Santa Cruz, California is a vibrant city located in Santa Cruz County with a population of roughly 65,000 people. It has become increasingly important politically in recent years due to its active and engaged citizenry. Local politics in Santa Cruz have focused on issues such as affordable housing, climate change, homelessness, and other social justice issues. The local politicians have worked hard to ensure that all voices are represented when policy decisions are made. For example, the City Council recently launched a 'Community Voices Initiative' which seeks to include more diverse perspectives when creating new policies for the city. This initiative has helped draw attention to issues which may not otherwise be discussed or considered when making political decisions. Overall, Santa Cruz is a great place to live and work due to its commitment to social justice and political engagement.
The political climate in Zip 95064 (Santa Cruz, CA) is very liberal.
Santa Cruz County, CA is very liberal. In Santa Cruz County, CA 78.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 18.5% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 3.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Santa Cruz county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 78.4% to 18.5%.
Santa Cruz county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 95064 (Santa Cruz, CA) is very liberal.
Santa Cruz, California is very liberal.
Santa Cruz County, California is very liberal.
Santa Cruz-Watsonville 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.
Santa Cruz, 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 95064 (Santa Cruz)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 661 contributions totaling $51,822 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $78 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 12 contributions totaling $3,310 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $276 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)