Contra Costa County, in the Bay Area of California, is an area with a rich political history. The county is represented in the state legislature by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan and State Senator Steve Glazer. On the federal level, Congresswoman Mark DeSaulnier and Congressman Andy Kim represent the district. In addition to representation from the Democratic Party, many members of Contra Costa County are also members of local Republican, Libertarian, and Green Party organizations. With so many people participating in politics in Contra Costa County, it's no wonder that it has become an integral part of life for those who call it home. People living in the county are passionate about issues ranging from education reform to environmental protection to social justice, and they make sure their voices are heard both locally and nationally. No matter what political party you belong to or what issue you care about most, you can rest assured that your voice will be heard in Contra Costa County.
The political climate in Contra Costa County, CA is very liberal.
In Contra Costa County, CA 71.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 26.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Contra Costa county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 71.6% to 26.3%.
Contra Costa county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Contra Costa County, CA is very liberal.
San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley 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.
Contra Costa, 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 for the Democrat and I for the Independent. 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 Contra Costa County, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 161,170 contributions totaling $17,060,879 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $106 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 16,160 contributions totaling $13,709,531 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $848 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)