A place as loving and accepting as Riverdale could only be full of bleeding-heart Democrats, though Mr. Lodge is obviously a stereotypical cold-hearted Republican .

They are solidly Demopublican!

Does it really matter?  Archie and the gang are too young to vote anyways! 

Then again, I would venture to say that Lodge Industries is the basis of Riverdale's economy and probably the surrounding region as well. With most of the people working directly or indirectly for Mr. Lodge, the wind will always blow in his favour.

I think they try to avoid officially endorsing a party or anything. I don't really blame them.  If you want to try to deconstruct Archie Comics to find an answer, you can do that, but I think I will take a pass since it's likely to give me a headache. 

Ignoring the comics themselves, I think the company as a corporate entity may have been in the tank for the conservatives until recent history, which explains things like the company being closely connected to the Comics Code Authority, which was obviously extremely conservative among other things.

Well, as much as this question will NEVER be addressed in the comics, I'm going to guess Democrat. The gang, especially, seems more progressive/liberal, fighting to save forests and small businesses, having gay friends, fighting large corporations, attending same-sex weddings, etc.

There are gay people everywhere.  Even in the reddest parts of the deep south.  The fact that if gay people exist in something it's perceived as a political statement by people or the media is just disgusting to me.  Gay issues to me aren't political issues, they're civil rights issues.  I don't think they should be framed any other way, because that's what it's about, equal treatment under the law.

The problem is a lot of Republicans make gay things THEIR issues (certainly more than Democrats), and so Archie & the gang are unlikely to be sympathetic to such things. I mean, it's obviously a Civil Rights issue, but it always ends up in Politics anyways.

I imagine all the kids are Liberal-leaning (most kids I know are, anyways), but the parents may be different.

Certainly yeah, although maybe less so with 20 something Republicans now.  Unfortunately, the old farts seem to run things.

You have to look at that through a LGBT person's point of view though.  Just existing isn't making a political statement.  It's hilarious.  None of the non-straight people I run with give a crap about politics.  I'm a political junkie, but when I ask them about political stuff they just don't care about it.  However, if Archie introduces a gay character, they're "being liberal."  Do you see what's wrong with this thinking?