Cape Girardeau, MO-IL, Missouri: Populist metro. In 2024, voted R+49%. Republican peak: R+50 in 2016.
Key facts
- 2024 presidential margin
- R+49MIT Election Lab
- Political archetype
- PopulistAkashic typology
- Population
- 98,1692024 5-year
- Median household income
- $66,9002024 5-year
- White (non-Hispanic)
- 84.6%2024 5-year
- Black
- 8.0%2024 5-year
- Hispanic / Latino
- 2.7%2024 5-year
- Peak Democratic margin
- D+16 in 1964MIT Election Lab
- Peak Republican margin
- R+50 in 2016MIT Election Lab
Constituent county margins for Cape Girardeau, MO-IL, MOOne cell per constituent county, colored by 2024 presidential margin from deep red (Republican) through neutral to deep blue (Democratic), ordered bluest first.
R+60D+60
One cell per constituent county. Ordered by 2024 D-vs-R margin (bluest first). Hover for county-level numbers.
38 presidential elections
| Year | Won | Margin | Democratic | Republican | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | 12,221 | 36,021 | 48,969 | ||
| R | 12,624 | 35,560 | 49,030 | ||
| R | 10,459 | 33,340 | 45,807 | ||
| R | 12,906 | 30,952 | 44,786 | ||
| R | 16,087 | 30,432 | 47,076 | ||
| R | 14,338 | 29,747 | 44,333 | ||
| R | 13,383 | 24,907 | 39,175 | ||
| R | 14,754 | 19,189 | 36,973 | ||
| R | 14,321 | 17,054 | 38,080 | ||
| R | 12,480 | 21,247 | 33,817 | ||
| R | 12,141 | 22,756 | 34,918 | ||
| R | 13,710 | 20,374 | 35,332 | ||
| R | 16,426 | 17,069 | 33,684 | ||
| R | 10,580 | 22,431 | 33,069 | ||
| R | 11,278 | 15,121 | 30,798 | ||
| D | 18,986 | 13,796 | 32,782 | ||
| R | 14,584 | 18,360 | 32,962 | ||
| R | 13,985 | 17,908 | 31,914 | ||
| R | 14,420 | 19,008 | 33,482 | ||
| D | 14,588 | 13,832 | 28,536 | ||
| R | 13,453 | 15,981 | 29,526 | ||
| R | 17,744 | 18,972 | 36,900 | ||
| D | 18,680 | 15,915 | 34,852 | ||
| D | 17,041 | 12,936 | 30,284 | ||
| R | 10,846 | 16,024 | 26,927 | ||
| R | 9,681 | 12,745 | 23,741 | ||
| R | 9,770 | 15,693 | 25,761 | ||
| R | 8,471 | 10,772 | 19,616 | ||
| D | 6,035 | 5,306 | 13,737 | ||
| R | 6,165 | 8,764 | 15,194 | ||
| R | 5,228 | 7,880 | 13,542 | ||
| R | 5,611 | 7,083 | 12,967 | ||
| R | 5,771 | 6,556 | 12,409 | ||
| R | 5,008 | 5,401 | 10,947 | ||
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Demographics
Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
German
24.1%
English
9.9%
Irish
8.5%
American
7.4%
Scottish
1.7%
French
1.6%
Italian
1.3%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release. Hispanic/Latino is an ethnicity that overlaps the race categories, so these shares can total more than 100%. Ancestry is a self-reported, multiple-response item; ancestry percentages do not sum to the parent race percentage.
Age distribution by sex
Median age: 38.4 in this county, 39.1 nationally
Male
Age
Female
85+
75–84
65–74
55–64
45–54
35–44
25–34
18–24
5–17
<5
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
Median household income
2024 inflation-adjusted dollars
$66,900
Cape Girardeau, MO-IL ranks near the middle of US counties.
Cape Girardeau, MO-IL$66,900
Missouri$83,390
United States$80,734
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
Poverty rate
All persons below federal poverty line
14.1%
Child poverty is below the national average.
Children under 1814.6%
Working age (18–64)14.2%
Seniors (65+)12.2%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
96.9%
speak English only
Spanish1.1%
Other Indo-European1.0%
Asian & Pacific Islander0.9%
Other languages0.1%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 43.9% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.
Anchored by Cape Girardeau, Missouri, this small Mississippi River metro draws its political character from rural Bootheel counties and a regional university town that hasn't bucked the area's deepening rightward trend.
The Democratic margin in Cape Girardeau, MO-IL peaked at sixteen points in 1964. By 1968 the metro had flipped, voting Republican for the first time in many years. The 2024 margin was forty-nine points, the most Republican-leaning result in the metro's modern history.
The economic context is the key. The median household income of $66,900 sits well below state and national norms, and 14% of residents live below the federal poverty line. The shift here is part of a broader realignment of working-class places across the country.
Cite this page
All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Cape Girardeau, MO-IL, Missouri — The Long Memory. Akashic Intelligence — The Long Memory. https://tiers.akashic.app/cbsa/16020/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
Frequently asked questions
How did Cape Girardeau, MO-IL, Missouri vote in 2024?
In 2024, Cape Girardeau, MO-IL, Missouri voted Republican by 48.6 points (R+49), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 48,969 votes cast, 12,221 went Democratic and 36,021 went Republican.
What is Cape Girardeau, MO-IL, Missouri's political archetype?
Akashic classifies Cape Girardeau, MO-IL, Missouri as a "Populist" metro based on its long-arc presidential voting pattern. Across 38 elections in the dataset, the metro has voted Democratic 5 times, Republican 29 times, and other 0 times.
When did Cape Girardeau, MO-IL, Missouri last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Cape Girardeau, MO-IL, Missouri voted Democratic was 1964.
How many people live in Cape Girardeau, MO-IL, Missouri?
Cape Girardeau, MO-IL, Missouri has a population of 98,169 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Cape Girardeau, MO-IL, Missouri?
Median household income in Cape Girardeau, MO-IL, Missouri is $66,900 — below the national median of $80,734. The Missouri state median is $83,390.
What is the political history of Cape Girardeau, MO-IL, Missouri?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in Cape Girardeau, MO-IL, Missouri from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 5 went Democratic and 29 went Republican. The metro's archetype — "Populist" — captures the overall trajectory of that voting record.