(The Center Square) – For a candidate in North Carolina’s Republican primary in six weeks, the effort to have Democrats change registration to unaffiliated so they can send her to the state House of Representatives doesn’t appear to have moved many in the two counties involved.
Pamela Ayscue is trying to win House District 32, an area near Kerr Lake on the Virginia border that encompasses Granville County and the northern part of Vance inclusive of Henderson. On Jan. 10, she asked via social media for fellow Democrats to renounce their party affiliation by the Feb. 6 deadline, choosing instead to be unaffiliated in order to be able to choose a Republican ballot in the primary.
On Super Tuesday, she is up against former Rep. Frank Sossamon in the Republican primary. Both are Henderson residents.
In the week since her ask, according to Saturday’s release of registrations by the State Board of Elections, Granville County gained 281 total registrations and 177 voters chose unaffiliated. That’s just under 63%, or 10% worse than the overall state rate for the same seven days.
Democrats in the county gained 19 registrations and Republicans 81. In Vance County, though numbers are total and not just District 32, there was a net gain of eight registrations with 18 choosing independence, Democrats losing six and Republicans losing three.
Incumbent Democratic Rep. Bryan Cohn chose family and his business over a second term, leaving Henderson’s Melissa Elliott and Oxford’s Curtis McRae in the Democratic primary.
Neither major party had a primary in 2024. Cohn unseated Sossamon in the general election, flipping the seat from red to blue, by 228 votes of more than 43,000 cast.
Of six candidates running for the House that were Democrats as recently as last summer before changing in time to run as Republicans, Ayscue is the only one that would face a Democrat in November.
Veteran politicos of North Carolina politics told TCS last week the chances any of the six could make it to the General Assembly are a longshot. All are campaigning on the strength of their career as educators.
It is a coordinated effort, replete with group photo for campaign purposes. In addition to Ayscue, Michele Joyner-Dinwiddie is trying to win House District 35, Pamela Zanni HD81, Lisa Deaton Koperski HD89, Kelly VanHorn HD105 and Dr. Christopher Wilson HD117.
State law permits unaffiliated voters to choose either a Democrat or Republican primary ballot, though not both. Registered voters of those parties – or the Green and Libertarian parties – can only choose their respective party.
Joyner has also encouraged voters to switch from Democrat to unaffiliated. District 35 is a portion of Wake County stretching from the Falls Lake area to Little River Reservoir, with a drop toward Knightdale Boulevard between Knightdale and Wendell.
Joyner runs against incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Schietzelt. Both are Wake Forest residents.
