Palo Alto, California is a city located in the 94301 zip code with a population of roughly 66,000 people. Located in Santa Clara County, the politics in Palo Alto are largely Democratic and have leaned this way since the mid to late 80s. The mayor of Palo Alto is Adrian Fine, who was elected in 2018 with over 63% of the vote. Currently, there are 11 members of the City Council that make up the local governing body. All councilmembers are democratically affiliated, however they do come from varying backgrounds. Each board member is focused on preserving and improving the Palo Alto community for all its residents. Local political candidates for Palo Alto focus on environmental sustainability initiatives, economic development and continued social equity among other topics. In order to be successful at being elected into office in Palo Alto, candidates must prove their commitment to serving residents and supporting progressive ideals and policies that will improve quality of life for all citizens.
The political climate in Zip 94301 (Palo Alto, CA) is strongly liberal.
Santa Clara County, CA is very liberal. In Santa Clara County, CA 72.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 25.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Santa Clara county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 72.6% to 25.2%.
Santa Clara county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 94301 (Palo Alto, CA) is strongly liberal.
Palo Alto, California is strongly liberal.
Santa Clara County, California is very liberal.
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara 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.
Palo Alto, 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 94301 (Palo Alto)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 26,909 contributions totaling $22,516,257 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $837 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 1,322 contributions totaling $5,234,768 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $3,960 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)