Santa Clara, CA is a thriving city with a rich history and vibrant culture. Politically, the city is governed by the Santa Clara City Council which consists of seven members elected by the public. The current mayor of Santa Clara is Lisa Gillmor who was elected to her position in 2014. The city council operates under the direction of Mayor Gillmor and holds important responsibilities such as developing policy and budgeting for services. In addition to the Santa Clara City Council, voters in Santa Clara help to shape local politics by voting for local candidates for state and federal offices. These elections are held regularly, allowing residents of Santa Clara to have a say in who represents them on higher levels of government.
The political climate in Santa Clara, CA is strongly liberal.
Santa Clara County, CA is very liberal. In Santa Clara County, CA 72.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 25.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Santa Clara county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 72.6% to 25.2%.
Santa Clara county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Santa Clara, CA is strongly liberal.
Santa Clara County, California is very liberal.
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara Metro Area is very liberal.
California is strongly liberal.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
Santa Clara, California: D D D D D D
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D if the Democratic Party candidate won and I if the Independent Party candidate won. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last three elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Santa Clara, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 40,168 contributions totaling $4,401,786 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $110 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 3,187 contributions totaling $606,670 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $190 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)