San Clemente, CA is a small city located in Orange County and is known for its beautiful coastline and beaches. Politically, the city has been represented in the United States House of Representatives by Republican Dana Rohrabacher since 1989. At the state level, San Clemente is represented by Senator Pat Bates, also a Republican. The city also has two representatives in the California State Assembly: Bill Brough and Steven Choi, both Republicans. Locally, San Clemente is governed by a five-member City Council that currently has three Republicans: Laura Ferguson, Chris Hamm and Kathy Ward. The other two members are Democrats Wayne Eggelston and Dan Bane. Elections to fill Council seats are held every two years with each seat carrying a four-year term of office. The Mayor's position rotates among the Councilmembers each year. Overall, San Clemente has traditionally leaned Republican but has seen an influx of more independent voters in recent years as well as more Democratic registrations overall.
The political climate in San Clemente, CA is leaning liberal.
Orange County, CA is somewhat liberal. In Orange County, CA 53.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 44.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Orange county remained moderately Democratic, 53.5% to 44.4%.
Orange county voted Democratic in 2020 and 2016, after voting Republican in the previous four elections.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
San Clemente, CA is leaning liberal.
Orange County, California is somewhat liberal.
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim 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 Clemente, California: R R r r 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 Clemente, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 13,832 contributions totaling $2,245,968 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $162 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 5,571 contributions totaling $2,069,334 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $371 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)