Editing Santa Cruz County, California (section)

==Politics==
Santa Cruz County was a Republican stronghold for most of the 19th and 20th centuries; from 1860 through 1980 the only Democrats to carry Santa Cruz were [[Woodrow Wilson]] in 1916, [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] in 1932 and 1936, [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] in 1964, and [[Jimmy Carter]] in 1976.<ref>Menendez, Albert J.; ''The Geography of Presidential Elections in the United States, 1868–2004'', pp. 152–155 {{ISBN|0786422173}}</ref> However, the opening of UCSC in 1965 caused the county's political landscape to dramatically change.

Today, it is a strongly [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] county in [[President of the United States|presidential]] and [[United States Congress|congressional]] elections. The last [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] to carry the county was [[Ronald Reagan]] in [[United States presidential election in California, 1980|1980]], and the last Republican to win a majority in the county was [[Richard Nixon]] in [[United States presidential election in California, 1968|1968]].

{{PresHead|place=Santa Cruz County, California|source=<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/|title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections|first=David|last=Leip|website=uselectionatlas.org|access-date=March 14, 2018}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Democratic|27,978|100,998|6,005|California}}
{{PresRow|2020|Democratic|26,937|114,246|4,466|California}}
{{PresRow|2016|Democratic|22,438|95,249|12,325|California}}
{{PresRow|2012|Democratic|24,047|90,805|5,533|California}}
{{PresRow|2008|Democratic|25,244|98,745|3,747|California}}
{{PresRow|2004|Democratic|30,354|89,102|2,628|California}}
{{PresRow|2000|Democratic|29,627|66,618|12,105|California}}
{{PresRow|1996|Democratic|27,766|58,250|17,046|California}}
{{PresRow|1992|Democratic|24,916|66,183|22,893|California}}
{{PresRow|1988|Democratic|37,728|63,133|1,750|California}}
{{PresRow|1984|Democratic|41,652|49,091|1,404|California}}
{{PresRow|1980|Republican|37,347|32,346|16,111|California}}
{{PresRow|1976|Democratic|31,872|37,772|4,325|California}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|34,799|32,336|2,624|California}}
{{PresRow|1968|Republican|25,365|20,492|4,087|California}}
{{PresRow|1964|Democratic|18,836|26,714|94|California}}
{{PresRow|1960|Republican|24,858|16,659|187|California}}
{{PresRow|1956|Republican|22,109|12,574|93|California}}
{{PresRow|1952|Republican|24,353|11,536|391|California}}
{{PresRow|1948|Republican|15,395|9,862|1,433|California}}
{{PresRow|1944|Republican|11,102|9,357|178|California}}
{{PresRow|1940|Republican|11,453|10,683|350|California}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|8,260|9,326|322|California}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|6,005|8,246|739|California}}
{{PresRow|1928|Republican|8,275|3,688|112|California}}
{{PresRow|1924|Republican|5,402|801|2,676|California}}
{{PresRow|1920|Republican|5,285|1,957|732|California}}
{{PresRow|1916|Democratic|4,228|4,511|707|California}}
{{PresRow|1912|Progressive|3|2,875|4,274|California}}
{{PresRow|1908|Republican|2,886|1,643|746|California}}
{{PresRow|1904|Republican|2,626|1,105|598|California}}
{{PresRow|1900|Republican|2,173|1,635|277|California}}
{{PresRow|1896|Republican|1,969|1,960|153|California}}
{{PresRow|1892|Republican|1,843|1,512|757|California}}
{{PresRow|1888|Republican|1,996|1,750|194|California}}
{{PresRow|1884|Republican|1,667|1,365|73|California}}
{{PresFoot|1880|Republican|1,236|1,102|113|California}}

The last Republican to represent a significant portion of Santa Cruz in Congress was [[Burt L. Talcott]], who was defeated in 1976 by [[Leon Panetta]].<ref>{{cite web
 |title=Santa Cruz County Election Results, November 2004 (pdf)
 |url=http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/sov/2004_general/sov_2004_entire.pdf
 |access-date=May 4, 2006
|url-status=dead
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060502190456/http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/sov/2004_general/sov_2004_entire.pdf
 |archive-date=May 2, 2006
}}</ref> Santa Cruz County is split between California's [[California's 18th congressional district|18th]] and [[California's 19th congressional district|19th]] congressional districts, represented by {{Representative|cacd|18}} and {{Representative|cacd|19}}, respectively.<ref>{{Cite GovTrack|CA|18|access-date=March 13, 2013}}</ref>

