New voters continue to register as unaffiliated

By Alan Wooten, The Center Square

A day political observers never saw coming, the Republican Party having more registered voters than Democrats in North Carolina, is fast approaching, with only a 1,216-voter gap remaining. But voters are even more likely to choose neither party, with about 7 in 10 in 2025 opting to register unaffiliated.

In the weekly update from the State Board of Elections, unaffiliated voters are closing in on 3 million registrations. At 2,962,428, this bloc is greater than Democrats’ 2,310,814 and Republicans’ 2,309,598.

The percentage gains for the 6,538 new registrations were 72.5% unaffiliated, 17.1% Republicans and 0.07% Democrats. Those numbers are consistent with recent weeks.

The difference of the major parties without rounding is a Democrats’ lead of 0.0159294%.

Democratic registrations were surpassed by unaffiliated registrations in March 2022; Republicans were surpassed in September 2017.

Total voter registrations eclipsed 7.8 million on Election Day 2024; routine maintenance throughout the year is a key contributing factor to the volume changes. This fall was an off-year election cycle, when 91 of 100 counties had municipal races.

A mere 16 years ago, Democrats were in eight of 10 seats for the Council of State and commanded 30-20 and 68-52 majorities in the General Assembly. Then came the historic 2010 midterms, and both chambers being won by Republicans for the first time since Reconstruction, 140 years earlier.

Today those figures are 5-5 in the executive offices, and Republicans hold advantages of 30-20 in the Senate and 71-49 in the House of Representatives.

For context on how Democrats once had a lock, from the elections held every two years between 1930 and 1982, the party was below 43 of the 50 state Senate seats just twice (winning 38 in 1969 and 35 in 1973) and didn’t have fewer than 30 until only getting 26 in the 1994 cycle. From 1930 to 1982 in the House, Democrats had fewer than 102 of the 120 just six times, with their 85 seats in 1974 as the worst.

Three decades ago, on Election Day 1992, North Carolinians elected Democrats to all 10 Council of State positions and to majorities of 39-11 in the state Senate and 78-42 in the House.