Des Moines-West Des Moines-Ames, IA · how this place’s counties split between candidates 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 there is no roll-up above it. Each cell counts how many of this place’s counties a candidate led — a count of records, not a vote total. Who led the place as a whole is not knowable from these returns, because county rows carry a leader and a lead but no per-candidate votes.
Presidential nominating contests in Des Moines-West Des Moines-Ames, IA, 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 · 2024D+0.9
vs
Presidential vote · 2024R+1.0
Registration and the presidential vote track closely here — within 2.0 points.
DemocraticRepublicanUnaffiliatedOther parties
Voter registration in Des Moines-West Des Moines-Ames, IA
Year
Total registered
Democratic
Republican
Unaffiliated
Other
2008
544,265
202,435
158,334
183,134
362
2010
516,191
185,503
160,904
169,156
628
2012
539,374
185,483
171,742
181,199
950
2014
542,003
178,469
171,111
190,397
2,026
2016
569,434
193,908
183,857
187,736
3,933
2018
581,569
199,285
178,895
197,524
5,865
2020
616,949
228,729
192,898
188,954
6,368
2022
622,175
220,531
194,272
200,860
6,512
2024
637,173
209,337
203,403
217,583
6,850
domestic migration
Who moves in and out
Net domestic migration over time
+2,386 net domestic migration · 2025
20112025
Net +54,927 over 2011–2025 · gain loss
Domestic migration in Des Moines-West Des Moines-Ames, IA in Des Moines-West Des Moines-Ames, IA: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
+3,338
2012
+2,246
2013
+4,891
2014
+6,112
2015
+3,798
2016
+4,583
2017
+4,020
2018
+3,385
2019
+3,301
2021
+6,387
2022
+3,203
2023
+3,055
2024
+4,222
2025
+2,386
Des Moines-West Des Moines-Ames, IA sits in the Corn Belt. In 2024 it voted Republican.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 30.9 points in 1964 and a Republican high of 46.3 points in 1924. Between 2020 and 2024 the region moved 4.7 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 1.0 points.
A population of 913,917, a 79% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $83,997 describe the region. The region's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Cedar Rapids-Iowa City, IA and Madison-Janesville-Beloit, WI.
Akashic
Political twins — combined metros
The combined 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.
Des Moines-West Des Moines-Ames, IA, Iowa. Akashic. https://akashic.app/csa/218/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
How did Des Moines-West Des Moines-Ames, IA, Iowa vote in 2024?
In 2024, Des Moines-West Des Moines-Ames, IA, Iowa voted Republican by 1.0 points (R+1.0), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 484,813 votes cast, 235,477 went Democratic and 240,471 went Republican.
When did Des Moines-West Des Moines-Ames, IA, Iowa last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Des Moines-West Des Moines-Ames, IA, Iowa voted Democratic was 2020.
How many people live in Des Moines-West Des Moines-Ames, IA, Iowa?
Des Moines-West Des Moines-Ames, IA, Iowa has a population of 913,917 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Des Moines-West Des Moines-Ames, IA, Iowa?
Median household income in Des Moines-West Des Moines-Ames, IA, Iowa is $83,997 — above the national median of $80,734. The Iowa state median is $75,059.
What is the political history of Des Moines-West Des Moines-Ames, IA, Iowa?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in Des Moines-West Des Moines-Ames, IA, Iowa from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 15 went Democratic and 18 went Republican.
