The city of McAllen, TX is located in the 78504 zip code and is part of the Rio Grande Valley area. The city has a population of around 142,000 people and is considered to be culturally diverse due to its proximity to the Mexican border. Politically, the city leans heavily Democratic as many of its citizens are part of traditionally marginalized communities, such as immigrants and people of color. Currently, McAllen has a mayor-council form of government in which the mayor is elected at-large for a four-year term while city council members are elected by district. In addition to federal representatives, local political candidates in 78504 include those running for mayor and state representatives from District 41 and District 36.
The political climate in Zip 78504 (McAllen, TX) is somewhat liberal.
Hidalgo County, TX is moderately liberal. In Hidalgo County, TX 58.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 41.0% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.0% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Hidalgo county remained very strongly Democratic, 58.0% to 41.0%.
Hidalgo county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 78504 (McAllen, TX) is somewhat liberal.
McAllen, Texas is somewhat liberal.
Hidalgo County, Texas is moderately liberal.
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission Metro Area is moderately liberal.
Texas 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.
McAllen, Texas: 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 78504 (McAllen)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 2,487 contributions totaling $1,073,949 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $432 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 634 contributions totaling $369,147 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $582 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)