Voters in McLean County won’t do much to shape the outcome of the presidential election. Illinois is a reliably winner-take-all Democratic state that Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to safely carry Tuesday.
But your vote still counts, especially in your neighborhood. In fact, Joe Biden and Donald Trump won or lost several Bloomington-Normal neighborhoods (aka precincts) by less than 10 votes.
That’s the fun part about living in a purple-ish county. McLean County used to be a reliably Republican county, but political power is now largely shared. There are now Democrats representing Bloomington-Normal in the U.S. House, Illinois House, and Illinois Senate. Barack Obama and Joe Biden won McLean County in 2008 and 2020. The McLean County Board is now split 10-10 between Democrats and Republicans, though the GOP still holds all countywide elected offices.
As we get ready for Tuesday’s results, let’s take a closer look at what happened during the last presidential election in 2020, using precinct-level results from all around the county.
On Desktop, hold CTRL and scroll in/out to zoom.
Politically even neighborhoods
There were four precincts in Bloomington-Normal where the Biden/Trump vote was super close in 2020 – less than a percentage point difference:
- City of Bloomington 11 – Southeast Bloomington near Ireland Grove Road and the State Farm Corporate South complex. Trump won it by 5 votes.
- City of Bloomington 37 – The Hawthorne Hills neighborhood near Airport and GE roads in east Bloomington. Trump won it by 2 votes.
- Normal 25 – Parts of the Ironwood subdivision in north Normal, stretching north near Towanda Avenue. Biden won it by 8 votes.
- City of Bloomington 44 – Southeast Bloomington near Ireland Grove Road and Hershey Road, including parts of the Gaelic Place subdivision. Biden won it by 8 votes.
Normal 27 wasn’t close behind, with Biden (49.7% of the vote) narrowly beating Trump (48.5%). That precinct includes the North Bridge subdivision, between Pipeline and Northtown roads. Biden won it by 10 votes.
Where Trump-Pence did best
Inside Bloomington and Normal, Trump’s strongest neighborhoods included these precincts:
- Bloomington 01 (Trump won 59% of the vote) – The edges of west and southwest Bloomington, south of Market Street largely west of Interstate 55-74.
- City of Bloomington 52 (Trump won 54.5% of the vote) – Southwest Bloomington around Fox Creek Road and the Den at Fox Creek golf course, as well as the Heartland Hills development near Bloomingdale Road.
- Normal 26 (Trump won 52.6% of the vote) – Northeast Normal near the Veterans Parkway exit off Interstate 55, including parts of the Ironwood subdivision.
Trump performed strongest in rural McLean County, well outside Bloomington-Normal city limits. In precincts in Bellflower, Cropsey, Chenoa and Arrowsmith, for example, Trump won 80% of the vote.
Where Biden-Harris did best
Biden performed better than Trump within Bloomington-Normal city limits, especially around the college campuses of Illinois State and Illinois Wesleyan. In these three precincts alone, Biden won 75%+ of the vote:
- Normal 29 – Includes ISU’s Cardinal Court student housing complex, then stretching north to other multifamily housing around Fairview Park and Orlando Avenue.
- Normal 8 – The heart of the ISU campus, with lots of student voters.
- City of Bloomington 1 – Historic Bloomington, directly east of Illinois Wesleyan, between Division and Walnut streets, including the White Place neighborhood.
Presidential voting history
Trump has won McLean County once (2016) and lost McLean County once (2020). Indeed, the county has flipped back and forth between Republican and Democratic presidential candidates since 2004:
