Santa Barbara County, located in California, is home to a wide variety of cultures and beliefs. Politically, the county consists of elected officials who are responsible for providing government services and promoting public policy initiatives. Santa Barbara County has several Supervisorial Districts, with each district electing its own supervisor every four years. In addition to the Board of Supervisors, Santa Barbara also elects a Mayor every two years. There are many local political candidates vying for these positions every election cycle, representing a range of political views from progressive to conservative. The Board of Supervisors and Mayor have power over enacting laws and policies that impact the entire county, so it is important for residents to be informed on all the changes being made by their local representatives. With so many diverse perspectives represented in Santa Barbara County politics, it is essential that voters stay engaged and take part in the election process to make sure their voices are heard.
The political climate in Santa Barbara County, CA is very liberal.
In Santa Barbara County, CA 64.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 32.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Santa Barbara county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 64.5% to 32.6%.
Santa Barbara county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Santa Barbara County, CA is very liberal.
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara 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.
Santa Barbara, 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 Santa Barbara County, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 79,428 contributions totaling $11,620,024 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $146 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 9,344 contributions totaling $5,559,102 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $595 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)