Elliott County | |
|---|---|
 Elliott County courthouse in Sandy Hook | |
 Location within the U.S. state ofKentucky | |
 Kentucky's location within theU.S. | |
| Coordinates:38°07′00″N83°06′00″W / 38.1167°N 83.1°W /38.1167; -83.1 | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  Kentucky |
| Founded | 1869 |
| Named after | John Milton Elliott or John Lyle Elliot |
| Seat | Sandy Hook |
| Largest city | Sandy Hook |
| Area | |
• Total | 235 sq mi (610 km2) |
| • Land | 234 sq mi (610 km2) |
| • Water | 1.0 sq mi (2.6 km2) 0.4% |
| Population (2020) | |
• Total | 7,354 |
• Estimate (2024) | 7,263 |
| • Density | 31.4/sq mi (12.1/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC−5 (Eastern) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−4 (EDT) |
| Congressional district | 5th |
| Website | elliottcounty |
Elliott County is acounty located in theU.S. state ofKentucky. Itscounty seat isSandy Hook.[1] The county was formed in 1869 from parts ofMorgan,Lawrence, andCarter counties, and is named forJohn Milton Elliott a judge,U.S. Congressman, and a member of the1st Confederate States Congress from Kentucky; he was also involved in the formation of theConfederate government of Kentucky.[2] Some historians, however, contend the county was named after John Milton Elliot's father, John Lyle Elliot aU.S. Congressman andConfederate Justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals.[3][4] In regard to alcohol sales, Elliott County is adry county, meaning the sale ofalcoholic beverages is prohibited everywhere in the county.
It is one of thelowest-income counties in the United States, partly due to the presence ofLittle Sandy Correctional Complex. From 1872 to 2012, the county always voted Democratic in presidential elections.
Elliott County was established in 1869 from land given by Carter, Lawrence, and Morgan counties. A fire at the courthouse in 1957 resulted in the destruction of many county records.[5]
According to theU.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 235 square miles (610 km2), of which 234 square miles (610 km2) is land and 1.0 square mile (2.6 km2) (0.4%) is water.[6]
| Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1870 | 4,433 | — | |
| 1880 | 6,567 | 48.1% | |
| 1890 | 9,214 | 40.3% | |
| 1900 | 10,387 | 12.7% | |
| 1910 | 9,814 | −5.5% | |
| 1920 | 8,887 | −9.4% | |
| 1930 | 7,571 | −14.8% | |
| 1940 | 8,713 | 15.1% | |
| 1950 | 7,085 | −18.7% | |
| 1960 | 6,330 | −10.7% | |
| 1970 | 5,933 | −6.3% | |
| 1980 | 6,908 | 16.4% | |
| 1990 | 6,455 | −6.6% | |
| 2000 | 6,748 | 4.5% | |
| 2010 | 7,852 | 16.4% | |
| 2020 | 7,354 | −6.3% | |
| 2024 (est.) | 7,263 | [7] | −1.2% |
| U.S. Decennial Census[8] 1790-1960[9] 1900-1990[10] 1990-2000[11] 2010-2021[12] | |||
As of thecensus[13] of 2000, there were 6,748 people, 2,638 households, and 1,925 families residing in the county. Thepopulation density was 29 per square mile (11/km2). There were 3,107 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile (5.0/km2). The racial makeup of the county was 99.04%White, 0.03%Black orAfrican American, 0.07%Native American, 0.01%Pacific Islander, 0.01% fromother races, and 0.83% from two or more races. 0.59% of the population wereHispanic orLatino of any race.
There were 2,638 households, of which 33.40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.00% weremarried couples living together, 9.70% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.00% were non-families. 24.70% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.00% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.54 and the average family size was 3.02.
