(The Center Square) – Retreat from major party affiliation in North Carolina continues to be at an all-time high with no indications of change ahead.
Voter registrations, for decades heavily Democratic, are led by those choosing unaffiliated. In the last two weeks, the bloc has put another 2,322 registrations between it and Democrats, and 1,743 between Republicans, says the State Board of Elections.
Of the state’s more than 7.6 million registered, 38.7% are unaffiliated, 30.4% Democrats and 30.3% Republicans. Republicans trail Democrats by 5,536 registrations, the closest in history, and the unaffiliateds by 637,415.
Democrats are 631,879 behind unaffiliated registrants.
The percentage lead of Democrats over Republicans is 0.073%, or less than the minimum blood alcohol content (0.08%) that results in an impaired driving charge.
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. Today those figures are 5-5 in the executive offices, and Republican have held advantages of 30-20 in the Senate and 71-49 in the House of Representatives this session.
A year ago on the second Saturday after Election Day in November, the state was counting more than 7.8 million voters registered. The split was 37.7% unaffiliated (2.9 million), 31.3% Democrats (2.4 million) and 29.9% Republicans (2.3 million).
North Carolina is considered a legitimate battleground state on the national level, purple in hue rather than blue for Democrats or red for Republicans. Each has been around more than 150 years, the Grand Old Party (1867) more than a half century behind its rival (1828).
From the every two years elections of 1930 to 1982, Democrats were below 43 of the 50 state Senate seats just twice (won 38 in 1969, won 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 85 won in 1974 the worst.
Three decades ago at Election Day 1992, North Carolinians elected Democrats to all 10 Council of State positions and majorities of 39-11 in the state Senate and 78-42 in the House.
