Cottage Grove, Minnesota is a suburban city located in Washington County. It is home to an estimated 36,700 residents and covers 12.6 square miles of land. The city has a small-town feel but also offers a wide range of services and amenities for its citizens. Over the past few years, Cottage Grove has seen growth in population and business investment which makes it an attractive place to live for many families.
Politically, Cottage Grove is part of the 4th Congressional District in Minnesota and is represented by Betty McCollum as Representative in the US House of Representatives. In the state legislature, Cottage Grove is part of Senate District 54 which is represented by Senator Dan Schoen and part of House District 54A which is represented by Rep. Peter Fischer. At the local level, Cottage Grove has two City Council members who are elected every four years and a mayor who serves as an executive head of the town government. The current mayor of Cottage Grove is Myron Bailey who was elected in 2018 for his second term in office.
The political climate in Zip 55016 (Cottage Grove, MN) is leaning liberal.
Washington County, MN is somewhat liberal. In Washington County, MN 53.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 44.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Washington county remained moderately Democratic, 53.5% to 44.2%.
Washington county voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 55016 (Cottage Grove, MN) is leaning liberal.
Cottage Grove, Minnesota is leaning liberal.
Washington County, Minnesota is somewhat liberal.
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington Metro Area is moderately liberal.
Minnesota is leaning liberal.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
Cottage Grove, Minnesota: r r d d d d
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D for the Democrat and I for the Independent. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last three elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in zip 55016 (Cottage Grove)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 779 contributions totaling $49,120 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $63 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 134 contributions totaling $20,394 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $152 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)