Bellingham, WA 98226 is a diverse city with a variety of political ideas and opinions in its population. Current topics of discussion include climate change, affordable housing, public transit, and criminal justice reform. The City Council is currently chaired by Mayor Seth Fleetwood, who is running for re-election in 2020. Other candidates running include Daniel Camarena and Michael Lilliquist. Both candidates have extensive experience working on local issues such as environmental protection and economic development. Community forums and town halls hosted by each candidate allow residents to voice their opinions about the future direction of Bellingham's politics. Residents of Bellingham are encouraged to get involved in the political process by attending events, engaging in dialogue with elected officials, or voting in local elections.
The political climate in Zip 98226 (Bellingham, WA) is somewhat liberal.
Whatcom County, WA is strongly liberal. In Whatcom County, WA 60.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 36.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 3.2% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Whatcom county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 60.4% to 36.4%.
Whatcom county voted Democratic in the last five Presidential elections, after voting Republican in 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 98226 (Bellingham, WA) is somewhat liberal.
Bellingham, Washington is somewhat liberal.
Whatcom County, Washington is strongly liberal.
Bellingham Metro Area is strongly liberal.
Washington is moderately 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.
Bellingham, Washington: r 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 98226 (Bellingham)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 4,320 contributions totaling $314,608 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $73 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 444 contributions totaling $132,138 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $298 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)