Santa Rosa, California is located in Sonoma County and is the county seat. As of 2019, it had a population of 175,155 people. Santa Rosa is known for its progressive politics and its commitment to social justice and equity. The city’s local government consists of a mayor-council system with seven council members representing 20 wards across the city. The current mayor is Tom Schwedhelm, who has been in office since 2018. In local elections, Santa Rosans have generally voted for Democratic candidates. For example, in the 2016 presidential election, 66% of residents in Santa Rosa voted for Hillary Clinton while only 25% voted for Donald Trump. The progressive values that are commonplace in Santa Rosa are reflected in its representation on both the local and state levels; many of its representatives are progressive Democrats who prioritize social justice issues such as climate change, LGBTQIA+ rights, and economic equity.
The political climate in Zip 95401 (Santa Rosa, CA) is strongly liberal.
Sonoma County, CA is very liberal. In Sonoma County, CA 74.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 23.0% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.4% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Sonoma county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 74.5% to 23.0%.
Sonoma county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 95401 (Santa Rosa, CA) is strongly liberal.
Santa Rosa, California is strongly liberal.
Sonoma County, California is very liberal.
Santa Rosa-Petaluma 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 Rosa, 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 95401 (Santa Rosa)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 4,121 contributions totaling $285,446 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $69 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 295 contributions totaling $46,975 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $159 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)