Politics

Presidential elections results Year Republican Democratic 2012 36.2% 140,152 60.1% 232,788 2008 34.3% 136,981 63.5% 254,017 2004 42.0% 147,885 56.0% 197,235 2000 46.9% 141,235 41.7% 125,526 1996 39.9% 98,454 52.3% 128,970 1992 31.9% 88,105 47.3% 130,546 1988 44.9% 105,915 54.1% 127,783 1984 56.8% 124,944 42.8% 94,124 1980 45.7% 73,151 46.9% 75,028 1976 46.7% 71,031 51.6% 78,585 1972 56.3% 70,561 43.2% 54,157 1968 41.6% 34,309 48.1% 39,667 1964 31.0% 19,838 68.9% 44,058

Austin is known as an enclave of liberal politics in a generally conservative state—so much so, that the city is sometimes sarcastically called the "People's Republic of Austin" by residents of other parts of Texas, and conservatives in the Texas Legislature.

As a result of the major party realignment that began in the 1970s, central Austin became a stronghold of the Democratic Party, while the suburbs tend to vote Republican. Opponents characterized the resulting district layout as excessively partisan gerrymandering, and the plan was challenged in court on this basis by Democratic and minority activists; of note, the Supreme Court of the United States has never struck down a redistricting plan for being excessively partisan. The plan was subsequently upheld by a three-judge federal panel in late 2003, and on June 28, 2006, the matter was largely settled when the Supreme Court in a 7–2 decision upheld the entire congressional redistricting plan with the exception of a Hispanic-majority district in southwest Texas. This later affected Austin's districting, as U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett's district (U.S. Congressional District 25) was found to be insufficiently compact to compensate for the reduced minority influence in the southwest district and so was redrawn so that it now takes in most of southeastern Travis County and several counties to its south and east.

Overall, the city is a blend of downtown liberalism and suburban conservatism but leans to the political left as a whole. The city last went to a Republican candidate in 2000 when Texan resident, George Bush, successfully ran for President. This was helped in part by Ralph Nader of the Green Party splitting the centre-left vote by winning a sizeable 10.4%, which was largely at the expense of the Democrats. Since 2004, the Democrats rebounded strongly and John Kerry enjoyed a 14.0% margin over George Bush, who once again won Texas.

In 2003, the city adopted a resolution against the USA PATRIOT Act that reaffirmed constitutionally guaranteed rights. Of Austin's six state legislative districts, three are strongly Democratic and three are swing districts, two of which are held by Democrats and one of which is held by a Republican. However, two of its three congressional districts (the 10th and the 21st) are presently held by Republicans, with only the 25th held by a Democrat. This is largely due to the 2003 redistricting, which left downtown Austin without an exclusive congressional seat of its own. Travis County was also the only county in Texas to reject Texas Constitutional Amendment Proposition 2 that effectively outlawed gay marriage and status equal or similar to it and did so by a wide margin (40% for, 60% against).

Two of the candidates for president in the 2004 race called Austin home. Michael Badnarik, the Libertarian Party candidate, and David Cobb of the Green Party both had lived in Austin. During the run up to the election in November, a presidential debate was held at the University of Texas at Austin student union involving the two minor party candidates. While the Commission on Presidential Debates only invites Democrats and Republicans to participate in televised debates, the debate at UT was open to all presidential candidates. Austin also hosted one of the last presidential debates between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton during their heated race for the Democratic nomination in 2008.

In the 2012 Presidential election, Travis County, which contains the majority of Austin, voted to re-elect President Barack H. Obama (D) by a 24-point margin (60.1% to 36.2%).

Environmental movement

The distinguishing political movement of Austin politics has been that of the environmental movement, which spawned the parallel neighborhood movement, then the more recent conservationist movement (as typified by the Hill Country Conservancy), and eventually the current on-going debate about "sense of place" and preserving the Austin quality of life. Much of the so-called environmental movement has matured into a debate on issues related to saving and creating an Austin "sense of place."