People of British ancestry form an overwhelming plurality in Elliott County.[14][15][16][17][18]
In the county, the population was spread out, with 25.40% under the age of 18, 9.10% from 18 to 24, 27.50% from 25 to 44, 24.70% from 45 to 64, and 13.40% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 95.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.50 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $21,014, and the median income for a family was $27,125. Males had a median income of $29,593 versus $20,339 for females. Theper capita income for the county was $12,067. About 20.80% of families and 25.90% of the population were below thepoverty line, including 30.50% of those under age 18 and 26.40% of those age 65 or over.
| Year | Republican | Democratic | Third party(ies) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
| 1872 | 124 | 24.51% | 382 | 75.49% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1876 | 141 | 16.02% | 739 | 83.98% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1880 | 115 | 14.45% | 623 | 78.27% | 58 | 7.29% |
| 1884 | 261 | 23.02% | 873 | 76.98% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1888 | 426 | 28.03% | 1,090 | 71.71% | 4 | 0.26% |
| 1892 | 453 | 28.85% | 1,079 | 68.73% | 38 | 2.42% |
| 1896 | 577 | 30.56% | 1,294 | 68.54% | 17 | 0.90% |
| 1900 | 624 | 31.28% | 1,367 | 68.52% | 4 | 0.20% |
| 1904 | 594 | 34.02% | 1,143 | 65.46% | 9 | 0.52% |
| 1908 | 618 | 34.62% | 1,159 | 64.93% | 8 | 0.45% |
| 1912 | 396 | 25.70% | 1,006 | 65.28% | 139 | 9.02% |
| 1916 | 525 | 31.12% | 1,151 | 68.23% | 11 | 0.65% |
| 1920 | 860 | 32.61% | 1,764 | 66.89% | 13 | 0.49% |
| 1924 | 614 | 26.16% | 1,702 | 72.52% | 31 | 1.32% |
| 1928 | 601 | 31.33% | 1,317 | 68.67% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1932 | 382 | 15.09% | 2,150 | 84.91% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1936 | 480 | 23.77% | 1,539 | 76.23% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1940 | 634 | 23.95% | 2,013 | 76.05% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1944 | 514 | 23.00% | 1,721 | 77.00% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1948 | 410 | 16.28% | 2,095 | 83.17% | 14 | 0.56% |
| 1952 | 629 | 23.27% | 2,074 | 76.73% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1956 | 1,033 | 32.53% | 2,143 | 67.47% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1960 | 789 | 31.27% | 1,734 | 68.73% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1964 | 323 | 13.74% | 2,026 | 86.18% | 2 | 0.09% |
| 1968 | 515 | 23.56% | 1,387 | 63.45% | 284 | 12.99% |
| 1972 | 782 | 34.04% | 1,499 | 65.26% | 16 | 0.70% |
| 1976 | 455 | 18.49% | 1,987 | 80.74% | 19 | 0.77% |
| 1980 | 551 | 24.59% | 1,668 | 74.43% | 22 | 0.98% |
| 1984 | 601 | 26.20% | 1,683 | 73.37% | 10 | 0.44% |
| 1988 | 550 | 23.33% | 1,797 | 76.24% | 10 | 0.42% |
| 1992 | 444 | 17.58% | 1,796 | 71.13% | 285 | 11.29% |
| 1996 | 421 | 20.89% | 1,298 | 64.42% | 296 | 14.69% |
| 2000 | 827 | 34.73% | 1,525 | 64.05% | 29 | 1.22% |
| 2004 | 871 | 29.46% | 2,064 | 69.80% | 22 | 0.74% |
| 2008 | 902 | 35.86% | 1,535 | 61.03% | 78 | 3.10% |
| 2012 | 1,126 | 46.94% | 1,186 | 49.44% | 87 | 3.63% |
| 2016 | 2,000 | 70.05% | 740 | 25.92% | 115 | 4.03% |
| 2020 | 2,246 | 74.99% | 712 | 23.77% | 37 | 1.24% |
| 2024 | 2,335 | 80.13% | 532 | 18.26% | 47 | 1.61% |
Elliott County had voted for theDemocratic Party's nominee in every presidential election since the county was formed in 1869, up until the2016 presidential election.[21] This was the longest streak of any county voting Democratic in the United States.[22] It was also the last majority-White Southern rural county never to have voted for a Republican in any presidential election until 2016.[21] As of2024,Donald Trump remains the only Republican to have ever won Elliott County in presidential elections.
