Palo Alto, CA is a vibrant city located in the heart of the Silicon Valley. It is home to many technology companies and has played a major role in the development of modern technology. Politically, the City of Palo Alto operates under a Council-Manager form of government, with an elected seven-member City Council acting as the legislative authority for the city. The current mayor is Adrian Fine and council members are Lydia Kou, Eric Filseth, Tom DuBois, Alison Cormack, Greg Tanaka and Greer Stone. These representatives are focused on ensuring that local issues such as public safety; housing and infrastructure investment; economic growth; environmental sustainability; and community engagement are addressed through comprehensive policy making initiatives. The city also works closely with local businesses to ensure economic growth and vitality in Palo Alto's diverse communities.
The political climate in Zip 94306 (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 94306 (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 94306 (Palo Alto)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 17,850 contributions totaling $3,696,254 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $207 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 775 contributions totaling $371,490 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $479 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)