The politics of the Modesto, CA Metro Area are heavily influenced by the local government. The city is governed by a mayor-council form of government and all major legislative decisions are made by the City Council members, who are voted into office by the local citizens. The City Council consists of seven members elected from seven different districts in Modesto. Residents of each district elect one council member to serve a four-year term. The current Mayor is Ted Brandvold, who was elected in 2018 and is running for re-election this year. In addition to the Mayor and City Council, there are many other influential political entities in the area including the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors, which is responsible for setting county policy and managing county finances; and other special districts such as school boards and water districts. The politics of Modesto also involve several state representatives from both the Assembly and Senate who represent areas within Stanislaus County in Sacramento.
The political climate in Modesto Metro Area is leaning liberal.
In Modesto Metro Area 49.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 48.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, the Modesto metro area remained slightly Democratic, 49.0% to 48.2%.
The Modesto metro area voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Modesto Metro Area is leaning 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.
Modesto, 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 four elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Modesto Metro Area
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 14,230 contributions totaling $1,131,763 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $80 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 5,269 contributions totaling $1,398,116 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $265 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)