The San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA Metro Area is a diverse region with a wide range of political views and candidates. It encompasses the cities of San Francisco, Oakland and Hayward, along with numerous other towns and communities. The area has several congressional districts that are represented in the U.S. House of Representatives, with Nancy Pelosi representing California's 12th District. Other representatives from the area include Barbara Lee (CA-13), Jackie Speier (CA-14), Eric Swalwell (CA-15) and Ro Khanna (CA-17). On the state level, Californians from this area are represented by several State Senators and Assembly Members. Among these figures are Senator Scott Wiener and Assembly Member David Chiu. The region also boasts several counties that are led by elected officials such as Alameda County Sheriff Gregory Ahern, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, and Santa Clara County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg. At the local level, many cities have their own mayors and city councils that provide leadership on issues ranging from housing to public safety. In addition to these organizations, there is an extensive network of civic organizations such as city commissions on aging or disability rights that work to provide support to residents in various aspects of life.
The political climate in San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley Metro Area is very liberal.
In San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley Metro Area 78.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 19.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.2% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metro area remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 78.6% to 19.2%.
The San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metro area voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley 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.
San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, 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 four elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley Metro Area
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 1,145,194 contributions totaling $416,974,910 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $364 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 65,667 contributions totaling $66,628,247 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $1,015 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)