(The Center Square) – A year until the pivotal 2026 midterms, North Carolina’s Republican Party voter registrations are only 6,115 behind its registrations as Democrats.
Both continue to dwarf the surge in choice for unaffiliated, a bloc that is less than 62,000 from topping 3 million in a state with more than 7.6 million registered. By percentage, the independence is chosen by 38.7%, Democrats have 30.4% and Republicans 30.3%, according to Saturday’s update by the State Board of Elections.
The percentage lead by Democrats over Republicans is 0.08%.
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 is an off-year election cycle, when 91 of 100 counties have 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 first Saturday of November, the state was counting more than 7.8 million voters registered. The split was 37.8% 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.
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.