According to interviews from residents of the county, this overwhelming Democratic support was primarily due to long-standing tradition to vote Democratic passed down through generations, as well as an appreciation for big government followingFDR'sNew Deal.[23] The county is one of the lowest-income in the country, as part of theEastern Kentucky Coalfield.[24]
Even in nationwide Republican landslides like1972 and1984, when Republican candidates won the state of Kentucky overall with over 60% of the vote, Elliott County voted 65.3% and 73.4% Democratic, respectively. Reagan, in particular, only performed 3% better in the county in 1984 than1936 GOP nomineeAlf Landon, despite the fact that Reagan won everywhere butMinnesota andWashington, D.C., and a national popular vote swing of 41%, while Landon lost every state butMaine andVermont.
It was DemocratJohn Kerry's strongest county in Kentucky in2004.[25] Withwhite Americans making up 99.04% of its population, Elliott County was the second-whitest in the country to vote for DemocratBarack Obama in2008, the whitest beingMitchell County, Iowa. Obama garnered 61.0% of the vote, while RepublicanJohn McCain received 35.9%. In fact, Elliott County provided Obama with the highest percentage of the vote in all of Kentucky, although this was nonetheless the worst Democratic performance in the county since its founding. The county shifted 15% rightward from 2004 to 2008, despite Obama improving by 4% in Kentucky.
Obama would again win the county in2012, his only such victory in the staunchly conservative region of ruralEastern Kentucky. However, he eked out only a narrow 49.4% plurality overMitt Romney's 46.9%, thus ending an over century-long streak of Democratic landslides in Elliott County. Reflecting the increasing rural–urban divide of modern American politics, Obama's strongest county in the state was insteadJefferson County, home toLouisville—the most populous city in Kentucky—which he won by a comfortable 54.7–43.6% margin.
The county is part of theBible Belt, and according to interviews in 2013, residents weresocially conservative on issues such asabortion andLGBT rights.[26] In 2022, Elliott County voted forKentucky Amendment 2, which would have explicitly removed a constitutional right to abortion, by a 347-vote (roughly 17.91%) margin, with 1,142 "yes" votes (roughly 59%) and 795 "no" votes (roughly 41.04%)[27] - indicating continuedanti-abortion sentiment in Elliott County into the early 2020s, although not by the landslide 20%+ margins seen in many rural counties further south in Kentucky closer toTennessee.
In 2013, most Elliott County residents believed thatHillary Clinton would easily carry the county if she ran in 2016, even though a more liberal Democrat might lose the county.[28] Instead, Elliott County's hard swing towards theRepublican Party continued in 2016, when it voted for Republican Trump over Clinton by a 70.1–25.9% margin,[29] decisively ending the Democratic Party's 140-yearvictory streak. Trump received about 900 more votes in the county, nearly twice the number of voters that Romney won. In contrast, Clinton received about 400 fewer votes than Obama.[21] Despite Trump's victory, Democratic candidates for concurrent downballot offices managed to carry the county. In theSenate race, Democratic nomineeJim Gray won 56.0% of the county's vote to Republican SenatorRand Paul's 44.0%. In addition, Democratic State Rep.Rocky Adkins, a Sandy Hook native whose state house district includes the entire county, was reelected and took 86% of the vote in Elliott.
Trump won the county again in2020 with a larger 75% of the vote. By2024, Trump managed to make Elliott an even deeper shade of red, getting 80% of the vote, a figure that once was more commonly associated with fiercely Unionist Kentucky counties likeJackson andClay.
