Santa Maria, TX is a small town located in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Although the population size is relatively small, politics play a huge role in this community. Santa Maria has an elected Mayor and five councilmembers who are responsible for governing the town. Each councilmember is elected by residents of their district and serves a two-year term. The local political scene often features candidates from a variety of parties, including both Republicans and Democrats, vying for offices within the town government. In addition to local leaders, Santa Maria also participates in state and national elections. During these elections, residents cast their votes for senators, representatives, governors, and other federal officials that will affect the entire nation. With so many important decisions being made at all levels of government, it’s no surprise that politics are taken seriously in Santa Maria.
The political climate in Santa Maria, TX is moderately liberal.
Cameron County, TX is somewhat liberal. In Cameron County, TX 56.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 42.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Cameron county remained strongly Democratic, 56.0% to 42.9%.
Cameron county voted Democratic in five of the last six Presidential elections (2004 went Republican).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Santa Maria, TX is moderately liberal.
Cameron County, Texas is somewhat liberal.
Brownsville-Harlingen Metro Area is somewhat 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.
Santa Maria, Texas: d 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 Santa Maria, TX
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 2 contributions totaling $4,000 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $2,000 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 0 contributions totaling $0 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $0 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)