San Diego · 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: San Diego 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 San Diego, 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+13.5
vs
Presidential vote · 2024D+16.8
Registration leans Democratic; the presidential vote runs 3.3 points more Democratic than the rolls.
1,938,487 registered voters · 2024 · up from 1,909,948 in 2022
Domestic migration in San Diego in San Diego: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
+99
2012
−334
2013
−817
2014
+987
2015
−8,380
2016
−11,285
2017
−15,748
2018
−10,815
2019
−19,731
2021
−40,718
2022
−16,848
2023
−29,397
2024
−22,231
2025
−23,876
San Diego's media market spans a dense military and tech workforce alongside fast-growing inland suburbs, producing competitive margins in federal and statewide races even as registration trends Democratic by roughly 10 points.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 44.8 points in 1912 and a Republican high of 42.6 points in 1924. Between 2020 and 2024 the market moved 6.0 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 16.8 points.
A population of 3,288,774, a 42% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $106,268 describe the market. The market's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Austin and Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto.
Akashic
Political twins — media markets
The media markets 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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San Diego, California. Akashic. https://akashic.app/dma/825/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
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In 2024, San Diego, California voted Democratic by 16.8 points (D+16.8), carried by the Democratic candidate. Out of 1,477,786 votes cast, 841,372 went Democratic and 593,270 went Republican.
When did San Diego, California last vote Republican?
The most recent presidential election in which San Diego, California voted Republican was 2004.
How many people live in San Diego, California?
San Diego, California has a population of 3,288,774 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in San Diego, California?
Median household income in San Diego, California is $106,268 — above the national median of $80,734. The California state median is $99,122.
What is the political history of San Diego, California?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in San Diego, California from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 11 went Democratic and 22 went Republican.
