Portsmouth leans Democratic by roughly 18 points: about 59% of voters vote Democratic and 41% Republican. These figures are model estimates: Rhode Island did not have precinct-level voting records available for training, so the numbers above come from demographic and health features rather than local ground truth.
About 79% of adults in Portsmouth typically vote, above the U.S. average of about 62%. Among adults in Portsmouth, ~46% vote Democratic, ~32% Republican, and ~22% don't vote. The map below shows estimated turnout by block group.
How Portsmouth compares
Among cities within 25 miles, Portsmouth leans more Democratic than 75 of 87 neighbors.
Portsmouth runs about 5 points more Democratic than Rhode Island as a whole.
Politics vary noticeably by neighborhood within Portsmouth. The northwest side is the most Democratic-leaning (D+34) and the northeast side is the least Democratic-leaning (D+10), a spread of about 24 points.
Why Portsmouth leans the way it does
This analysis examined 14,881 data points per city to find what predicts political lean and turnout. The items below are a few correlations that stood out for Portsmouth, not a ranked or complete list of what matters most.
Areas with high college attainment vote Democratic. About 61% of adults in Portsmouth hold a bachelor's degree, about 33 points above the U.S. average of 28%.
Walkability and Democratic lean
Places with a highly walkable street grid tend to lean Democratic; Portsmouth, RI sits in the top tenth nationally on this measure. A walkable street grid does not change how people vote; it mostly reflects how urban a place is.
Why turnout in Portsmouth looks the way it does
Areas with strong routine healthcare access turn out at higher rates. Portsmouth is in the top quarter nationally for routine-care measures such as insurance coverage, preventive screenings, and dental visits. The dental-visit rate here is about 79%, about 19 points above the U.S. average of 60%. High high-school completion lines up with higher turnout, and about 97% of adults in Portsmouth have completed high school, above 89% of cities. Learn more about the findings and methodology on the political spectrum map.
Nearby Cities
- Prudence Island, RI D+35
- Middletown, RI D+17
- Tiverton, RI Even
- Newport East, RI D+15
- Bristol, RI D+9
- Little Compton, RI D+9
- Newport, RI D+47
- Westport, MA R+10
- Jamestown, RI D+25
Cities with Similar Populations
- North Amityville, NY D+60
- Louisburg, NC R+14
- Arab, AL R+72
- Thompsons Station, TN R+43
- Taylor, TX R+2
- Theodore, AL R+43
- New Hyde Park, NY R+8
- Kingsburg, CA R+34
- La Palma, CA D+4
- Spanish Springs, NV R+34
Sources and methodology
Precinct-level voting records used to fit the model come from Rhode Island Board of Elections, distributed by the Voting and Election Science Team. Demographic inputs come from the U.S. Census Bureau (ACS 5-year estimates and the 2020 Decennial Census). Health and environmental inputs come from the CDC (PLACES and the Environmental Justice Index). Land cover comes from the USGS and EPA. Election-day and lead-up weather come from PRISM 4km daily grids and the NOAA Global Historical Climatology Network. Mail-voting and election-administration patterns come from the MIT Election Lab's Survey of the Performance of American Elections. Block-group crime detail comes from CrimeGrade. Internet data and modeling support provided by ISPreports.org.
Modeling and analysis by the BestNeighborhood data science team. RI did not have precinct-level voting records available for training, so the figures here come from extrapolation across demographic, health, and land-use features rather than local ground truth. Full methodology and findings: political spectrum map.
Methodology reviewed by the BestNeighborhood data team. Last updated May 2026.