Schenectady County in New York State has a vibrant political history. Located in the Capital District region of the state, the county is part of the greater Albany area and is home to a number of local governments and political organizations. The county is within the 20th Congressional district, and its citizens are represented by Congresswoman Paul Tonko. At the state level, Schenectady County is represented by Senator Neil Breslin in the New York Senate and Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara. Several counties including Saratoga, Montgomery, Rensselaer and Schoharie are also part of this district. In addition to these representatives in government, there are numerous local leaders who have been active in politics for many years in Schenectady County. These individuals include current Mayor Gary McCarthy and former mayor Brian Stratton. Other local activists include community advocates like Hugo Rodriguez, former City Councilman Richard Patierno, and local businessmen Charles Mowatt and Anthony Jasinski. Through their leadership and dedication to their community, these individuals have helped make Schenectady County an important hub of political activity in upstate New York.
The political climate in Schenectady County, NY is somewhat liberal.
In Schenectady County, NY 56.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 41.0% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.5% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Schenectady county remained very strongly Democratic, 56.6% to 41.0%.
Schenectady county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Schenectady County, NY is somewhat liberal.
Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metro Area is somewhat liberal.
New York 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.
Schenectady, New York: 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 Schenectady County, NY
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 10,000 contributions totaling $681,020 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $68 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,333 contributions totaling $329,681 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $247 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)