Moving to a new place is a challenging decision, and one influence that can have a large impact on that decision is politics. People looking to move to Roseville, California will find that it serves a broad political community.
Roseville, California is a moderately liberal city. The general political policies in the city and surrounding Placer County are liberal, and the populous is moderate in its political leanings. The moderate politics are shown largely through reactions to recent political divisions.
Because politics in Roseville are an interesting conglomeration of liberal and conservative aspects, knowing how the city is divided can help people better understand this demographic.
A Moderate Population
When it comes to the political leanings of the Roseville population, sources tend to differ in defining exactly which political direction the population leans. It’s safe to say that this city, located about 20 miles north of Sacramento, has an even split
of conservative and liberal citizens. What that split looks like in Roseville may be different from other areas that experience a politically divided population.
Oftentimes, Roseville politics are defined by the larger scale of Placer County, the county that Roseville is part of.
During the 2020 presidential election, Placer County ended the election county with a slightly higher vote for former President Trump than for President Biden. However, this close race is somewhat of a change for the county, and some feel that it has more to do with a dislike for the former president and his actions regarding sociopolitical issues rather than an actual change in people’s party preference.
The county also had a high turnout of voters during the 2020 election, showing that people from both political leanings are working to be active participants in politics. A decade ago in the county, about half the population was registered as Republican, while the other half was split between Democrat or having no preference. Now, the Republican registration still holds about 40% of the population, with the other 60% of the population still near-evenly split between Democrat and no party preference.
While knowing how a city voted during a certain election can be indicative of the politics in the area, there are many other factors that contribute to the overall politics of an area. Surrounding cities, current leaders, racial demographics, and attitudes about various social issues all impact whether people will consider a city to be liberal or conservative.
The Influence of Sacramento on Roseville Politics
Because Roseville is located near the large city of Sacramento, it does not escape the political influence of the larger city. It’s possible that recent changes in the political demographic of Roseville have come about because of Sacramento’s politics, which are more liberal than the surrounding suburbs.
One way that Roseville gets lumped into Sacramento politics is through the occurrence of protests; earlier this year, many protests regarding the overturning of Roe v. Wade took place in Sacramento. The state of California has also vowed to protect abortion rights. Without the presence of protests or other public discussions about the topic of abortion in Roseville, it can be difficult to know what the overarching sentiment is.
What to Know About Mayor Bernasconi
Mayor Krista Bernasconi has been serving Roseville in the mayoral position since late 2020. Some of the issues that she has intended to tackle during her service have been helping the community recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling drug problems (especially among youths), and addressing the homeless population.
Regarding the first two issues that the mayor hoped to tackle during her elected period, there has not been very much recorded action taken. Mayor Bernasconi hasn’t been reported as solving the drug or vaping issues that she hoped to tackle, and citizens have had mixed feelings about how the COVID-19 pandemic was handled, especially during further outbreaks in 2021.
In recent news, Placer County has been the recipient of over $23 million to help convert a Roseville hotel into housing for people experiencing homelessness. The converted hotel would be accessed through a waitlist, and residents would be expected to follow house rules and pay a portion of their income. The goal of the housing will be not only to keep people housed but provide other tools for ongoing stability.
COVID policies during the pandemic
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Roseville issued its first mask mandate on June 18th, which required citizens to wear masks anywhere outside the home. Throughout the year, the city also shut down indoor or other crowded activities such as dine-in restaurants, zoos, fitness centers, and movie theaters.
In early 2021, vaccines began to be available to the community, although there is no indication that the city as a whole required them. Moving into later 2021, many pandemic restrictions were lifted. As a whole, Roseville handled the pandemic with similar reactions and policies as many other places throughout the country.
That being said, the lifting of mask mandates during 2021 was looked down upon by some residents during the outbreak of the Delta variant. Conservative citizens in the area were against mask mandates and vaccines, and liberal citizens felt that the leaders were trying to keep the peace by not instituting the masking mandates once again. Ultimately, the decisions by leaders created public division regarding how to best handle the variants coming out of the pandemic.
Diversity in Roseville
Recent demographic statistics from Roseville show that about 66.4% of the population is white, about 11.8% is Asian American, about 15.6% is Latino, about 7.2% is mixed race, and about 1.9% is African American.
Awareness surrounding the demographics of a city can help current and prospective residents better understand its political leanings. In the case of Roseville, the fact that it is moderate in politics can be shown through the racial demographics of the community. While not a hard and fast rule, white voters lean more conservative, while BIPOC voters lean more liberal. Based on such an interpretation of politics, the split in the racial demographic of Roseville closely matches its political split.
Who’s Moving to Roseville?
Along with understanding the current demographic, knowing how a city has changed over time can show how or why political sentiments might be shifting. Over the last 10 years, Roseville has grown in population size by about 30,000 people, which represents a 24% increase in population size for the city. Many of the new residents are from the Bay area as people seek cheaper housing. The Bay area is significantly more liberal than Roseville, so as people move to Roseville, they are bringing with them different political cultures and ideals that have not always been present in Roseville.
Roseville’s Black Lives Matter Protests
While Sacramento draws many of its surrounding citizens for protests, Roseville has had some of its own in the past. In 2020, residents took to the streets after the vandalization of Black Lives Matter signs. The protest, which took place in July, was one of several others that had occurred over the course of June and July that year; not all the protests were met with friendly reactions from the public around them.
At one protest, someone was hit by a car. In other places of the city, people had to keep replacing Black Lives Matter yard signs that were repeatedly vandalized or stolen. True to the split nature of politics in the city, both support and pushback for the Black Lives Matter protests were present and created public tension.
Support for LGBTQ+ Residents
Roseville does have support systems for its LGBTQ+ population. This includes a Planned Parenthood center for transgender people to access gender-affirming hormone therapy and access to SacWellness, which provides a variety of resources for LGBTQ+ citizens in the larger Sacramento area.
The main service provided by SacWellness is therapy. Their therapy services cover a variety of issues and approaches that allow LGBTQ+ clients to curate their therapy experience to what will work best for them.
Despite some aspects of local support, as recently as 2021, LGBTQ+ citizens in Roseville have felt let down by certain actions from the city. Pride month in 2021 was reportedly the first time since the legalization of gay marriage that the city had acknowledged the worldwide LGBTQ+ celebration, and that month, the city council voted against raising the Pride flag around the city. At the time, the decision was met with mixed reactions, and the mayor stood by the choice to only fly government flags.
Additionally, due to the political party split in the area, some LGBTQ+ citizens have reported that while people may tolerate the presence of LGBTQ+ people, there is not always outright support from the whole citizenship, and people aren’t always friendly. Some aspects of the area that make it more hostile to LGBTQ+ residents are a larger Christian church culture and the political demographic that leans conservative.
As with anything in politics, not everyone under a certain umbrella will feel a certain way. However, LGBTQ+ people generally find that conservative religion and politics don’t mix well in their favor, and that is the case in Roseville.
Roseville, for now, is a place that won’t be labeled as liberal. Whether or not the shifting and growing demographics of the area will change in the coming years remains to be seen. For now, it will likely retain the conservative majority that has prevailed in the city over the years.
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