San Mateo, California is located in the San Francisco Bay Area and is known as a major hub for technology and innovation. It is also home to a vibrant political community that works hard to ensure the city’s continued economic success. The current mayor of San Mateo is Rick Bonilla, who was elected in 2016. He has emphasized increasing public safety, encouraging green initiatives, and fostering open dialogue between citizens and their government. Additionally, the City Council consists of nine members all dedicated to ensuring that the community’s needs are met while advocating for sustainable growth. At both the local and state levels, San Mateo has representatives who strive to pass policies that will benefit all residents of the city. From finding solutions to traffic problems to fighting for workers’ rights, these individuals have proven time and again that they are committed to serving the people of San Mateo faithfully.
The political climate in San Mateo, CA is strongly liberal.
San Mateo County, CA is very liberal. In San Mateo County, CA 77.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 20.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.9% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, San Mateo county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 77.9% to 20.2%.
San Mateo county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
San Mateo, CA is strongly liberal.
San Mateo 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.
San Mateo, 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 San Mateo, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 23,670 contributions totaling $3,412,381 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $144 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 2,330 contributions totaling $2,089,279 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $897 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)