Palo Alto, California is a city in the San Francisco Bay Area that is known for its high-tech industry and academic institutions. The city's politics have been heavily influenced by its highly educated population, which has led to a strong Democratic majority in the city council and local government. Civic engagement is very high in the Palo Alto area, with many residents actively engaging in local political discourse and supporting their chosen candidates. Recent elections have seen a surge in youth involvement in the local election process, with more young people running for office and showing up to cast their ballots. Local issues such as housing affordability, environmental protection, and public transportation are all key topics of discussion among residents of 94304 Palo Alto. The current City Council is composed of seven members who represent different parts of the city as well as various perspectives on these issues. With an increasing awareness among the electorate about what's at stake in local elections, Palo Alto can expect future elections to be just as spirited and meaningful as those before it.
The political climate in Zip 94304 (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 94304 (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 94304 (Palo Alto)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 4,043 contributions totaling $11,311,250 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $2,798 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 389 contributions totaling $920,172 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $2,365 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)