Why is Los Angeles County so much more liberal than the rest of Southern California?

[Cyrusman]

Compared to San Diego County, Orange County and the Inland Empire, Los Angeles county is extremely liberal and to say its significantly to the left of those areas would be an understatement.
The rest of So Cal is honestly pretty moderate, and ranges from light blue areas-purple-light red.

What is the main driving difference? Why is SD county so much more moderate/purple compared to LA County, and why is LA  so much more liberal compared to OC and Inland Empire?

Obviously it will vote to the left of the Inland Empire and OC, but the margins are pretty remarkable.

 

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Because it includes Los Angeles. Should be pretty obvious.

[Cyrusman]

Because it includes Los Angeles. Should be pretty obvious.

Why is it so much to the left of San Diego?

[Sol]

Because it includes Los Angeles. Should be pretty obvious.

Why is it so much to the left of San Diego?

San Diego has all of its metro area in one county. The equivalent for Los Angeles would be adding Ventura, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino to Los Angeles County.

[pikachu]

Because it includes Los Angeles. Should be pretty obvious.

Why is it so much to the left of San Diego?

San Diego is whiter and has a large military presence.

[Boobs]

Presently, San Diego is still significantly whiter (43% NH White) than LA County (25% NH White). It’s also wealthier, which in Southern California, rich and white still typically are more Republican (even if they are astronomically more Democratic than whites in the rest of the country).

Historically both counties had significant defense industries, but LA’s economy diversified earlier than San Diego’s, and military installations still provide a significant amount of employment in San Diego. Think of San Diego as the west coast equivalent of Hampton Roads in terms of the outsized influence the military has. Hollywood’s impact on LA politically is obvious, but other factors - such as LA’s traditional manufacturing sectors like garments and the ports of LA and LB, and the high unionization rates throughout all of these industries, proved LA more liberal. San Diego’s leftward lurch in the 21st century is a result of the growth of knowledge industries, such as biochem and tech, shifting to the Democrats.

A final factor is that LA’s non Hispanic White communities are still quite diverse - one of the largest Jewish communities in the country, but also groups like Armenians - that still lean more Dem than Anglo stock whites or Italian Americans.

[Oryxslayer]

SNIP

This is a very good analysis, though I will add one thing: African American decedents of the great migration. Far less settled in San Diego than in Los Angeles, in both numerical and percentage terms. Even at it's peak Los Angeles did not have a big AA percentage nationally, but for the west coast it certainly did. This was one alongside the many you listed why LA county was the blue dot surrounded by a red SoCal for most of the Cold War era. And while that population has been slowly relocating out since the LA riots - some to suburbs or the Inland Empire, some to other states - LA county is still the only place on the west coast with AA majority communities. Overall the AA percentage is still larger than San Diego. Of course Politically this helps anchor Democratic support.

[mileslunn]

Los Angeles is much bigger than other cities and also more diverse as well as Hollywood influence.  San Diego County is entire metro area as well as more white and larger military presence.  Inland empire is more suburban sprawl thus why more competitive.  While geography matters to some degree, in US size plays a big role and Los Angeles is second largest metro area behind New York City and ahead of Chicago and both of those two vote just as heavily Democrat.  It is in a lot of ways like Cook County, Illinois with city itself and inner suburbs while outer suburbs in neighboring counties.  Democrat margins in Cook county are often even bigger than in Los Angeles County.

[kwabbit]

Presently, San Diego is still significantly whiter (43% NH White) than LA County (25% NH White). It’s also wealthier, which in Southern California, rich and white still typically are more Republican (even if they are astronomically more Democratic than whites in the rest of the country).

Historically both counties had significant defense industries, but LA’s economy diversified earlier than San Diego’s, and military installations still provide a significant amount of employment in San Diego. Think of San Diego as the west coast equivalent of Hampton Roads in terms of the outsized influence the military has. Hollywood’s impact on LA politically is obvious, but other factors - such as LA’s traditional manufacturing sectors like garments and the ports of LA and LB, and the high unionization rates throughout all of these industries, proved LA more liberal. San Diego’s leftward lurch in the 21st century is a result of the growth of knowledge industries, such as biochem and tech, shifting to the Democrats.

A final factor is that LA’s non Hispanic White communities are still quite diverse - one of the largest Jewish communities in the country, but also groups like Armenians - that still lean more Dem than Anglo stock whites or Italian Americans.

I wouldn't say that SoCal Whites are that liberal as a whole. There's definitely still some GOP overperformance going on, although it's smaller each coming cycle.

