Arcata, CA is a small city located on the northern California coast. It is home to Humboldt State University and has a population of approximately 17,000 people. The politics in Arcata are progressive and have been for several decades. The city's current mayor, Sofia Pereira, was elected in 2018 and her term runs until 2022. She is a strong advocate for social justice, sustainability and economic development initiatives. Furthermore, she has actively supported the expansion of public transportation within the city as well as worked on initiatives to expand affordable housing options for low-income families in the area. Additionally, all members of Arcata's City Council are actively engaged with the community and work hard to ensure that their constituents' voices are represented when making decisions about the future of Arcata.
The political climate in Arcata, CA is strongly liberal.
Humboldt County, CA is very liberal. In Humboldt County, CA 64.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 31.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 4.2% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Humboldt county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 64.5% to 31.4%.
Humboldt county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Arcata, CA is strongly liberal.
Humboldt County, California is very liberal.
Eureka-Arcata 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.
Arcata, 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 Arcata, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 8,006 contributions totaling $478,995 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $60 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 266 contributions totaling $38,432 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $144 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)