Federal representation

See also: California's congressional districts

The state of California sends 53 members to the House of Representatives,^[205] the nation's largest congressional state delegation. Consequently California also has the largest number of electoral votes in national presidential elections, with 55. California's U.S. Senators are Dianne Feinstein, a native and former mayor of San Francisco, and Kamala Harris, a native, former District Attorney from San Francisco and former Attorney General of California. In 1992, California became the first state to have a Senate delegation entirely composed of women.

Ideology

Main articles: Politics of California and Elections in California

California registered voters as of January 5, 2016[206]
Party		Number of Voters	Percentage
	Democratic	7,438,655	43.1%
	Republican	4,767,259	27.62%
	No Party Preference	4,141,860	24%
	American Independent	472,019	2.73%
	Libertarian	120,578	0.7%
	Green	102,688	0.59%
	Peace and Freedom	75,579	0.44%
Other		140,775	0.82%
Total		17,259,413	100%

Presidential elections results^[207]

Year	Republican	Democratic
2016	31.62% 4,483,810	61.73% 8,753,788
2012	37.12% 4,839,958	60.24% 7,854,285
2008	36.91% 5,011,781	60.94% 8,274,473
2004	44.36% 5,509,826	54.40% 6,745,485
2000	41.65% 4,567,429	53.45% 5,861,203
1996	38.21% 3,828,380	51.10% 5,119,835
1992	32.61% 3,630,574	46.01% 5,121,325
1988	51.13% 5,054,917	47.56% 4,702,233
1984	57.51% 5,467,009	41.27% 3,922,519
1980	52.69% 4,524,858	35.91% 3,083,661
1976	49.35% 3,882,244	47.57% 3,742,284
1972	55.01% 4,602,096	41.54% 3,475,847
1968	47.82% 3,467,664	44.74% 3,244,318
1964	40.79% 2,879,108	59.11% 4,171,877
1960	50.10% 3,259,722	49.55% 3,224,099

Treemap of the popular vote by county, 2016 presidential election.

California has an idiosyncratic political culture compared to the rest of the country, and is sometimes regarded as a trendsetter.^[208] In socio-cultural mores and national politics, Californians are perceived as more liberal than other Americans, especially those who live in the inland states.
Among the political idiosyncrasies and trendsetting, California was the second state to recall their state governor, the second state to legalize abortion, and the only state to ban marriage for gay couples twice by voters (including Proposition 8 in 2008). Voters also passed Proposition 71 in 2004 to fund stem cell research, and Proposition 14 in 2010 to completely change the state's primary election process. California has also experienced disputes over water rights; and a tax revolt, culminating with the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, limiting state property taxes.
The state's trend towards the Democratic Party and away from the Republican Party can be seen in state elections. From 1899 to 1939, California had Republican governors. Since 1990, California has generally elected Democratic candidates to federal, state and local offices, including current Governor Jerry Brown; however, the state has elected Republican Governors, though many of its Republican Governors, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, tend to be considered moderate Republicans and more centrist than the national party.

Governor Jerry Brown is one of the many Democrats currently in office in California.

The Democrats also now hold a majority in both houses of the state legislature. There are 56 Democrats and 24 Republicans in the Assembly; and 26 Democrats and 12 Republicans in the Senate.
The trend towards the Democratic Party is most obvious in presidential elections; Republicans have not won California's electoral votes since 1988.
In the United States House, the Democrats held a 34–19 edge in the CA delegation of the 110th United States Congress in 2007. As the result of gerrymandering, the districts in California were usually dominated by one or the other party, and few districts were considered competitive. In 2008, Californians passed Proposition 20 to empower a 14-member independent citizen commission to redraw districts for both local politicians and Congress. After the 2012 elections, when the new system took effect, Democrats gained 4 seats and held a 38–15 majority in the delegation.
In general, Democratic strength is centered in the populous coastal regions of the Los Angeles metropolitan area and the San Francisco Bay Area. Republican strength is still greatest in eastern parts of the state. Orange County also remains mostly Republican. One study ranked Berkeley, Oakland, Inglewood and San Francisco in the top 20 most liberal American cities; and Bakersfield, Orange, Escondido, Garden Grove, and Simi Valley in the top 20 most conservative cities.^[209]
In October 2012, out of the 23,802,577 people eligible to vote, 18,245,970 people were registered to vote.^[210] Of the people registered, the three largest registered groups were Democrats (7,966,422), Republicans (5,356,608), and Decline to State (3,820,545).^[210] Los Angeles County had the largest number of registered Democrats (2,430,612) and Republicans (1,037,031) of any county in the state.^[210]

Armed forces

United States Armed Forces in California. From left to right: Fort Irwin, Camp Pendleton, NAS North Island, Beale Air Force Base, and Coast Guard Island

In California, as of 2009, the U.S. Department of Defense had a total of 117,806 active duty servicemembers of which 88,370 were Sailors or Marines, 18,339 were Airmen, and 11,097 were Soldiers, with 61,365 Department of Defense civilian employees. Additionally, there were a total of 57,792 Reservists and Guardsman in California.^[211]
In 2010, Los Angeles County was the largest origin of military recruits in the United States by county, with 1,437 individuals enlisting in the military.^[212] However, as of 2002, Californians were relatively under-represented in the military as a proportion to its population.^[213]
In 2000, California, had 2,569,340 veterans of United States military service: 504,010 served in World War II, 301,034 in the Korean War, 754,682 during the Vietnam War, and 278,003 during 1990–2000 (including the Persian Gulf War).^[214] As of 2010, there were 1,942,775 veterans living in California, of which 1,457,875 served during a period of armed conflict, and just over four thousand served before World War II (the largest population of this group of any state).^[215]
California's military forces consist of the Army and Air National Guard, the naval and state military reserve (militia), and the California Cadet Corps.

Foreign relations

California has a twinning arrangement with  Catalonia, Spain^[216]