Washington, DC is the capital of the United States and is the home to many important political institutions. The city is governed by a mayor-council system, with an elected mayor as the head of government. The Mayor and 13 members of the council are responsible for passing legislation, setting taxes, administering services, and managing the budget. The city also has a non-voting delegate in Congress who represents District interests in the House of Representatives. Washington's politics are highly influenced by its diverse population and active local government. Issues such as social justice, climate change, education reform, affordable housing, economic development, public safety and transportation are all heavily debated in the city's political landscape. In addition to the mayor's office and Council Chambers at City Hall, citizens have access to a variety of organizations that work to advance neighborhood issues. It is clear that Washington DC is an important center for political activity in the country today.
The political climate in Washington, DC is very liberal.
District of Columbia County, DC is very liberal. In District of Columbia County, DC 92.1% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 5.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.5% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, District of Columbia county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 92.1% to 5.4%.
District of Columbia county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Washington, DC is very liberal.
District of Columbia County, District of Columbia is very liberal.
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria Metro Area is very liberal.
District of Columbia is very 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.
Washington, District of Columbia: 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 Washington, DC
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 299,056 contributions totaling $426,835,189 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $1,427 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 30,305 contributions totaling $97,583,316 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $3,220 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)