Politics in the San Francisco Bay Area

Politics in the San Francisco Bay Area is widely regarded as one of the most liberal in the country. According to the California Secretary of State, the Democratic Party holds a voter registration advantage in every congressional district, State Senate district, State Assembly district, State Board of Equalization district, all nine counties, and all of the 101 incorporated municipalities in the Bay Area. The Republican Party holds a voter registration advantage in one State Assembly sub-district (the portion of the 4th in Solano County).[1]

Since 1960, the nine-county Bay Area has voted for Republican presidential candidates only twice: in 1972 for Richard Nixon and in 1980 for Ronald Reagan, both Californians. The last county to vote for a Republican presidential candidate was Napa County in 1988 for George H. W. Bush.

County-level statistics

All nine counties in the Bay Area currently have a voter registration advantage in favor of the Democratic Party.

County
	Population (2020)[2]	2016 election results[3]	Median household income (2018)[4]	Per capita income (2011)[5]	Voter Registration (2013)[6]
					Democratic	Independent	Republican
Alameda	1,666,793	79.3%–14.9% Clinton	$92,574	$33,888	461,007	158,958	114,802
Contra Costa	1,150,215	68.9%–25.4% Clinton	$93,712	$36,274	263,258	113,358	131,608
Marin	259,666	78.8%–15.9% Clinton	$110,217	$49,439	83,853	35,251	28,116
Napa	139,417	68.4%–29.6% Clinton	$84,753	$32,170	33,182	15,248	19,142
San Francisco	883,305	85.5%–9.4% Clinton	$104,552	$44,905	276,855	154,691	42,922
San Mateo	769,545	76.4%–18.7% Clinton	$113,776	$44,331	185,134	92,158	69,925
Santa Clara	1,937,570	73.3%–20.9% Clinton	$116,178	$39,365	372,979	237,357	177,268
Solano	446,610	62.3%– 31.8% Clinton	$77,609	$27,785	102,177	46,246	52,633
Sonoma	499,942	70.7%–22.8% Clinton	$76,753	$30,868	134,896	55,666	56,428
Median	—	73.6%–21.1% Clinton	$96,265	$37,851	—	—	—
Total	7,753,063	—	—	—	1,913,341	908,933	692,844

Counties by population and voter registration

County	Population[7]	Registered voters[8]	Democratic[8]	Republican[8]	D–R spread[8]	American Independent[8]	Green[8]	Libertarian[8]	Peace and Freedom[8]	Americans Elect[8]	Other[8]	No party preference[8]
Alameda	1,494,876	54.6%	56.4%	14.1%	+42.3%	2.0%	1.2%	0.5%	0.4%	0.0%	6.0%	19.5%
Contra Costa	1,037,817	58.5%	50.4%	21.8%	+24.8%	2.6%	0.5%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	23.7%
Marin	250,666	61.5%	54.4%	18.2%	+36.2%	2.1%	1.4%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.3%	12.9%
Napa	135,377	56.2%	46.9%	24.2%	+22.7%	3.0%	0.8%	0.8%	0.3%	0.0%	0.5%	23.4%
San Francisco	870,887	62.4%	55.6%	8.6%	+47.0%	1.8%	1.7%	0.6%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%	31.1%
San Mateo	711,622	50.7%	51.3%	19.4%	+31.9%	2.1%	0.7%	0.5%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	25.5%
Santa Clara	1,762,754	46.5%	45.6%	21.7%	+23.9%	2.1%	0.5%	0.6%	0.2%	0.0%	0.2%	29.0%
Solano	411,620	51.1%	48.6%	25.0%	+23.6%	2.8%	0.4%	0.5%	0.4%	0.0%	0.4%	22.0%
Sonoma	478,551	54.7%	51.5%	21.6%	+29.9%	2.5%	1.8%	0.7%	0.3%	0.0%	0.3%	21.3%

Congressional districts

Every Congressional district in the Bay Area is currently represented by a Democrat. According to the Cook Partisan Voting Index (CPVI), congressional districts the Bay Area tends to favor Democratic candidates by roughly 40 to 50 percentage points, considerably above the mean for California and the nation overall. All congressional districts in the region voted for Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain in the 2008 Presidential Election.

District	Location	Representative	Cook PVI[9]	2012 election results[10]	Median household income (2011)[11]
2nd	Marin County and the North Coast	Jared Huffman	D+20	69.0%–27.0% Obama	$56,576
3rd	Fairfield, Vacaville, and the Sacramento Valley	John Garamendi	D+3	54.3%–43.1% Obama	$53,602
5th	Santa Rosa, Napa County, Vallejo, and Martinez	Mike Thompson	D+19	69.7%–27.4% Obama	$58,942
9th	Antioch and most of San Joaquin County	Jerry McNerney	D+6	57.8%–40.1% Obama	$52,209
11th	Most of Contra Costa County	Mark DeSaulnier	D+17	67.5%–29.9% Obama	$69,586
12th	Most of San Francisco	Nancy Pelosi	D+34	84.0%–12.5% Obama	$69,046
13th	Berkeley, Oakland, and San Leandro	Barbara Lee	D+37	87.5%–9.0% Obama	$56,906
14th	Most of San Mateo County and southern San Francisco	Jackie Speier	D+23	74.2%–23.6% Obama	$79,287
15th	Hayward, Union City, and the Tri-Valley	Eric Swalwell	D+16	68.0%–29.8% Obama	$82,179
17th	Fremont and northern Silicon Valley	Ro Khanna	D+20	71.9%–25.5% Obama	$92,030
18th	Menlo Park and western Silicon Valley	Anna Eshoo	D+18	68.2%–28.9% Obama	$97,001
19th	San Jose and Morgan Hill	Zoe Lofgren	D+19	71.2%–26.5% Obama	$71,479
Median	—	—	D+19	69.3%–27.2% Obama	$69,316

During the Base Realignment and Closures (BRACs) of the 1990s, almost all the military installations in the region were closed.[12][13] The only remaining major active duty military installations are Travis Air Force Base[14] and Coast Guard Island.

References

1. "Report of Registration" (PDF). California Secretary of State. February 10, 2019. Retrieved March 12, 2019.
2. "Population of Counties in California (2020)". World Population Review. Retrieved April 1, 2020.
3. "California 2016 Presidential And State Election Results". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
4. "California Median household income (in 2018 dollars), 2014-2018 by County". www.indexmundi.com. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
5. "2011 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates". 2011 American Community Survey. United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on February 12, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
6. "Report of Registration". California Secretary of State. February 10, 2013. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
7. U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey, 2011 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, Table B02001. U.S. Census website. Retrieved October 26, 2013.
8. California Secretary of State. Report of Registration as of February 10, 2017.
9. "Partisan Voting Index Districts of the 113th Congress" (PDF). Cook Political Report. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
10. "2012 California Presidential Election Results by County" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on January 9, 2014. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
11. "My Congressional District". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
12. Kevin Starr (February 27, 2005). "Keep California the 'Gibraltar of the Pacific'". San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved May 16, 2011.
13. Jane Gross (March 14, 1993). "Spared 2 Base Closings, Californians Lobby On". The New York Times. Retrieved May 16, 2011.
14. "Base-closing plan spares Beale, Travis". Sacramento Business Journal. May 13, 2005. Retrieved May 16, 2011.