Bakersfield, CA is the largest city in Kern County and is located in the southern San Joaquin Valley of California. Politically, it is a largely conservative area with strong Republican representation at both state and local levels. In the 2018 congressional election, all five representatives from the county voted for Kevin McCarthy, the Republican nominee for California’s 23rd congressional district. At the local level, Republicans hold most of the offices including mayor of Bakersfield, county supervisor, and other important roles within the city government. The politics in Bakersfield are heavily influenced by oil and gas industries as well as agriculture production which have been major forces in its economy for many years. While there are some progressive voices that are beginning to be heard in Kern County politics, overall it remains a fairly conservative area with strong Republican representation.
The political climate in Zip 93304 (Bakersfield, CA) is leaning conservative.
Kern County, CA is somewhat conservative. In Kern County, CA 43.7% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 53.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Kern county remained strongly Republican, 53.9% to 43.7%.
Kern county voted Republican in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 93304 (Bakersfield, CA) is leaning conservative.
Bakersfield, California is leaning conservative.
Kern County, California is somewhat conservative.
Bakersfield Metro Area is somewhat conservative.
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.
Bakersfield, California: R R R R 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 three elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in zip 93304 (Bakersfield)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 287 contributions totaling $24,910 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $87 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 122 contributions totaling $23,976 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $197 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)