The Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA Metro Area is a vibrant area politically. The region is served by two congressional representatives: Anna Eshoo and Jimmy Panetta. At the state level, the area is represented by California State Senators Bill Monning and John Laird. Locally, the city of Santa Cruz is governed by its own mayor and city council, while Watsonville has its own mayor and city council. Both cities are known for their progressive policies and social justice initiatives. In recent years, both cities have seen an influx of diverse candidates running for office in order to represent their communities' needs and interests. This political environment makes it a great place to live and work with everyone having a voice in what happens in their local community.
The political climate in Santa Cruz-Watsonville Metro Area is very liberal.
In Santa Cruz-Watsonville Metro Area 78.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 18.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 3.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, the Santa Cruz-Watsonville metro area remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 78.4% to 18.5%.
The Santa Cruz-Watsonville metro area voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Santa Cruz-Watsonville 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 Cruz-Watsonville, 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 Santa Cruz-Watsonville Metro Area
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 77,287 contributions totaling $7,867,183 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $102 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 3,810 contributions totaling $723,713 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $190 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)