Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA · which candidate this place backed in each party’s presidential nominating contest, cycle by cycle. A primary is a contest inside one party, so it has no Democratic–Republican margin and is not part of the general-election record above.
Akashic reports votes cast, not delegates awarded. The two can disagree: Clinton led the 2008 national primary popular vote by less than half a point and did not win the nomination.
Primary returns are published at county grain, and this place is a single county: Santa Barbara County, California. The figures below are that county’s, which is the same territory — not a larger unit standing in for it.
Presidential nominating contests in Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA, by party and cycle.
○no contest record — Akashic holds no result for that party and cycle here. It is not a claim that no contest was held. Telling apart a contest that was cancelled, one that went uncontested, and one simply not yet ingested needs a nominating-contest calendar, which is a separate ingest from results and does not exist yet.
Republican presidential primaries are not yet ingested — the Republican series runs from 1856 and is in scope. The row is kept so its absence is visible: a Democratic-only panel would otherwise read as though no one else held a contest.
Akashic carries 10 states for 2012 and 3 states for 2024. Cycles in which an incumbent president seeks renomination are thin by nature — few states run a contested primary — so a sparse column is politics, not a hole in the record.
County returns carry a leader and a lead over the runner-up, and nothing more. The full candidate field with vote shares is published at state grain — follow a cycle above to the state contest for it.
voter registration
Registered voters
By party of registration, over time
Party registration · 2024D+21.5
vs
Presidential vote · 2024D+26.7
Registration leans Democratic; the presidential vote runs 5.2 points more Democratic than the rolls.
238,947 registered voters · 2024 · up from 234,759 in 2022
Domestic migration in Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA in Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
−2,369
2012
+671
2013
+1,171
2014
+535
2015
−1,168
2016
−1,833
2017
−2,275
2018
−2,157
2019
−1,924
2021
−11,979
2022
+3,561
2023
−7,049
2024
−4,601
2025
−3,844
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA sits in the Pacific Coast. In 2024 it voted Democratic.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 38.8 points in 1912 and a Republican high of 55.4 points in 1924. Between 2020 and 2024 the metro moved 5.2 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 26.7 points.
A population of 443,701, a 41% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $98,161 describe the metro. The metro's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA and Salinas, CA.
Akashic
Political twins — metros
The metros whose fingerprint — 2000–2024 trajectory, demographics, ancestry, religion — sits closest to this one, and why.
Twin score (0–100) = weighted cosine between tier-standardized fingerprints: presidential margins 2000–2024 with 12-yr trend and elasticity, ACS income, age, education, population and race, top reported ancestries, and religious adherence — chips name the closest-shared dimensions and the widest gap. Re-weight the groups in the twins explorer.
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
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All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA, California. Akashic. https://akashic.app/cbsa/42200/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
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How did Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA, California vote in 2024?
In 2024, Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA, California voted Democratic by 26.7 points (D+26.7), carried by the Democratic candidate. Out of 184,715 votes cast, 114,149 went Democratic and 64,870 went Republican.
When did Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA, California last vote Republican?
The most recent presidential election in which Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA, California voted Republican was 1988.
How many people live in Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA, California?
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA, California has a population of 443,701 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA, California?
Median household income in Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA, California is $98,161 — above the national median of $80,734. The California state median is $99,122.
What is the political history of Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA, California?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA, California from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 15 went Democratic and 18 went Republican.