In the [[California State Assembly|State Assembly]], Santa Cruz County is split between the [[California's 28th State Assembly district|28th]], [[California's 29th State Assembly district|29th]] and [[California's 30th State Assembly district|30th]] Assembly districts, represented by {{Representative|caad|28|fmt=spfl}},  {{Representative|caad|29|fmt=spfl}} and {{Representative|caad|30|fmt=spfl}}, respectively. In the [[California State Senate|State Senate]], Santa Cruz County is entirely within {{Representative|casd|17|fmt=sdistrict}}.

===Voter registration===

{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed"
|-
! colspan=3 | Population and registered voters
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" | Total population<ref name="US-CB-B02001" />
| colspan=2 | 259,402
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" | &nbsp;&nbsp;Registered voters<ref name="CA-SS">California Secretary of State. [http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ror/ror-pages/ror-odd-year-2013/political-sub.pdf February 10, 2013 – Report of Registration] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130727173649/http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ror/ror-pages/ror-odd-year-2013/political-sub.pdf |date=July 27, 2013 }}. Retrieved October 31, 2013.</ref><ref name="PCT-RV" group=note>Percentage of registered voters with respect to total population. Percentages of party members with respect to registered voters follow.</ref>
| 158,244
| 61.0%
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" | &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Democratic<ref name="CA-SS" />
| 85,812
| 54.2%
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" | &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Republican<ref name="CA-SS" />
| 26,051
| 16.5%
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" | &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Democratic–Republican spread<ref name="CA-SS" />
| {{color|#0000ff|'''+59,761'''}}
| {{color|#0000ff|'''+37.7%'''}}
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" | &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Independent<ref name="CA-SS" />
| 3,699
| 2.3%
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" | &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Green<ref name="CA-SS" />
| 3,145
| 2.0%
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" | &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Libertarian<ref name="CA-SS" />
| 1,388
| 0.9%
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" | &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Peace and Freedom<ref name="CA-SS" />
| 555
| 0.4%
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" | &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Americans Elect<ref name="CA-SS" />
| 4
| 0.0%
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" | &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Other<ref name="CA-SS" />
| 1,483
| 0.9%
|-
! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" | &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;No party preference<ref name="CA-SS" />
| 36,107
| 22.8%
|}
{{Clear}}

====Cities by population and voter registration====

{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed sortable" style="width: 100%;"
|-
! colspan=8 | Cities by population and voter registration
|-
! City
! data-sort-type="number" | Population<ref name="US-CB-B02001" />
! data-sort-type="number" | Registered voters<ref name="CA-SS" /><br /><ref name="PCT-RV" group=note />
! data-sort-type="number" | Democratic<ref name="CA-SS" />
! data-sort-type="number" | Republican<ref name="CA-SS" />
! data-sort-type="number" | D–R spread<ref name="CA-SS" />
! data-sort-type="number" | Other<ref name="CA-SS" />
! data-sort-type="number" | No party preference<ref name="CA-SS" />
|-
| [[Capitola, California|Capitola]] || 9,864 || 64.7% || 53.8% || 17.1% || {{color|#0000ff|'''+36.7%'''}} || 8.8% || 22.8%
|-
| [[Santa Cruz, California|Santa Cruz]] || 59,022 || 72.6% || 58.8% || 8.9% || {{color|#0000ff|'''+49.9%'''}} || 9.2% || 25.1%
|-
| [[Scotts Valley, California|Scotts Valley]] || 11,480 || 66.7% || 42.1% || 30.5% || {{color|#2b00d6|'''+11.6%'''}} || 8.7% || 21.7%
|-
| [[Watsonville, California|Watsonville]] || 50,291 || 32.0% || 64.2% || 12.4% || {{color|#0000ff|'''+51.8%'''}} || 5.3% || 19.8%
|}