Kern County, located in California's Central Valley, is a major political region in the state. As a county with over 890,000 residents, it has several representatives who advocate for the interests of their constituents. At the local level, Kern County is represented by two State Assembly members and one Senator in the California State Legislature. The Board of Supervisors consists of five members that serve four-year terms and are elected from five districts within the county. In addition to these local officials, there are also U.S Congressional Representatives who represent Kern County in Washington D.C., ensuring that the voices of Kern County citizens are heard at the federal level of government as well. With its abundance of political representation and its large population base, Kern County is an important part of California's political landscape and continues to be a vibrant and active participant in politics at all levels.
The political climate in Kern County, CA is somewhat conservative.
In Kern County, CA 43.7% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 53.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Kern county remained strongly Republican, 53.9% to 43.7%.
Kern county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Kern County, CA is somewhat conservative.
Bakersfield Metro Area is somewhat conservative.
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.
Kern, California: R R R R R R
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 Kern County, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 14,121 contributions totaling $893,956 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $63 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 7,586 contributions totaling $4,925,474 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $649 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)