San Jose is the largest city in Santa Clara County, California, with a population of over one million people. The politics of the City of San Jose are largely driven by Mayor Sam Liccardo and the 11-member City Council who represent the districts within San Jose. Mayor Liccardo and City Council members are elected by popular vote of citizens living in their respective districts, and serve four-year terms. The 95118 zip code is located within District 4, which is currently represented by Council Member Lan Diep. He was first elected to office in 2016 and was re-elected to a second term in 2020. As an elected official, Council Member Diep focuses on public safety, economic development, infrastructure improvements, housing affordability, homelessness solutions, community engagement and other quality-of-life improvements for his constituents living in District 4.
The political climate in Zip 95118 (San Jose, CA) is strongly liberal.
Santa Clara County, CA is very liberal. In Santa Clara County, CA 72.6% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 25.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.1% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Santa Clara county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 72.6% to 25.2%.
Santa Clara county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Zip 95118 (San Jose, CA) is strongly liberal.
San Jose, California is strongly liberal.
Santa Clara County, California is very liberal.
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara 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.
San Jose, 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 95118 (San Jose)
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 2,982 contributions totaling $168,105 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $56 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 445 contributions totaling $58,877 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $132 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)