Population and Politics
Grant Parish had the highest growth rate in central Louisiana in the five-year period between 2001 and 2006, according to projections of the United States Census Bureau. The parish has had a 4.3 percent growth rate compared to 1.7 percent for its larger neighbor, Rapides Parish. Some neighboring parishes, including Winn, have experienced population decreases.
Grant Parish is heavily Republican in contested elections. Mitt Romney polled 7,082 votes (81.7 percent) in his 2012 race against the Democrat U.S. President Barack H. Obama, who trailed with 1,422 votes (16.4 percent). In 2008, U.S. Senator John S. McCain of Arizona swept the parish too, with 6,907 votes (80.7 percent) to Obama's 1,474 (17.2 percent).
In 1996, the Republican Robert J. Dole narrowly won in Grant Parish over U.S. President Bill Clinton, 3,117 votes (42.8 percent) to 2,980 (40.9 percent). Ross Perot, founder of his Reform Party, polled another 1,055 (14.5 percent). In 1992, George Herbert Walker Bush carried Grant Parish in his unsuccessful bid for relection. He polled 3,214 votes (40.8 percent) to Bill Clinton's 3,122 (39.6 percent) and Perot's 1,174 (14.9 percent).
The last Democrat to win in Grant Parish at the presidential level was former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia in his 1976 defeat of U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, Jr., with Robert Dole as the Republican vice-presidential choice.
Read more about this topic: Grant Parish, Louisiana, History
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