Santa Fe County, New Mexico is located in the northern part of the state and has a diverse population of over 150,000 people. Politically, the county is considered a swing district, though it tends to lean Democrat in terms of voting patterns. The majority of citizens identify as Democrats or Independents. Two locally elected officials make up the county government: The County Commissioner and the Sheriff. In recent years, local politics have been characterized by a push for more progressive policies on social issues such as health care reform, LGBTQ rights, and environmental protection. There are several political organizations that actively work for these causes in Santa Fe County. In addition to those local organizations, many national campaigns have remained active in Santa Fe County as well. As a result of strong Democratic leadership in the area, there have been several pieces of legislation passed that benefit the citizens living there.
The political climate in Santa Fe County, NM is very liberal.
In Santa Fe County, NM 76.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 22.3% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.7% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Santa Fe county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 76.0% to 22.3%.
Santa Fe county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Santa Fe County, NM is very liberal.
Santa Fe Metro Area is very liberal.
New Mexico is somewhat 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 Fe, New Mexico: 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 Fe County, NM
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 66,915 contributions totaling $9,266,382 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $138 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 2,894 contributions totaling $613,674 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $212 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)