N.C. Republicans Overtake Democrats in Voter Registration

For the first time in state history, North Carolina has more registered Republicans than Democrats.

Data released Saturday by the State Board of Elections show that Republicans became the second-biggest voting group last week. Each political party accounts for roughly 30% of the electorate. Unaffiliated voters remain the largest voting bloc in the state, representing nearly 39% of the state’s more than 7.6 million registered voters.

The registration numbers reflect a growing trend of younger voters, who have historically skewed Democratic, becoming less likely to identify with a political party. While Democrats’ loss is welcome news for Republicans, the GOP share of the overall electorate has remained relatively flat over the last 30 years.

Republicans added 4,318 new voters this past week, while Democrats added 1,637. The 2,681-voter difference pushed the GOP ahead of Democrats by 2,077 registered voters.

For Jason Simmons, chairman of the state Republican Party, overcoming the registration deficit is an encouraging sign heading into the midterm elections, when the party in control of the White House and Congress traditionally loses ground.

“When President Trump was initially elected, you saw Democrats with a voter registration advantage of over 645,000,” Simmons said in an interview. “Year over year, with Republican growth, with common-sense policies that have been enacted here at the state level, as well as what you’ve seen with President Trump at the federal level and our delegation, people have recognized common sense and family-first priorities have really made a difference in their lives.”

North Carolina Democratic Party Chairwoman Anderson Clayton said Republicans will have a harder time selling that message.

“I wish Jason Simmons all the luck in the world convincing North Carolinians to go to the polls [in] November to support the Republican agenda that has spiked costs for working families and ripped away health care from hundreds of thousands of people,” Clayton said. “We saw how well that worked out this year.”

The Assembly recently spoke with Simmons about what he believes needs to happen for the GOP to build upon their state legislative and congressional majorities.

The following Q&A has been lightly edited for brevity.

What do you think the GOP did right to overtake Democrats on voter registration?

The reason why a lot of people align with the Republican Party and its policies and our platform is because of what we stand for. We stand for family. We stand for faith. We stand for freedom. 

In the inverse, you see what the Democrats have continued to align themselves with. It’s open borders. It’s everybody else but a family-first agenda. As the Republican Party, it’s continuing to make sure we advance those priorities and accelerate our growth here in this state.

Does this give you any additional confidence going into the midterms?

It definitely gives us a structural advantage. We saw that last year when we went through the presidential election. Republicans, for the first time, won early voting. 

That’s in large part because of the structural advantage that we’ve been able to gain, where we’ve had an increase in Republican registration, we turn out our people at a higher level than Democrats or even the unaffiliateds. As we have more Republicans and as we have a higher turnout, that allows us to have that structural advantage going into elections.

Unaffiliated voter registration is heavily outpacing both Democrats and Republicans. Why do you think that is?

Well, you have a lot of people that, as they move into the state, they don’t necessarily come with a political allegiance one way or the other, or they just show up to the DMV, and they select the [No Party] box. That unaffiliated becomes their default. And so our mission is to continue to reach out to those people that are moving into the state. 

They’re coming to North Carolina for a reason. It’s become a great place to work, to live, to educate, to retire, because what you saw over the last dozen years is Republican priorities that have been enacted at the state level, with our state Republican majority legislature, where they’ve lowered taxes, reduced regulation, decreased the burden on families, and made investments in education. North Carolina continues to be the place to come, to grow businesses, and to retire.

Many North Carolinians still feel costs are high. What’s the message to folks who look at their pocketbooks and say, ‘I’m not feeling better off in November 2026 than I did in November 2024?’

What we are seeing is that slow progress. What took four years is going to take time to be able to unwind. But what we’ve seen, especially over this past year, is the cost of things continuing to go down, the cost of gasoline going down, the cost of groceries going down. So it’s going to take time. 

As people file their taxes this upcoming filing period, they’re going to be able to see greater take-home. They’re going to be able to make sure that they’re continuing to invest in themselves and in their families. Republicans really want to make sure people have an opportunity to keep more money in their pockets and not continue those Democrat policies of tax and spend.

We’re the last state in the country without a budget. People also look at D.C. and see dysfunction, where Republicans control Congress. What do you say to someone who says, ‘What did the Republicans do for me?’

I would push back on the budget side. We still have a budget here in North Carolina. They didn’t implement a new round of budgeting, but we still have a budget that continues prioritizing lower taxes, education, and making the investments there in public safety. [Editor’s note: North Carolina’s 2023 budget remains in place until the General Assembly passes a new one.]

And then when you look to the federal level, you saw what the Republicans were able to put into place. They were able to make sure that the Trump tax cuts were implemented. 

I go back to the other policies that were part of that bill that closed the southern border, made sure to secure it, put the investments there, made sure there were no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and no tax [for seniors] on their Social Security. What you saw, especially on the government shutdown, was not a Republican-driven shutdown. That was a Democrat shutdown.

How much of the election outcome do you think is going to be determined by grassroots organizing versus the state of the economy?

As we go into this upcoming midterm election, it’s going to continue to be the day-to-day grind, making sure that we’re out there in the communities. It’s very hard work. There’s nothing sexy about it. It’s brute force.

Will there be any involvement by the party in contested primaries, such as Senate leader Phil Berger’s race?

Our party has a position of neutrality in our bylaws, so we’ll continue to abide by that.