San Diego, CA County is one of the most populated counties in California. It has a thriving political scene with many local political candidates campaigning for office in both municipal and county elections. San Diego's politics are largely dominated by Democrats, who hold the majority of countywide offices, including all five seats on the County Board of Supervisors. The Democratic Party also holds a majority in the state Assembly and Senate districts that cover San Diego County. Additionally, Democrats have been elected as mayors of several cities across the county, including Chula Vista and San Diego itself. This year's election cycle saw an increase in local activism and involvement from citizens who are eager to be part of the decision-making process for their community. With so many local political candidates vying for office, it promises to be an exciting year as San Diegans continue to make their voices heard on important issues facing the region.
The political climate in San Diego County, CA is moderately liberal.
In San Diego County, CA 60.2% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 37.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, San Diego county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 60.2% to 37.5%.
San Diego county voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
San Diego County, CA is moderately liberal.
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad Metro Area is moderately 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.
San Diego, 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 for the Democrat and I for the Independent. 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 San Diego County, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 277,492 contributions totaling $45,091,598 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $163 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 50,758 contributions totaling $20,782,072 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $409 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)