Palo Alto is a city in the San Francisco Bay area of California that is home to a population of approximately 67,000 people. It is known for its vibrant culture and innovative spirit, with many tech companies such as Hewlett Packard, Tesla Motors, and Google having their headquarters here. The city also has a long history in politics, with many notable politicians originating from Palo Alto. Notable local political figures include Toni \"TJ\" Intud, Eric Filseth, Lydia Kou and Greg Tanaka. Each of these individuals have been actively involved in the community and have contributed to the development of Palo Alto's politics. From advocating for environmental policies to pushing for reform in education, they are committed to making Palo Alto a better place for all its citizens.
The political climate in Palo Alto, CA is moderately liberal.
Santa Clara County, CA is very liberal. In Santa Clara County, CA 72.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 25.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Santa Clara county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 72.6% to 25.2%.
Santa Clara county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Palo Alto, CA is moderately liberal.
Santa Clara County, California is very 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.
Palo Alto, 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 Palo Alto, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 130,566 contributions totaling $82,852,794 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $635 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 10,170 contributions totaling $14,626,745 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $1,438 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)