The San Diego-Carlsbad, CA Metro Area is a bustling region in the southwestern United States. Politically, the area is strongly influenced by its two largest cities: San Diego and Carlsbad. In both cities, politics are driven by local concerns, such as public safety, education, and infrastructure. On the state level, San Diegans typically vote for Democratic candidates at higher rates than their Republican counterparts. On the federal level, Republicans have traditionally had a stronger presence in San Diego County but more recently Democratic presidential nominees have been gaining ground statewide. Local political campaigns often focus on issues that directly impact residents of the metro area and include discussions on how to boost jobs and improve public services.
The political climate in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad Metro Area is moderately liberal.
In San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad Metro Area 60.2% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 37.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, the San Diego-Carlsbad metro area remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 60.2% to 37.5%.
The San Diego-Carlsbad metro area voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad Metro Area is moderately 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 Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, 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 four elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad Metro Area
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 277,492 contributions totaling $45,091,598 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $163 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 50,758 contributions totaling $20,782,072 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $409 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)