Des Moines-Ames · 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-Ames, 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 · 2024R+4.8
vs
Presidential vote · 2024R+9.9
Registration leans Republican; the presidential vote runs 5.1 points more Republican than the rolls.
DemocraticRepublicanUnaffiliatedOther parties
Voter registration in Des Moines-Ames
Year
Total registered
Democratic
Republican
Unaffiliated
Other
2008
776,667
276,761
229,289
270,180
437
2010
747,041
254,740
236,238
255,313
750
2012
768,075
251,147
247,883
267,913
1,132
2014
765,414
240,158
245,601
277,264
2,391
2016
789,658
253,036
261,878
270,070
4,674
2018
796,968
255,625
255,738
278,498
7,107
2020
835,712
286,437
279,906
261,597
7,772
2022
837,691
272,852
283,159
273,667
8,013
2024
852,214
256,148
297,138
290,346
8,582
domestic migration
Who moves in and out
Net domestic migration over time
+1,411 net domestic migration · 2025
20112025
Net +36,552 over 2011–2025 · gain loss
Domestic migration in Des Moines-Ames in Des Moines-Ames: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
+2,100
2012
+143
2013
+3,959
2014
+4,486
2015
+1,566
2016
+2,794
2017
+3,091
2018
+1,980
2019
+1,458
2021
+6,543
2022
+1,446
2023
+2,124
2024
+3,451
2025
+1,411
The Des Moines–Ames market anchors Iowa's political center of gravity, blending a state capital, a Big Ten university town, and fast-growing Polk County suburbs that have trended competitive in recent presidential cycles.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 29.0 points in 1964 and a Republican high of 44.2 points in 1920. Between 2020 and 2024 the market moved 4.5 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 9.9 points.
A population of 1,225,525, a 81% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $79,752 describe the market. The market's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Cedar Rapids-Waterloo-Iowa City & Dubuque and Madison.
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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All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Des Moines-Ames, Iowa. Akashic. https://akashic.app/dma/679/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
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In 2024, Des Moines-Ames, Iowa voted Republican by 9.9 points (R+9.9), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 641,578 votes cast, 283,449 went Democratic and 346,757 went Republican.
When did Des Moines-Ames, Iowa last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Des Moines-Ames, Iowa voted Democratic was 2012.
How many people live in Des Moines-Ames, Iowa?
Des Moines-Ames, Iowa has a population of 1,225,525 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Des Moines-Ames, Iowa?
Median household income in Des Moines-Ames, Iowa is $79,752 — below the national median of $80,734. The Iowa state median is $75,059.
What is the political history of Des Moines-Ames, Iowa?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in Des Moines-Ames, Iowa from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 12 went Democratic and 21 went Republican.
