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, County Board of Supervisors 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 congressional sub-district (the portion of the 9th in Contra Costa County) and unincorporated 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] | 2024 election results[3] | Median household income (2018)[4] | Per capita income (2011)[5] | Voter Registration (2023)[6] | |||
| Democratic | Independent | Republican | |||||
| Alameda | 1,682,296 | 74.6%—21.0% Harris | $92,574 | $33,888 | 563,864 | 222,019 | 102,953 |
| Contra Costa | 1,165,983 | 67.3%-29.4% Harris | $93,712 | $36,274 | 379,524 | 153,822 | 127,752 |
| Marin | 262,325 | 80.6%-16.7% Harris | $110,217 | $49,439 | 106,921 | 33,102 | 20,721 |
| Napa | 138,014 | 65.9%-31.1% Harris | $84,753 | $32,170 | 42,491 | 16,988 | 17,731 |
| San Francisco | 878,392 | 80.3%-15.5% Harris | $104,552 | $44,905 | 318,286 | 122,624 | 34,890 |
| San Mateo | 764,659 | 73.5%-23.2% Harris | $113,776 | $44,331 | 244,946 | 104,646 | 60,259 |
| Santa Clara | 1,936,278 | 68.0%-28.1% Harris | $116,178 | $39,365 | 525,176 | 280,493 | 167,840 |
| Solano | 453,551 | 60.0%-37.0% Harris | $77,609 | $27,785 | 129,593 | 57,895 | 58,542 |
| Sonoma | 488,862 | 71.4%-25.2% Harris | $76,753 | $30,868 | 171,744 | 53,578 | 52,658 |
| Median | — | — | $96,265 | $37,851 | — | — | — |
| Total | 7,770,360 | 70.1%–24.2% Harris | — | — | 2,482,545 | 1,342,167 | 643,346 |
| 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 Kamala Harris over Republican Donald Trump in the 2024 Presidential Election.
| District | Location | Representative | Cook PVI[9] | 2024 election results[10] | Median household income (2025)[11] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2nd | Marin County and the North Coast | Jared Huffman | D+24 | 70.9%–25.7% Harris | $97,004 |
| 4th | Lake and Napa, most of Yolo, and parts of Solano and Sonoma | Mike Thompson | D+17 | 64.0%–32.8% Harris | $98,067 |
| 8th | Parts of Solano and Contra Costa around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta | John Garamendi | D+24 | 70.1%-26.6% Harris | $95,876 |
| 10th | Most of Contra Costa: Concord, Southern Antioch, Walnut Creek and parts of Alameda, California | Mark DeSaulnier | D+18 | 65.2%-31.4% Harris | $151,546 |
| 11th | San Francisco | Nancy Pelosi | D+36 | 81.4%–14.1% Harris | $142,524 |
| 12th | Berkeley, Oakland, and San Leandro | Lateefah Simon | D+39 | 84.5% 10.6% Harris | $111,408 |
| 14th | Hayward, Union City, and the Tri-Valley | Eric Swalwell | D+20 | 65.8%-30.3% Harris | $137,402 |
| 15th | Most of San Mateo County and southern San Francisco | Kevin Mullin | D+27 | 72.2%-24.3% Harris | $151,494 |
| 16th | From Pacifica to the southern edge of San Jose through Menlo Park and western Silicon Valley | Sam Liccardo | D+26 | 72.5%-23.9% Harris | $181,659 |
| 17th | South of Fremont and northern Silicon Valley | Ro Khanna | D+25 | 66.7%-28.8% Harris | $181,913 |
| 18th | San Jose and Morgan Hill | Zoe Lofgren | D+23 | 63.2%-33.7% Harris | $103,010 |
| Median | — | — | D+19 | 72%–25% Harris | $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.
See also
References
- ^ "Report of Registration" (PDF). California Secretary of State. February 20, 2024. Retrieved March 20, 2024.
- ^ "County Population Totals and Components of Change: 2020-2024". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved November 22, 2025.
- ^ "California 2024 Presidential Election per County" (PDF). sos.ca.gov. Retrieved 2025-11-22.
- ^ "California Median household income (in 2018 dollars), 2014-2018 by County". www.indexmundi.com. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
- ^ "2011 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates". 2011 American Community Survey. United States Census Bureau. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ "Report of Registration" (PDF). California Secretary of State. Oct 3, 2023. Retrieved November 22, 2025.
- ^ U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey, 2011 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, Table B02001. U.S. Census website. Retrieved October 26, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k California Secretary of State. Report of Registration as of February 10, 2017.
- ^ "Partisan Voting Index Districts of the 113th Congress" (PDF). Cook Political Report. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-06-05. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
- ^ "California Presidential Election Results by Congressional District" (PDF). Retrieved November 21, 2025.
- ^ "My Congressional District". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved November 21, 2025.
- ^ Kevin Starr (February 27, 2005). "Keep California the 'Gibraltar of the Pacific'". San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved May 16, 2011.
- ^ Jane Gross (March 14, 1993). "Spared 2 Base Closings, Californians Lobby On". The New York Times. Retrieved May 16, 2011.
- ^ "Base-closing plan spares Beale, Travis". Sacramento Business Journal. May 13, 2005. Retrieved May 16, 2011.