San Luis Obispo County, California, is home to a politically active and engaged population. While the county does not have local political candidates running for office, it does have an important role in statewide and national politics. Each year, San Luis Obispo County residents turn out in large numbers to vote in state and federal elections. Voting rights are highly valued in the county, which also participates in grassroots initiatives to increase voter turnout. Residents of the county participate in numerous demonstrations, marches, and other forms of civil engagement to demonstrate their support for various causes. Politically-minded citizens take great pride in living somewhere with such high levels of civic engagement and participation.
The political climate in San Luis Obispo County, CA is somewhat liberal.
In San Luis Obispo County, CA 55.3% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 42.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.5% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, San Luis Obispo county remained strongly Democratic, 55.3% to 42.2%.
San Luis Obispo county voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
San Luis Obispo County, CA is somewhat liberal.
San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles Metro Area is somewhat 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.
San Luis Obispo, California: R 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 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 San Luis Obispo County, CA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 40,201 contributions totaling $2,405,611 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $60 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 5,123 contributions totaling $1,045,019 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $204 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)