UNAFFILIATED VOTERS MAKE UP A PLURALITY. SO WHAT?
BY THOMAS MILLS | MAR 14, 2022 | EDITOR'S BLOG | 1 COMMENT
Snip...
Voters have been migrating away from parties since at least the 1990s and they’ve been leaving the Democratic Party since the end of the one-party South almost 60 years ago. In rural counties, legacy Democrats are still on the books. They’ve been registered Democratic all of their lives but have been voting Republican since Reagan, especially at the federal level. As they die, the party’s share of voter registration will shrink, replaced mostly by people who register unaffiliated.
Republicans, for their part, increased their share of registration beginning with the Democrats’ embrace of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and continued until about a decade ago. Since then, they’ve made up about 30% of the electorate, give or take a percentage or two. Expect Democrats to shrink until they reach roughly that percentage, too.
Most people who register today have little party loyalty even if they vote largely along party lines. A small share of those voters are too conservative or too nationalistic for the GOP. Another small share is too far left to embrace the Democratic Party. And the largest share are people who are largely fed up with the political rhetoric of the day to embrace Democrats or Republicans even if they may be lean heavily liberal or conservative.
Younger, more educated urban/suburban voters who register unaffiliated tend to support Democrats and will continue to so. Rural, exurban unaffiliated voters with less education will continue to support Republicans. Most of the people who will register with a party moving forward will be the most ardent partisans among us. People like me.
Snip...
More...
https://www.politicsnc.com/unaffiliated-voters-make-up-a-plurality-so-what/
About the author...
https://www.politicsnc.com/about/about-thomas-mills/
Edit history
Recommendations
0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):
= new reply since forum marked as read