Sutter County, named after John Sutter, lies in the heart of the agricultural Sacramento Valley forty miles north of the city of Sacramento. Vast tracts of rice, almonds, walnuts, prunes, peaches, wheat, and row crops are irrigated by the Feather, Yuba and Sacramento Rivers. Except for the Sutter Buttes and the grain storage silos, Sutter County is absolutely flat. On a clear day, you can see the Coastal Range to the west and the Sierra Nevada to the east.

In 2009, the Census Bureau estimated the county population at about 90,000 souls, sixty-five percent residing in the county seat, Yuba City.

Sutter County is politically conservative. In the 2004 Presidential election, 67.1% voted for Bush and 31.8% voted for Kerry. In the 2008 election, 57.27% voted for McCain, 40.62% voted for Obama. In the same election, 70.7 % voted to amend the California Constitution to ban same-sex marriage. The last Democratic Presidential candidate to win a majority in Sutter County was Franklin Roosevelt in 1940.

Yuba City native, Wally Herger, is the Congressman from California's Second Congressional District which includes Sutter County and the cities of Chico, Redding, and Red Bluff. Congressman Herger's town hall meeting in Redding on August 18, 2009, received national coverage when an audience member called himself a "proud right-wing terrorist," and Herger responded, "Amen. God bless you. There goes a great American."