Politics in Santa Barbara, CA are heavily influenced by the local population and the issues that matter most to them. In recent years, local political candidates have been focused on improving socio-economic conditions in the community, increasing access to quality healthcare, and creating more jobs to reduce unemployment. They also strive to combat climate change and environmental degradation through green initiatives such as renewable energy sources and electric vehicle accessibility. Additionally, candidates have supported education reform, access to affordable housing, and immigration laws that respect human rights. The politics of Santa Barbara focus on providing citizens with quality of life improvements while preserving its unique culture.
The political climate in Santa Barbara, CA is moderately liberal.
Santa Barbara County, CA is very liberal. In Santa Barbara County, CA 64.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 32.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Santa Barbara county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 64.5% to 32.6%.
Santa Barbara county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Santa Barbara, CA is moderately liberal.
Santa Barbara County, California is very liberal.
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara 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 Barbara, 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 Barbara, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 63,499 contributions totaling $9,544,100 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $150 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 5,145 contributions totaling $2,956,412 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $575 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)