The city of Berkeley, in 94702 zip code, is located in the San Francisco Bay area of California. It is an incredibly diverse and vibrant community, with a population of nearly 121,000 people. Berkeley is a Democratic stronghold, having elected progressive candidates for most of its local offices. The current Mayor of Berkeley is Jesse Arreguin, who was elected in 2016. There are several City Council members representing districts within the city: Rashi Kesarwani, Ben Barlett, Rigel Robinson, Susan Wengraf, Kate Harrison and Lori Droste. All six members are progressive Democrats who champion social justice issues such as rent control and affordable housing. Berkeley also has a Board of Education that consists of nine members who are responsible for overseeing the public school system within the district. The board works closely with the mayor and city council to ensure quality education for all students.
The political climate in Zip 94702 (Berkeley, CA) is very liberal.
Alameda County, CA is very liberal. In Alameda County, CA 79.8% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 17.6% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.6% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Alameda county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 79.8% to 17.6%.
Alameda county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 94702 (Berkeley, CA) is very liberal.
Berkeley, California is very liberal.
Alameda County, California is very liberal.
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.
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 three elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in zip 94702 (Berkeley)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 8,245 contributions totaling $673,506 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $82 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 145 contributions totaling $18,774 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $129 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)