Rapid City · 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
Franklin D. Roosevelt1932
57.7%
35,322 votes · D+17.7
Runner-up · William J. Bryan, 1896 · 55.0%
Republican
Ronald Reagan1984
72.4%
63,125 votes · R+45.5
Runner-up · Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1952 · 71.8%
Most votes
Largest number of votes cast for the party’s presidential nominee here.
Democratic
Barack Obama2008
39,514votes
34.3% of the vote · R+28.9
Runner-up · Joe Biden, 2020 · 38,972 votes
Republican
Donald Trump2024
94,367votes
69.0% of the vote · R+40.6
Runner-up · Donald Trump, 2020 · 91,150 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. Bryan1896
+16.6pts D vs U.S.
Place D+10.6 · U.S. R+6.1
Runner-up · Woodrow Wilson, 1912 · +15.7 pts
Republican
Donald Trump2016
+46.6pts R vs U.S.
Place R+44.5 · U.S. D+2.1
Runner-up · George W. Bush, 2000 · +43.6 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.
Rapid City · 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 Rapid City, by party and cycle.
Party
2008
2012
2016
2020
2024
Democratic
Clinton11Obama718,523 votes · 18 of 18 countiescaucus + primary
○no contest record
Sanders16Clinton213,128 votes · 18 of 18 countiescaucus + primary
Biden1813,167 votes · 18 of 18 countiescaucus + primary
○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
By party of registration, over time
Party registration · 2026R+45.3
vs
Presidential vote · 2024R+40.6
Registration leans Republican; the presidential vote runs 4.7 points more Democratic than the rolls.
DemocraticRepublicanUnaffiliatedOther parties
† Some years predate full county coverage; a flagged year sums only the counties reporting it.
Voter registration in Rapid City
Year
Total registered
Democratic
Republican
Unaffiliated
Other
2026 (partial)
191,694
29,633
116,522
21,470
24,069
domestic migration
Who moves in and out
Net domestic migration over time
+1,045 net domestic migration · 2025
20112025
Net +23,747 over 2011–2025 · gain loss
Domestic migration in Rapid City in Rapid City: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
+531
2012
+1,034
2013
+1,890
2014
+629
2015
−223
2016
+1,125
2017
+976
2018
+1,232
2019
+1,981
2021
+4,710
2022
+4,759
2023
+2,923
2024
+1,135
2025
+1,045
The Rapid City media market anchors western South Dakota and pulls in corners of Wyoming and Nebraska, blending rural agricultural precincts with an urban core that has shifted measurably as the metro's population climbed past 80,000.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 35.2 points in 1912 and a Republican high of 45.5 points in 1984. Between 2020 and 2024 the market moved 1.8 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 40.6 points.
A population of 265,694, a 82% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $73,385 describe the market. The market's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Casper-Riverton and Cheyenne-Scottsbluff.
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.
Rapid City, South Dakota. Akashic. https://akashic.app/dma/764/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
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In 2024, Rapid City, South Dakota voted Republican by 40.6 points (R+40.6), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 136,667 votes cast, 38,820 went Democratic and 94,367 went Republican.
When did Rapid City, South Dakota last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Rapid City, South Dakota voted Democratic was 1964.
How many people live in Rapid City, South Dakota?
Rapid City, South Dakota has a population of 265,694 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Rapid City, South Dakota?
Median household income in Rapid City, South Dakota is $73,385 — below the national median of $80,734. The South Dakota state median is $75,081.
What is the political history of Rapid City, South Dakota?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in Rapid City, South Dakota from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 5 went Democratic and 28 went Republican.
