South Bend-Elkhart · 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
Lyndon B. Johnson1964
56.4%
162,559 votes · D+13.3
Runner-up · Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1932 · 54.6%
Republican
Richard Nixon1972
66.8%
197,471 votes · R+34.6
Runner-up · Ronald Reagan, 1984 · 63.6%
Most votes
Largest number of votes cast for the party’s presidential nominee here.
Democratic
Barack Obama2008
184,306votes
49.3% of the vote · R+0.1
Runner-up · Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964 · 162,559 votes
Republican
Donald Trump2024
229,734votes
59.7% of the vote · R+21.5
Runner-up · Donald Trump, 2020 · 227,213 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
William J. Bryan1900
0.0pts D vs U.S.
Place R+7.6 · U.S. R+7.5
Runner-up · William J. Bryan, 1896 · −0.1 pts
Republican
Donald Trump2016
+23.9pts R vs U.S.
Place R+21.8 · U.S. D+2.1
Runner-up · Donald Trump, 2020 · +22.9 pts
U.S. House elections · 3 House
Senate and governor results are in the Office selector at the top of this page.
U.S. House
On a multi-state Place, each row sums votes cast in the separate U.S. House races held inside the Place that year. It is a geographic vote total, not one contest or a seat tally.
South Bend-Elkhart · 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 South Bend-Elkhart, by party and cycle.
Party
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
Democratic
Clinton8Obama2130,221 votes · 10 of 10 countiesprimary
○no contest record
Sanders9Clinton172,456 votes · 10 of 10 countiesprimary
Biden1064,574 votes · 10 of 10 countiesprimary
○no contest record
Republicannot ingested
○no contest record
○no contest record
○no contest record
○no contest record
○no contest record
○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
Total registered voters, over time
Registered voters
Voter registration in South Bend-Elkhart
Year
Total registered
2016
658,893
2018
611,364
2020
637,635
2022
641,016
2024
657,983
domestic migration
Who moves in and out
Net domestic migration over time
−1,819 net domestic migration · 2025
20112025
Net −40,883 over 2011–2025 · gain loss
Domestic migration in South Bend-Elkhart in South Bend-Elkhart: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
−3,793
2012
−4,494
2013
−2,905
2014
−1,748
2015
−3,296
2016
−3,046
2017
−3,067
2018
−1,903
2019
−3,235
2021
−2,593
2022
−1,677
2023
−3,611
2024
−3,696
2025
−1,819
The South Bend-Elkhart market pairs a mid-sized university city that has trended competitive in recent cycles with Elkhart County's RV-industry workforce, one of Indiana's most reliably wide-margin Republican geographies.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 17.1 points in 1912 and a Republican high of 34.6 points in 1972. Between 2020 and 2024 the market moved 3.1 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 21.5 points.
A population of 908,629, a 75% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $68,750 describe the market. The market's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Champaign & Springfield-Decatur and Fort Wayne.
Akashic
Political twins — media markets
The media markets 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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South Bend-Elkhart, Indiana. Akashic. https://akashic.app/dma/588/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
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In 2024, South Bend-Elkhart, Indiana voted Republican by 21.5 points (R+21.5), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 384,825 votes cast, 146,996 went Democratic and 229,734 went Republican.
When did South Bend-Elkhart, Indiana last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which South Bend-Elkhart, Indiana voted Democratic was 1964.
How many people live in South Bend-Elkhart, Indiana?
South Bend-Elkhart, Indiana has a population of 908,629 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in South Bend-Elkhart, Indiana?
Median household income in South Bend-Elkhart, Indiana is $68,750 — below the national median of $80,734. The Indiana state median is $72,875.
What is the political history of South Bend-Elkhart, Indiana?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in South Bend-Elkhart, Indiana from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 3 went Democratic and 30 went Republican.
