St. James Parish, Louisiana: Black Belt county. In 2024, voted R+1%. Democratic peak: D+84 in 1928.
Key facts
- 2024 presidential margin
- R+1MIT Election Lab
- Political typology
- Black BeltAkashic typology
- Population
- 19,5282024 5-year
- Median household income
- $65,5312024 5-year
- White (non-Hispanic)
- 49.9%2024 5-year
- Black
- 47.4%2024 5-year
- Hispanic / Latino
- 2.0%2024 5-year
- Peak Democratic margin
- D+84 in 1928MIT Election Lab
- Peak Republican margin
- R+72 in 1896MIT Election Lab
- Most similar
- Iberville Parish, LA · similarity 0.99
2024 results by precinct
2024 precinct map of St. James ParishPrecinct-level 2024 presidential results for St. James Parish, with each precinct boundary colored by Democratic-vs-Republican margin.
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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 | −15.6% |
| 1896 | −72.3% |
| 1900 | −2.8% |
| 1904 | +50.7% |
| 1908 | +48.5% |
| 1912 | +20.5% |
| 1916 | +46.1% |
| 1920 | −21.8% |
| 1924 | +37.6% |
| 1928 | +84.1% |
| 1932 | +75.4% |
| 1936 | +71.8% |
| 1940 | +48.6% |
| 1944 | +67.9% |
| 1948 | +19.2% |
| 1952 | +23.1% |
| 1956 | −0.5% |
| 1960 | +70.4% |
| 1964 | −48.4% |
| 1968 | +33.8% |
| 1972 | −7.6% |
| 1976 | +23.8% |
| 1980 | +28.3% |
| 1984 | +12.7% |
| 1988 | +27.1% |
| 1992 | +29.2% |
| 1996 | +41.1% |
| 2000 | +25.3% |
| 2004 | +16.8% |
| 2008 | +12.4% |
| 2012 | +14.9% |
| 2016 | +8.0% |
| 2020 | +4.4% |
| 2024 | −0.9% |
DemocraticRepublican
38 presidential elections
| Year | Won | Margin | Democratic | Republican | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | 5,792 | 5,902 | 11,789 | ||
| D | 6,510 | 5,954 | 12,590 | ||
| D | 6,418 | 5,456 | 12,085 | ||
| D | 7,059 | 5,209 | 12,395 | ||
| D | 6,994 | 5,432 | 12,564 | ||
| D | 6,407 | 4,545 | 11,108 | ||
| D | 6,523 | 3,813 | 10,705 | ||
| D | 7,247 | 2,832 | 10,743 | ||
| D | 6,609 | 3,339 | 11,186 | ||
| D | 6,707 | 3,799 | 10,719 | ||
| D | 5,989 | 4,627 | 10,735 | ||
| D | 6,206 | 3,429 | 9,824 | ||
| D | 4,531 | 2,751 | 7,466 | ||
| R | 2,633 | 3,112 | 6,291 | ||
| D | 2,987 | 778 | 6,530 | ||
| R | 1,467 | 4,214 | 5,681 | ||
| D | 4,362 | 620 | 5,314 | ||
| R | 1,832 | 1,849 | 3,759 | ||
| D | 2,165 | 1,353 | 3,518 | ||
| D | 859 | 453 | 2,117 | ||
| D | 1,387 | 265 | 1,652 | ||
| D | 1,463 | 506 | 1,969 | ||
| D | 1,575 | 259 | 1,834 | ||
| D | 1,715 | 240 | 1,955 | ||
| D | 1,486 | 128 | 1,614 | ||
| D | 615 | 278 | 896 | ||
| R | 342 | 533 | 875 | ||
| D | 520 | 185 | 727 | ||
| D | 367 | 228 | 679 | ||
| D | 364 | 123 | 497 | ||
| D | 327 | 99 | 450 | ||
| R | 395 | 418 | 813 | ||
| R | 210 | 1,417 | 1,670 | ||
| R | 575 | 787 | 1,362 | ||
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Demographics
2024 ACS
Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
American
15.6%
French
13.5%
German
7.4%
English
2.3%
Italian
2.0%
Irish
1.0%
African American
37.9%
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: 40.8 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
$65,531
St. James Parish ranks near the middle of US counties.
St. James Parish$65,531
Louisiana$60,756
United States$80,734
St. James Parish ranks near the middle 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
11.1%
Child poverty is below the national average.
Children under 1812.9%
Working age (18–64)11.0%
Seniors (65+)6.9%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
97.8%
speak English only
Other Indo-European1.4%
Spanish0.8%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
2020 religion census
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 0.0% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.
St. James Parish sits along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, with a population that is roughly 55% Black — making its near-even 2024 presidential split a notable data point for analysts tracking demographic voting patterns in the Deep South.
The Democratic margin here reached eighty-four points in 1928. Between 2020 and 2024 the county moved five points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was one point. The recent movement, modest against a deep Democratic baseline, mirrors a broader rightward drift across the Black Belt.
The economic context is part of the story: a median household income of $65,531 and a 11% poverty rate. The county's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Iberville Parish and Marshall 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.
St. James Parish, Louisiana. Akashic. https://akashic.app/county/22093/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
More in Louisiana
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Frequently asked questions
How did St. James Parish, Louisiana vote in 2024?
In 2024, St. James Parish, Louisiana voted Republican by 0.9 points (R+1), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 11,789 votes cast, 5,792 went Democratic and 5,902 went Republican.
What is St. James Parish, Louisiana's political typology?
Akashic places St. James Parish, Louisiana in the "Black Belt" typology — Black-majority counties of the rural South — long the most Democratic ground in the region, now trending Republican at the margins. 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 26 times, Republican 8 times, and other 0 times.
When did St. James Parish, Louisiana last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which St. James Parish, Louisiana voted Democratic was 2020.
How many people live in St. James Parish, Louisiana?
St. James Parish, Louisiana has a population of 19,528 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in St. James Parish, Louisiana?
Median household income in St. James Parish, Louisiana is $65,531 — below the national median of $80,734. The Louisiana state median is $60,756.
What is the political history of St. James Parish, Louisiana?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in St. James Parish, Louisiana from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 26 went Democratic and 8 went Republican. The county's typology — "Black Belt" — captures where that record, its demographics, and its recent swing place it among American communities.