The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metro Area is an important political region in the state of Florida. The larger Tampa Bay area is home to many elected officials and political operatives who shape the state's laws and policies. With three major cities, numerous suburbs, and some of Florida's most influential organizations, the politics in this area are often complex and far reaching. At the state level, the area is in Florida Senate District 22 and is represented by Darryl Rouson and Janet Cruz in the House of Representatives. At the federal level, both castor Gus Bilirakis and Charlie Crist represent this region in Congress. In addition to these major figures, there are also numerous local government officials who serve at a municipal or county level that help shape the way citizens live their lives in this area.
The political climate in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metro Area is leaning conservative.
In Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metro Area 48.3% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 50.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area remained slightly Republican, 50.4% to 48.3%.
The Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metro area voted Republican in 2020, 2016 and 2004, and Democratic in 2012, 2008 and 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metro Area is leaning conservative.
Florida is leaning conservative.
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.
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida: d r d d r r
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 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metro Area
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 119,621 contributions totaling $13,497,436 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $113 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 37,265 contributions totaling $22,920,998 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $615 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)