San Diego, California is a vibrant city that is home to many people and businesses. The politics in the city are driven by the residents themselves, who take an active role in determining the direction of San Diego’s government and policy. Local elections are held every year, with candidates from both major parties vying for office in each race. Issues such as economic development, education, housing affordability, public safety, and environmental protection are all important topics for San Diegans to discuss and consider when voting in local elections. As San Diego continues to grow and change, citizens remain committed to making sure that their voices are heard as they work together to shape their city’s future.
The political climate in San Diego, CA is moderately liberal.
San Diego County, CA is moderately liberal. In San Diego County, CA 60.2% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 37.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, San Diego county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 60.2% to 37.5%.
San Diego county voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
San Diego, CA is moderately liberal.
San Diego County, California is moderately liberal.
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad Metro Area is moderately 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 Diego, 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 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 San Diego, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 196,212 contributions totaling $38,120,005 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $194 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 33,281 contributions totaling $15,569,346 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $468 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)