(The Center Square) – Saying the party left him rather than the other way around, state Rep. Nasif Majeed says he will finish his fourth term in the North Carolina House of Representatives with unaffiliated voter registration.
The longtime Democrat on Sunday became the second House member in three days to switch affiliation. Rep. Carla Cunningham was first on Friday. Both are from the Charlotte area, and each was defeated in Democratic primaries on March 3.
Veleria Levy defeated Majeed 68.6%-26.2% in District 99. Tucker Neal (5.3%) was third. While first-term Democratic Gov. Josh Stein did not endorse Levy, she did get support from progressive groups Sunrise, Planned Parenthood and UNITE HERE Local 23.
“I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party left me,” said Majeed, whose affiliation in online records and with the legislative website is yet to reflect the change. “It’s not what I’m doing. It’s what they did. There’s a reaction for every action that was not a positive action.”
Republicans have 71 of the 120 seats in the House of Representatives. Democrats have 47 and two seats are now independent.
Majeed said he doesn’t vote with Republicans; rather, his vote is on issues. His vote aligned with them on two of a single-day record eight gubernatorial overrides July 29.
Majeed voted with Republicans at passage and override of a Stein veto on The Power Bill Reduction Act, known also as Senate Bill 266.
Majeed at override voted with Republicans on Prevent Sexual Exploitation/Women and Minors, known also as House Bill 805. He was one of five with an excused absence in the evening vote of June 25. This is the bill in which North Carolina became the 18th state to essentially codify second-term Republican President Donald Trump’s executive order to recognize only men and women as the two sexes.
“I’ve been a Democrat,” Majeed said. “But what they did during the campaign, they smeared my character, confused my voters. They raised over $1 million to get me defeated. I guess if you go against the status quo, it’s the stuff of consequence.”
Voter registrations show a lengthy history of departure from the state’s Democrats. It’s trickled into those already in elected office, too.
Three Robeson County commissioners, New Hanover County Sheriff Ed McMahon, and former 6th District Democratic Party Chairwoman Sabrina Berry are a portion of the list headlined by the April 2023 switch from Democrat to Republican by state Rep. Tricia Cotham. All of those have come since the start of 2025.
On Feb. 11, 2023, Anderson Clayton was elected chairwoman of the North Carolina Democratic Party. Then 25, she’s 28 today and leading a party with 97,619 fewer registrations than when she took over.
The unaffiliated registrations are up 491,294 in that time, and Republicans are up 139,773.
