Waterbury, Connecticut is a city of 81,000 people located in New Haven County. It is the 5th largest city in Connecticut and is known for its rich history. In terms of politics, Waterbury has long been a stronghold for the Democratic Party. Over the past few decades, the city has seen a number of Democratic representatives at both the state and federal levels. Recent representatives have included U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal and Congressman Joe Courtney. Waterbury also has had several prominent state lawmakers from both the Democratic and Republican parties such as Tony Hwang, Rob Sampson and Christopher Rosario. The city also elects a mayor every two years who oversees day-to-day operations in Waterbury such as police protection and public works projects. Currently, Neil M. O’Leary holds that position and was reelected in 2019 with 74% of the vote. With its strong Democratic base of support, it is no surprise that Waterbury remains committed to its longtime political traditions and will likely continue to do so for many years to come.
The political climate in Waterbury, CT is moderately liberal.
New Haven County, CT is moderately liberal. In New Haven County, CT 58.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 40.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, New Haven county remained very strongly Democratic, 58.0% to 40.6%.
New Haven county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Waterbury, CT is moderately liberal.
New Haven County, Connecticut is moderately liberal.
New Haven-Milford Metro Area is moderately liberal.
Connecticut is moderately 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.
Waterbury, Connecticut: 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 Waterbury, CT
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 2,495 contributions totaling $168,670 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $68 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 545 contributions totaling $57,213 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $105 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)