Austin, TX is home to a diverse political landscape. The city is known for its progressive policies and representation of ideas from both major parties. At the local level, Austin's politics are largely governed by the City Council of Austin, which consists of 10 city council members who are elected by residents in their districts. In addition to the City Council, residents can also vote on bond elections as well as other important decisions. On the state level, Austin is served by a number of representatives in the Texas House and Senate who make up part of the Texas Legislature. These representatives work to ensure that Austin's voices are heard at all levels of government.
The political climate in Austin, TX is strongly liberal.
Travis County, TX is very liberal. In Travis County, TX 71.4% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 26.4% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.2% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Travis county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 71.4% to 26.4%.
Travis county voted Democratic in the last five Presidential elections, after voting Republican in 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Austin, TX is strongly liberal.
Travis County, Texas is very liberal.
Austin-Round Rock-Georgetown Metro Area is strongly 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.
Austin, Texas: 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 if the Democratic Party candidate won and I if the Independent Party candidate won. 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 Austin, TX
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 257,190 contributions totaling $36,665,309 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $143 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 38,011 contributions totaling $19,275,331 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $507 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)