Vandenberg AFB is located in California and is a part of Santa Barbara County. The base is home to over 4,000 military personnel and their families. As such, the local political landscape at Vandenberg AFB often reflects the interests of the military community. The area is represented in Congress by Salud Carbajal from the 24th district, and in the State Assembly by Jordan Cunningham from the 35th district. There are also multiple local elections that take place for various offices, including county supervisor, school board trustee, and city council member. Additionally, there are many local initiatives that involve public input from citizens living in Vandenberg AFB and its surrounding cities. Regardless of which political party they may support, residents of this area can be sure that their voices will be represented in regional politics and decision-making processes.
The political climate in Vandenberg AFB, CA is somewhat liberal.
Santa Barbara County, CA is very liberal. In Santa Barbara County, CA 64.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 32.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Santa Barbara county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 64.5% to 32.6%.
Santa Barbara county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Vandenberg AFB, CA is somewhat liberal.
Santa Barbara County, California is very liberal.
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara 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.
Vandenberg AFB, 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 Vandenberg AFB, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 2,444 contributions totaling $116,719 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $48 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 519 contributions totaling $66,141 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $127 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)