Republicans have surpassed Democrats in voter registration in North Carolina for the first time on record, marking a significant shift in a key battleground state. Data released by the North Carolina State Board of Elections show that registered Republicans now slightly outnumber registered Democrats statewide.
As of early January, North Carolina had approximately 2.315 million registered Republicans compared with about 2.313 million registered Democrats, giving the GOP a narrow but historic edge.
“Republicans are crushing Democrats’ voter registration advantage in North Carolina and taking control statewide thanks to Michael Whatley’s leadership,” Republican National Committee Chairman Joe Gruters told Fox News. “President Trump’s America First agenda is winning. Democrats are failing, their out-of-touch liberal agenda is being rejected, and voters are done with Roy Cooper and Josh Stein.”
Whatley, the former chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC) who is now running for Senate in North Carolina, stated in an interview with Fox News Digital that this development indicates that voters in the Tar Heel State desire a “strong economy with more jobs, larger paychecks, and lower costs.”
“That’s why they’ve voted for President Donald Trump three straight times and why thousands are continuing to leave Roy Cooper’s Democrat Party,” Whatley added.
“Democrats couldn’t win Senate races here even when they had a cash advantage and a huge voter-registration edge. Now they’ve lost that registration advantage too, and voters are making it clear they’re done with failed Democrat leadership,” he added.
The shift marks a dramatic change from a decade earlier. In November 2016, Democrats held a voter registration advantage of more than 645,000 over Republicans in North Carolina.
Since that time, the gap has steadily narrowed as Democratic registration totals declined and Republican numbers increased. The recent momentum follows several high-profile political developments in the state, including a December visit by Trump, an event that energized Republican activists and coincided with expanded GOP voter registration efforts.
“Voters across North Carolina are rejecting the Democrats’ failed agenda and choosing Republican leadership,” NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson told Fox. “This shift didn’t happen overnight, it’s the result of years of good commonsense Republican governance and our focus on offering serious solutions on the issues that matter to the people. We’re going to keep earning voters’ trust and building on this momentum.”
Despite the Republican milestone, unaffiliated voters remain the largest group on North Carolina’s voter rolls, with nearly 3 million registrants.
Political analysts say both parties are expected to compete aggressively for these voters, who often play a decisive role in close statewide races. Some observers have suggested the shift in party registration reflects not only Republican gains, but also longer-term structural and strategic changes, including a growing tendency among younger voters to avoid formal party affiliation.
Trump has carried North Carolina in each of his three presidential campaigns, making him the only presidential candidate in the modern era to win the state three times. However, Republican officials have expressed concern that some Trump supporters are less likely to turn out in elections when he is not on the ballot, a dynamic that could affect GOP performance in the 2026 midterms. Historical patterns also show that the party not holding the White House often performs strongly in midterm elections.
Those concerns help explain why Michael Whatley, a former North Carolina Republican Party chairman whom Trump selected in 2024 to lead the Republican National Committee and later encouraged to run for the U.S. Senate, has signaled interest in having Trump make multiple visits to the state in 2025 to energize voters.
“He is fantastically popular in North Carolina,” Whatley told Fox News Digital in an earlier recent interview. “He has a real affinity for the state. The voters… love him, and it’ll be very, very good to get him back in North Carolina.”
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