North Carolina is mirroring a national trend of voters switching to the Republican Party this year, with nearly 5,000 former Democrats crossing the aisle since January 2022.
Data from the North Carolina State Board of Elections analyzed by The Carolina Journal show the Republican Party is the only party in the state with a net increase in voters this year.
The numbers show about 9,830 voters left the Republican Party, while 11,341 joined, including 4,999 former Democrats.
On the other side, Democrats lost nearly 20,000 voters since January 2022, compared to 6,253 North Carolinians who joined the party.
Jim Stirling, research fellow at the John Locke Foundation’s Civitas Center for Public Integrity, told the Journal the changes pale in comparison to 2020, but said he expects more to come as the general election approaches.
“This year seems to have a slight uptick in registration changes when comparing it to the election years of the last decade,” Stirling said. “2020 had a massive number of registration changes, totaling 237,611 changes. This includes the now removed Green and Constitutional parties only having received 2,477 registrant changes. While we may not reach 2020 registration changes, we will likely see a large uptick in registrations as we get closer to November.”
A total of 41,795 North Carolina voters changed party affiliation since the start of 2022, and more than half, or 23,374, became unaffiliated. Of those, 14,447 came from the Democratic Party while 8,348 came from the Republican Party.
While nearly 5,000 Democrats changed their affiliation to Republican, only about 1,211 Republicans became Democrats.