Los Banos is a small city located in Merced County, California. It has a population of around 35,000 people and is known for its rich agricultural land and diverse cultural offerings. The City of Los Banos is governed by a five-member City Council, which includes the Mayor and four Council Members who are elected at-large every two years. The Council members are responsible for approving the budget, making laws and policies, setting goals and objectives for the City government, and appointing members to various boards and commissions. Los Banos has several different political parties represented on the Council including Republicans, Democrats, Greens, Independents, Libertarians, and more. Residents have the opportunity to get involved in local politics by registering to vote and attending local meetings where they can voice their opinions on issues that affect their neighborhoods. With an active citizenry that continuously works to keep its government accountable and transparent to all residents of Los Banos regardless of political party affiliations or backgrounds, this city stands as an example of democracy in action.
The political climate in Los Banos, CA is somewhat liberal.
Merced County, CA is somewhat liberal. In Merced County, CA 53.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 43.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.9% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Merced county remained strongly Democratic, 53.8% to 43.3%.
Merced county voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Los Banos, CA is somewhat liberal.
Merced County, California is somewhat liberal.
Merced Metro Area is somewhat 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.
Los Banos, California: r R 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 Los Banos, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 513 contributions totaling $73,172 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $143 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 351 contributions totaling $151,916 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $433 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)