Oakland, California is a diverse and eclectic city that has long been recognized as an important area for American politics. The city is located in the Bay Area and is home to a variety of civic, educational, and cultural activities. It has numerous political activists and organizations, including the Oakland Democratic Socialists of America and various other labor unions. Oakland's progressive values are reflected in their citywide policies on housing, health care, education, worker's rights, immigration reform, environmentalism, and gun violence prevention. Over the years Oakland has taken steps to increase voter turnout by providing expanded early voting opportunities and registering people at all levels of government. Additionally, local politicians have supported increasing minimum wages for workers throughout the region. In recent years Oakland has seen an influx of new residents who are eager to make an impact in their new city through their political voice. No matter what your beliefs may be there are multiple avenues to get involved in Oakland’s politics from participating in local rallies to joining neighborhood groups or volunteering for elected officials.
The political climate in Oakland, CA is strongly liberal.
Alameda County, CA is very liberal. In Alameda County, CA 79.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 17.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.6% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Alameda county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 79.8% to 17.6%.
Alameda county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Oakland, CA is strongly liberal.
Alameda County, California is very liberal.
San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley 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.
Oakland, 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 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 Oakland, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 197,751 contributions totaling $31,024,956 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $157 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 5,453 contributions totaling $2,240,905 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $411 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)