Overall, Elliott County shifted to the right from 2012 to 2024 by 64 percentage points, representing one of the strongest such rightward shifts for any county in the country. The county had the largest shift to the right of any county outside of Texas. The county went from giving Democrats 70% of the vote in 2004 to 18% in 2024, despite Democrats winning 48.3% of the national popular vote in both years.[30]
Elliott was one of two counties in Kentucky (the other being nearbyWolfe County) that had voted against SenatorMitch McConnell in all of his elections, though this streak would also come to an end in2020.[31] It also had never voted for RepresentativeHal Rogers in any of his contested elections until2018, when he won 54.5% of the county's vote over Democratic nominee Kenneth Stepp.[32] Until the 2020s, the county remained reliably Democratic in state-level races, voting for the party's entire slate in the2015 and2019 statewide elections. However, in2023, the county voted Republican in every state-level election on the ballot except for thegovernor. Despite this, Democratic GovernorAndy Beshear's vote share still decreased in Elliott County, from 59.27% in 2019 to 53.48% in 2023, despite him winning by a higher margin statewide compared tofour years previously.[33][34]
| Elected officials as of January 3, 2025[35][36] | ||
| U.S. House | Hal Rogers (R) | KY 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Ky. Senate | Phillip Wheeler (R) | 31 |
| Ky. House | Richard White (R) | 99 |
| Elected officials as of January 2, 2023[37] | |
| Judge/Executive | Myron Lewis (D) |
|---|---|
| Magistrate District 1 | Emily Adkins (D) |
| Magistrate District 2 | Michael Dickerson (R) |
| Magistrate District 3 | Charles Whitt (R) |
| Magistrate District 4 | Brian Dillon (D) |
| Magistrate District 5 | Chris Dickerson (R) |
| Magistrate District 6 | Dewey Smith (D) |
| Magistrate District 7 | Darren Newell (D) |
| Property Value Admin. | Adam Ison (D) |
| Attorney | John D. Lewis Jr. (D) |
| Clerk | Jennifer R. Carter (D) |
| Sheriff | Ray Craft (D) |
| Jailer | Dustin Kelley (D) |
| Coroner | Mark Lewis (D) |
| Elected officials as of January 6, 2025[38][39] | |
| Commonwealth's Attorney | Brandon Ison (D) |
|---|---|
| Circuit Court Clerk | William Jason Ison (D) |
| 37th Circuit, 1st division | Rebecca K. Phillips |
| 37th Circuit, 2nd division family court | Jeniffer Barker Neice |
| 37th District | Rupert Wilhoit |
On Election Day 2012, Elliott County had the lowest percentage of registered Republicans in Kentucky, with just 215 of 5,012 (4.2%) registered voters affiliating with the GOP.[40] By October 2016, this proportion had increased to 429 out of 5,213 (8.2%).[41] In April 2019, it stood at 562 of 5,318 (10.6%).[42] By June 2022, this share had nearly doubled, with 1,007 registered Republicans out of 5,243 registered voters (19.2%).[43] By May 2024, 1136 out of 4947 (23%) of the county's voters were registered Republicans.[44]
On July 1, 2025, the county had 4,748 registered voters, who were registered with the following parties.
| Party | Registration | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Voters | % | ||
| Democratic | 3,231 | 68.05 | |
| Republican | 1,205 | 25.38 | |
| Independent | 130 | 2.74 | |
| Libertarian | 16 | 0.34 | |
| Constitution | 5 | 0.11 | |
| Green | 1 | 0.02 | |
| Reform | 1 | 0.02 | |
| Socialist Workers | 0 | 0.00 | |
| "Other" | 159 | 3.35 | |
| Total | 4,748 | 100.00 | |
| Source:Kentucky State Board of Elections | |||
Our Democratic principles and how we're registered to vote was handed down from generation to generation, explained Rocky Adkins, who has served as Elliott's representative in the statehouse in Frankfort, Kentucky, since 1987.
But in its persistent poverty, Eastern Kentucky - land of storybook hills and drawls - just might be the hardest place to live in the United States. Statistically speaking.
According to residents, many of its citizens are socially conservative, uncomfortable with gay marriage and largely opposed to abortion. The numerous Baptist congregations in the county help shape and reinforce the community's attitudes toward social issues.
Municipalities and communities ofElliott County, Kentucky,United States | ||
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| Unincorporated communities | ||
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| See also | |
38°7′N83°6′W / 38.117°N 83.100°W /38.117; -83.100
| International | |
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| National | |
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| Other | |
