California is often described as a solidly Democratic state, but that statewide result hides sharp regional differences. In Northern California and parts of the inland Central Valley, Republican presidential vote share remains much stronger than the state average.
To rank the most conservative cities in California consistently, this list maps each incorporated place to its county, applies the county’s 2024 GOP vote share, filters for places with at least 5,000 residents, and orders them by GOP percentage — using population to break ties.
Essentials: This ranking uses a county-proxy method rather than direct city election returns. Each incorporated place was mapped to its county, assigned that county’s 2024 presidential GOP vote share, filtered to places with at least 5,000 residents, and ranked by GOP percentage. Population breaks ties.
Methodology
This ranking was built using a county-proxy approach in four steps:
- Every incorporated California city was mapped to its county using Census TIGER/Line geography files.
- Each city was assigned its county’s 2024 presidential GOP vote share.
- Only cities with a population of at least 5,000 (ACS 2023 5-year estimates) were included.
- Cities were ranked by GOP percentage, with population breaking ties — larger cities ranked higher when GOP share is equal.
Because this is a county-proxy model, cities in the same county share the same GOP percentage. This ranking reflects county-level voting environments, not direct city vote totals. A note on terminology: “city” throughout this piece refers to incorporated places as defined by the Census Bureau.
For a fuller explanation of why this method was chosen over voter-registration ranking or precinct aggregation, see the Limitations section below.
Top 25 most conservative cities in California
These are the highest-ranked incorporated places under the county GOP proxy model, ordered by 2024 presidential Republican vote share.
| Rank | City | County | GOP % (2024) | Population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Susanville | Lassen | 75.8% | 14,992 |
| 2 | Red Bluff | Tehama | 69.7% | 14,592 |
| 3 | Corning | Tehama | 69.7% | 8,168 |
| 4 | Redding | Shasta | 67.0% | 93,268 |
| 5 | Anderson | Shasta | 67.0% | 11,282 |
| 6 | Shasta Lake | Shasta | 67.0% | 10,334 |
| 7 | Orland | Glenn | 66.1% | 8,252 |
| 8 | Willows | Glenn | 66.1% | 6,239 |
| 9 | Yuba City | Sutter | 64.5% | 69,545 |
| 10 | Live Oak | Sutter | 64.5% | 9,264 |
| 11 | Colusa | Colusa | 62.9% | 6,439 |
| 12 | Williams | Colusa | 62.9% | 5,569 |
| 13 | Ione | Amador | 62.6% | 5,306 |
| 14 | Jackson | Amador | 62.6% | 5,061 |
| 15 | Marysville | Yuba | 61.5% | 12,703 |
| 16 | Hanford | Kings | 60.4% | 59,389 |
| 17 | Lemoore | Kings | 60.4% | 27,023 |
| 18 | Corcoran | Kings | 60.4% | 22,626 |
| 19 | Avenal | Kings | 60.4% | 13,441 |
| 20 | Bakersfield | Kern | 59.3% | 408,366 |
| 21 | Delano | Kern | 59.3% | 50,835 |
| 22 | Ridgecrest | Kern | 59.3% | 28,138 |
| 23 | Wasco | Kern | 59.3% | 26,222 |
| 24 | Shafter | Kern | 59.3% | 20,618 |
| 25 | Arvin | Kern | 59.3% | 19,478 |
Sources: 2024 California presidential election results by county (California Secretary of State); Census TIGER/Line incorporated places; ACS 2023 5-year population estimates. See full citations below.
What the ranking shows
The dominant pattern is geographic. The top of the list is concentrated in Northern California: Lassen, Tehama, Shasta, and Glenn counties together account for eight of the top ten cities. The lower half of the list is anchored in the inland Central Valley, with Kings and Kern counties each placing four or five cities in the Top 25.
County clustering is also visible in the data. Of the 25 ranked cities, 17 belong to just four counties — Shasta (3), Kings (4), Kern (6), and the Northern California bloc of Tehama, Glenn, Sutter, Colusa, and Amador (8 combined). That concentration is a feature of the county-proxy method, not a flaw: it accurately reflects where Republican presidential voting environments are strongest statewide.
Larger cities do appear — Redding, Yuba City, Hanford, and Bakersfield all make the list — but most of the ranking is made up of smaller inland places. The cities typically associated with California (Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose) don’t appear, and neither do most coastal metros. California’s most conservative city environments cluster away from the state’s famous coastline and toward its northern and inland county blocs.
[Editor’s note: A county-cluster map highlighting the counties represented in the Top 25 would go here.]
Limitations
This ranking uses county-level presidential results as a proxy for city conservatism. It provides a consistent, verifiable statewide comparison, but it doesn’t capture within-county political variation. A city in a strongly Republican county may still contain precincts that vote differently from the county total.
Two alternative methods were considered and rejected: voter-registration ranking (registration doesn’t track with actual voting behaviour closely enough to be reliable) and precinct aggregation (precinct boundaries don’t align cleanly with city limits across all California counties, making consistent statewide comparison impossible).
For those reasons, the county-proxy model was chosen as the most transparent and reproducible method available with public data. This list should be read as a ranking of cities located in the most Republican county voting environments in California — not as a precinct-level measure of how each city voted independently.
FAQ
How was “conservative” measured? Using each city’s county 2024 presidential GOP vote share as a consistent proxy.
Is this based on city-level election results? No. Direct city-level presidential returns aren’t published in a consistent format across all California cities. County results are used as the closest reliable proxy.
Why do several cities share the same GOP percentage? Cities in the same county inherit that county’s GOP share under this model. The population tie-breaker determines their order.
Why use population as the tie-breaker? It’s the most neutral and consistent option available when two cities share an identical county GOP percentage.
What does “incorporated place” mean? A city or town that is legally incorporated under California law, as defined by the Census Bureau. Unincorporated communities and Census-designated places are excluded.
Where can I find the underlying data? All sources are listed below. The election results and Census files are publicly available and downloadable.
Sources
| Data | Source | File / URL |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 presidential GOP vote share by county | California Secretary of State | elections.cdn.sos.ca.gov — Statement of Vote, November 2024 |
| Incorporated place-to-county mapping | U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line | 2023 Places shapefile, California |
| Population estimates | U.S. Census Bureau ACS | 2023 5-year estimates, Table B01003 |
Last updated: April 2026. The ranking will be refreshed following the 2028 presidential election.
California’s most conservative city environments are concentrated less in its famous metros than in its northern and inland county blocs — a distinction that tends to get lost when the state is treated as a single political unit.