 1,948 | 2,649 | ||
| R | 707 | 1,725 | 2,465 | ||
| R | 401 | 860 | 1,338 | ||
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Demographics
2024 ACS
Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
American
29.4%
English
17.7%
Irish
7.9%
German
3.4%
Scottish
2.2%
African American
3.2%
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: 40.2 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
$40,900
Clay County ranks in the bottom 10% of US counties.
Clay County$40,900
Kentucky$63,726
United States$80,734
Clay County ranks in the bottom 10% 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
32.4%
Nearly half of children live in poverty.
Children under 1846.7%
Working age (18–64)29.0%
Seniors (65+)20.0%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
98.3%
speak English only
Spanish1.4%
Other Indo-European0.2%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
2020 religion census
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 56.2% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.
A rural Appalachian county in southeastern Kentucky, Clay recorded an R+80.3 margin in 2024, placing it among the most lopsided presidential results in the state and reflecting a decades-long partisan realignment across the region.
The Republican margin here reached its widest at eighty points in 2024. Between 2020 and 2024 the county moved three points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was eighty points.
A median household income of $40,900, a 32% poverty rate, and a 92% non-Hispanic-white share describe the county. The county's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Barton County and McCreary 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.
Clay County, Kentucky. Akashic. https://akashic.app/county/21051/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
More evangelical deep south counties
Frequently asked questions
How did Clay County, Kentucky vote in 2024?
In 2024, Clay County, Kentucky voted Republican by 80.2 points (R+80), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 7,526 votes cast, 692 went Democratic and 6,729 went Republican.
What is Clay County, Kentucky's political typology?
Akashic places Clay County, Kentucky in the "Evangelical Deep South" typology — Deeply Republican, heavily Baptist counties of the Deep South. 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 0 times, Republican 34 times, and other 0 times.
How many people live in Clay County, Kentucky?
Clay County, Kentucky has a population of 19,921 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Clay County, Kentucky?
Median household income in Clay County, Kentucky is $40,900 — below the national median of $80,734. The Kentucky state median is $63,726.
What is the political history of Clay County, Kentucky?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in Clay County, Kentucky from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 0 went Democratic and 34 went Republican. The county's typology — "Evangelical Deep South" — captures where that record, its demographics, and its recent swing place it among American communities.