Orange County, California is known for its vibrant political life. At the local level, candidates from both major political parties run for office in Orange County, seeking to represent their constituents in government. These candidates focus on important issues such as education, public safety, housing, and transportation. The county also has an active civil society that engages in civic debates about the needs of the community and how to best address them. Through these conversations, people can come together and find solutions to make the county a better place for all. With so many passionate voices and ideas coming together in this diverse area of California, Orange County is sure to remain a hotbed of political activity for years to come.
The political climate in Orange County, CA is somewhat liberal.
In Orange County, CA 53.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 44.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Orange county remained moderately Democratic, 53.5% to 44.4%.
Orange county voted Democratic in 2020 and 2016, after voting Republican in the previous four elections.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Orange County, CA is somewhat liberal.
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim 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.
Orange, California: R R r r 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 Orange County, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 196,784 contributions totaling $34,882,479 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $177 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 62,463 contributions totaling $36,327,553 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $582 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)