San Benito County, California is located in the Central Coast region of California. It is a small rural county with an estimated population of 56,100 as of 2019. The county seat and largest city is Hollister. San Benito County is largely rural, with the main industries being agriculture and food processing. The county is also home to several state parks and recreation areas such as Pinnacles National Park, Henry W. Coe State Park, and Ano Nuevo State Reserve. Political representation in San Benito County comes from state legislators, including Senators Bill Monning (D) and Scott Wiener (D), as well as Assembly Member Robert Rivas (D). At the local level there are three members on the San Benito County Board of Supervisors who are elected by constituents every four years in order to represent them at the county level. In addition to these supervisors, there are also mayors for each of the five incorporated cities within San Benito: Hollister, Tres Pinos, San Juan Bautista, Aromas, and Paicines. These mayors are all elected by citizens within their respective cities every four years as well. According to recent elections data from San Benito County Registrar of Voters Office, registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans 2 to 1 in this Central Coast area county.
The political climate in San Benito County, CA is strongly liberal.
In San Benito County, CA 61.1% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 36.7% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, San Benito county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 61.1% to 36.7%.
San Benito county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
San Benito County, CA is strongly 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.
San Benito, 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 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 Benito County, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 3,021 contributions totaling $232,857 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $77 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 623 contributions totaling $88,152 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $142 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)