Shields, ND Political Map | Democrat & Republican Areas in Shields

By the BestNeighborhood data science team. Last updated May 2026.

Shields leans heavily Republican by roughly 40 points: about 30% of voters vote Democratic and 70% Republican.

 

About 59% of adults in Shields typically vote, near the U.S. average of about 62%. Among adults in Shields, ~18% vote Democratic, ~41% Republican, and ~41% don't vote. The map below shows estimated turnout by block group.

How Shields compares

Among cities within 25 miles, Shields leans more Republican than 4 of 12 neighbors.

Shields runs about 4 points more Republican than North Dakota as a whole.

Politics vary noticeably by neighborhood within Shields. The west side is the most Republican-leaning (R+69) and the east side is the least Republican-leaning (R+4), a spread of about 65 points.

Why Shields 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 Shields, not a ranked or complete list of what matters most.

Rural areas vote Republican. About 2% of residents in Shields live in densely developed areas, about 10 points below the North Dakota average of 12%.

Paved land cover and Republican lean

Places with little paved surface tend to lean Republican; Shields, ND sits in the bottom tenth nationally on this measure. Paved ground does not change how people vote; it mostly reflects how urban and built-up a place is.

Why turnout in Shields looks the way it does

High-crime urban areas turn out at lower rates, mostly because the housing stress common in those areas makes voting harder. Shields sits in the top 15% nationally on a violent-crime measure. See CrimeGrade for more details. High food insecurity lines up with lower turnout, and about 22% of adults in Shields report food insecurity, above 86% of cities. Learn more about the findings and methodology on the political spectrum map.

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Sources and methodology

Precinct-level voting records used to fit the model come from North Dakota Secretary of State, 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. Full methodology and findings: political spectrum map.

Methodology reviewed by the BestNeighborhood data team. Last updated May 2026.