Amid continued political polarization, local leaders seek out the best ways to mitigate

NBC News

20-05-2025

Local officials are looking for ways to keep political polarization at bay as it continues to rage around them in the wider world, according to a new survey by the nonprofit research organization CivicPulse that was commissioned by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Just under a third of local government leaders who took part in the survey, which was released Tuesday, said political polarization negatively affects their communities "a great deal" or "a lot" — matching the 31% who said the same in an earlier survey by the nonprofit groups before the 2024 election.
While their perceptions have held steady, local officials are seeking new ways to prevent what 83% of them called the substantial harmful impact of polarization on the nation from seeping into their communities.
The survey of nearly 1,300 community leaders from around the country, conducted from January through March, is the second in a three-part series on the local impact of political polarization. The results, drawn from municipalities of a few thousand people to tens of thousands, again suggest local governments — especially in smaller communities — are more insulated from the negative effects of polarization than state and national ones.
Still, the responses showed that local leaders believe the negative community impact hasn't subsided even after the conclusion of last year's heated election, driving a variety of mitigation efforts.
They include focusing on hyperlocal policy areas that the public, regardless of party affiliation, can agree on; emphasizing neutral language, evidence and community benefits in communications; hosting community events to raise awareness of what local government is doing; and introducing volunteering opportunities and civics education.
'The finding that perceptions of political polarization are slow to change confirms the need for sustained commitments,' Louise Richardson, president of the Carnegie Corporation, said in a statement. 'Evidently local government leaders are looking for ways to foster more cohesive environments, and in so doing are providing examples for other communities.'
Choosing topics to transcend polarization
Just under half of respondents, or 48%, said they choose to devote their time to policy topics that universally affect the community, like infrastructure, housing and public safety, to avoid potential politicization. Local leaders said that when opinions on topics could fall along national party lines, they try to reframe the issues to lessen any divisiveness, with 57% reporting they considered the challenges of polarization in deciding how to communicate about their work.
James Hely, a Town Council member in Westfield, New Jersey, provided one example. He said that he and the mayor favor building affordable housing in their community but that the term can be politically charged.
"You have to be very liberal to say I want the town to have a lot of affordable housing," said Hely, a Democrat.
Instead, he reframes the issue to focus on local control of zoning. That's because New Jersey enacted a law, known as the "builder's remedy," that allows developers to sue municipalities to build affordable housing when such accommodations are lacking, sometimes overriding local zoning restrictions and the community's wishes.
"Rather than say we want to make sure we have affordable housing, you turn that around to say, one, we want to stop the builder's remedy; we want to prevent builders from coming in and crashing our zoning code," he said.
In addition to reframing potentially polarizing topics, council members typically stick to an agenda that focuses on hyperlocal issues, Hely said.
'I counted up the votes that are put before the Town Council,' he said. 'About 98% to 99% [of the votes] there's 100% unanimity, because it just involves how much do you pay the police and how many traffic lights we need — things have nothing to do with ideology.'
Hely, whose Town Council consists of five Democrats and four Republicans, said partisan political rhetoric is seen as counterproductive on the council and is considered off-limits when community issues are discussed.
'On the formal Town Council meetings, if anyone were to say, you know, 'Trump is evil' or anything critical on the national level, you'd be seen as out of bounds,' he said. 'You know — why are you talking about that? We're here to solve local problems.'
Zoe Warner, a member of the Malvern Borough Council in Pennsylvania, echoed Hely. She said it's easier for council members to do their work when their constituents understand 'we don't have control over those larger issues' that plague discussions of national politics, such as immigration or cuts to federal agencies.
'So [we're] trying to work together to find solutions for things that we really do have control over, like a building going up,' despite potential disagreements over things like the potential impact on traffic congestion, said Warner, a Democrat.
The things that help enlist community support are 'being transparent about it, providing as much information, having the developer meet with these people, trying to find as much common ground as we can," she said.
Public engagement is critical, respondents say
Forty-four percent of the survey respondents also cited long-term volunteering opportunities as a way to fight polarization in local communities, while 38% of the school board officials surveyed described civics education as helpful. Still others said staying connected with residents is key.
Forty-six percent of local leaders said hosting community events 'strongly' or 'somewhat' decreased the negative effects of polarization. A high proportion also pointed to other methods of engagement as effective, such as hosting open meetings, holding informal office and coffee hours (where residents meet with leaders in informal settings) and inviting people to participate in things like budget planning by joining special commissions.
'It's really quite simple,' said Jon Keeney, the mayor of Taylor Lake Village, Texas. 'I am and my council are 100% transparent. There's not anything that's done behind closed doors in the city.'
Keeney said that while he has been active in the Texas Republican Party for a long time, he has never let those political beliefs affect his agenda for the city.
'I have both Democrats, Republicans and actually independents on my council, and I could care less what their ideology is,' he said. He added: 'I never tried to influence any of my council members on what I put on the agenda in terms of how they would vote. So there's no backroom stuff going on in that respect.'
Carleigh Beriont, a Democratic town selectwoman in Hampton, New Hampshire, agreed with the survey's findings that community engagement is critical.
'Listening is just really key," Beriont said. "Like, the more I've listened to residents, the more I've come to understand that their views are not really represented by partisan ideology, right?
'I really do think that listening and being humble and organizing people in the community can be a great way to get things done,' she added. 'I'm not making decisions that I think will benefit my Democratic neighbors or my Republican neighbors. I try to make decisions that I know will benefit as many people as possible and be as transparent and accountable and open to exchange as I can be.'