Urban ideologies

By K.N.C. and L.P.

How liberal or conservative are America’s cities?

TRUE to stereotype, San Francisco is the most leftie city in the union. But would people expect Washington, DC, to come second, ahead of Seattle (where it is legal to smoke pot) or the Democratic stronghold of Boston? On the other end of the scale, Mesa, Arizona is the most conservative large city, with a slew of Texan and Oklahoman municipalities high on the list. The data come from a study appearing this month in the American Political Science Review by Chris Warshaw of MIT and Chris Tausanovitch from the University of California at Los Angeles. They brought together seven large-scale surveys that accounted for more than 275,000 people. It confirms the conventional wisdom that most big cities swing liberal. And there are fascinating intrastate differences in political views, such as between Colorado Springs and Denver, or Toledo and Cleveland. The study finds that, contrary to the academic literature, cities are largely responsive to residents' political views. Our report on the research is here.