San Benito, TX (78586) is a small city in Cameron County, Texas. The city has a mayor-council form of government, with the mayor acting as the chief executive officer and the city council acting as the legislative body. The current mayor is Mayor Joe Gonzalez, who was elected in 2017. The City Council consists of five members, each of whom are elected to serve two-year terms. All members serve without pay except for the Mayor Pro Tem, who receives a modest salary. San Benito is known for its commitment to preserving its natural beauty and historic sites through sound planning and careful regulation of development. The City Council works hard to represent the citizens’ interests by encouraging responsible development and promoting economic growth through investment in infrastructure projects and community-oriented initiatives. Residents also take part in civic matters such as voting in elections and participating in public hearings on local issues that impact their quality of life.
The political climate in Zip 78586 (San Benito, TX) is somewhat liberal.
Cameron County, TX is somewhat liberal. In Cameron County, TX 56.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 42.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Cameron county remained strongly Democratic, 56.0% to 42.9%.
Cameron county voted Democratic in five of the last six Presidential elections (2004 went Republican).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 78586 (San Benito, TX) is somewhat liberal.
San Benito, Texas is somewhat liberal.
Cameron County, Texas is somewhat liberal.
Brownsville-Harlingen Metro Area is somewhat liberal.
Texas is leaning conservative.
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.
San Benito, Texas: d r 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 78586 (San Benito)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 508 contributions totaling $37,552 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $74 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 98 contributions totaling $28,330 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $289 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)