Houston, TX is the fourth most populous city in the United States, and thus it has a vibrant political landscape. Houston has strong Democratic roots and has been solidly blue in recent elections. The Mayor of Houston is Sylvester Turner, who was elected in 2015 and is a Democrat. In 2019 Bill King narrowly lost to Turner for re-election as Mayor. The City Council consists of 16 members representing districts throughout the city. They are elected in partisan races; currently, there are 10 Democrats and 6 Republicans serving on the council. Houston also features some prominent state politicians, such as U.S Senator Ted Cruz (R) and Governor Greg Abbott (R). These two leaders often clash on topics ranging from gun control to abortion rights to immigration policy.
The Political Climate in Houston, TX is Moderately liberal.
Harris County, TX is Somewhat liberal. In Harris County, TX 55.9% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 42.7% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Harris county remained strongly Democratic, 55.9% to 42.7%.
Harris county voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican
The BestPlaces Liberal/Conservative Index
Houston, TX is Moderately liberal
Harris County, Texas is Somewhat liberal.
Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land Metro Area is Leaning liberal.
Texas is Leaning conservative.
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.
Houston, Texas: R R 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 Houston, TX
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 226,887 contributions totaling $52,178,503 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $230 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 97,935 contributions totaling $99,342,820 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $1,014 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)