SD County Dems seem to be narrowly winning the White vote, but they are probably still losing it by around 10 pts in OC, San Bernardino, and non-Palm Springs Riverside. Ventura is hard to tell but I think Dems are slightly winning it there. LA seems like a 15-20 point victory among Whites.

Most of these counties are just so diverse that still decent GOP performance among Whites is hard to pick up. SB is only 35% White and it's still competitive. It would be like D+30 if it was in the Northeast.

[ProgressiveModerate]

Presently, San Diego is still significantly whiter (43% NH White) than LA County (25% NH White). It’s also wealthier, which in Southern California, rich and white still typically are more Republican (even if they are astronomically more Democratic than whites in the rest of the country).

Historically both counties had significant defense industries, but LA’s economy diversified earlier than San Diego’s, and military installations still provide a significant amount of employment in San Diego. Think of San Diego as the west coast equivalent of Hampton Roads in terms of the outsized influence the military has. Hollywood’s impact on LA politically is obvious, but other factors - such as LA’s traditional manufacturing sectors like garments and the ports of LA and LB, and the high unionization rates throughout all of these industries, proved LA more liberal. San Diego’s leftward lurch in the 21st century is a result of the growth of knowledge industries, such as biochem and tech, shifting to the Democrats.

A final factor is that LA’s non Hispanic White communities are still quite diverse - one of the largest Jewish communities in the country, but also groups like Armenians - that still lean more Dem than Anglo stock whites or Italian Americans.

I wouldn't say that SoCal Whites are that liberal as a whole. There's definitely still some GOP overperformance going on, although it's smaller each coming cycle.

SD County Dems seem to be narrowly winning the White vote, but they are probably still losing it by around 10 pts in OC, San Bernardino, and non-Palm Springs Riverside. Ventura is hard to tell but I think Dems are slightly winning it there. LA seems like a 15-20 point victory among Whites.

Most of these counties are just so diverse that still decent GOP performance among Whites is hard to pick up. SB is only 35% White and it's still competitive. It would be like D+30 if it was in the Northeast.

Yeah this 100%. LA is tricky to estimate whites for because it can be hard to tell how whites in heavily non-white areas vote; I tend to believe LA whites are more like D+25 but hard to say.

[kwabbit]

Presently, San Diego is still significantly whiter (43% NH White) than LA County (25% NH White). It’s also wealthier, which in Southern California, rich and white still typically are more Republican (even if they are astronomically more Democratic than whites in the rest of the country).

Historically both counties had significant defense industries, but LA’s economy diversified earlier than San Diego’s, and military installations still provide a significant amount of employment in San Diego. Think of San Diego as the west coast equivalent of Hampton Roads in terms of the outsized influence the military has. Hollywood’s impact on LA politically is obvious, but other factors - such as LA’s traditional manufacturing sectors like garments and the ports of LA and LB, and the high unionization rates throughout all of these industries, proved LA more liberal. San Diego’s leftward lurch in the 21st century is a result of the growth of knowledge industries, such as biochem and tech, shifting to the Democrats.

A final factor is that LA’s non Hispanic White communities are still quite diverse - one of the largest Jewish communities in the country, but also groups like Armenians - that still lean more Dem than Anglo stock whites or Italian Americans.

I wouldn't say that SoCal Whites are that liberal as a whole. There's definitely still some GOP overperformance going on, although it's smaller each coming cycle.

SD County Dems seem to be narrowly winning the White vote, but they are probably still losing it by around 10 pts in OC, San Bernardino, and non-Palm Springs Riverside. Ventura is hard to tell but I think Dems are slightly winning it there. LA seems like a 15-20 point victory among Whites.

Most of these counties are just so diverse that still decent GOP performance among Whites is hard to pick up. SB is only 35% White and it's still competitive. It would be like D+30 if it was in the Northeast.

Yeah this 100%. LA is tricky to estimate whites for because it can be hard to tell how whites in heavily non-white areas vote; I tend to believe LA whites are more like D+25 but hard to say.

Looking more it's definitely closer to a 20 than 15 point margin. I think Whites in the San Gabriel Valley, for example, are probably closer to tied but it's hard to tell in the heavily Asian parts. Some areas are definitely D blowouts though.

[mileslunn]

In heavily white municipalities in LA county, Democrats winning pretty big be it Santa Monica, Malibu etc.  However most of those are wealthy with lots of college educated so probably voting more Democrat than the middle or working class white areas are.  You see same with San Diego with northern coastal suburbs being quite white and heavily Democrat but southern and inland GOP probably winning whites.