The most predominant denominations among residents in Iron County who adhere to a religion are Southern Baptists (56.62%), Methodists (10.60%), and Roman Catholics (7.82%).

Genevieve in 2012 with 53.84 percent of the vote in the district, which includes most of the Missouri Lead Belt region.

Senator Claire McCaskill; Iron County voters backed Hawley with 62.6 percent of the vote.

Roy Blunt was re-elected in 2016 with 49.3 percent of the statewide vote over Democratic Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander, Libertarian Jonathan Dine of Riverside, Constitutionalist Fred Ryman, and Green Party candidate Johnathan McFarland; Iron County voters supported Blunt with over 55 percent of the vote.

Smith won a special election on Tuesday, June 4, 2013, to complete the remaining term of former Republican U.S. Representative Jo Ann Emerson of Cape Girardeau.

Located in the Lead Belt region of the state, mining has been important to the county's economy.

It was one of only three predominantly rural counties in Missouri to vote for Barack Obama in 2008 (nearby Washington and Ste.

At the same time Romney won Iron County by 15 points in 2012, all Democratic statewide candidates Jay Nixon (Governor), Claire McCaskill (U.S.

Senator), Jason Kander (Secretary of State), Chris Koster (Attorney General), and Clint Zweifel (State Treasurer) carried Iron County by healthy margins; Peter Kinder (Lieutenant Governor) was the only other statewide Republican to win Iron County alongside Romney, and even then, the margin of victory was smaller than in most other rural counties.

Like most rural areas throughout Southeast Missouri, voters in Iron County generally adhere to socially and culturally conservative principles but are more moderate or populist on economic issues.

The proposition strongly passed every single county in Missouri with 75.94 percent voting in favor as the minimum wage was increased to $6.50 an hour in the state.

In the 2008 Missouri Presidential Preference Primary, voters in Iron County from both political parties supported candidates who finished in second place in the state at large and nationally.

Senator Hillary Clinton (D-New York) received more votes, a total of 1,180, than any candidate from either party in Iron County during the 2008 Missouri Presidential Primaries.