NC Democrats see voter registration bump since Biden-Harris switch

After losing voters for most of the last six months, the Democratic Party has seen a bump in affiliated voter registrations since President Biden ended his re-election campaign, per an analysis by Western Carolina University political professor Chris Cooper.

Why it matters: Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign saw an influx of both volunteers and donations in its first week — pointing to momentum building in the Democratic party around her candidacy.

Zoom in: The latest voter registration numbers in North Carolina are also evidence that Harris' campaign launch is giving the party a modest but much-needed boost in the state.

• It's "potentially a sign that Harris-related excitement translated to something tangible," Cooper wrote in a blogpost Tuesday .

By the numbers: More than 2,300 North Carolina voters registered Democrat between July 20 and July 26, a 44% increase from the week before, per Cooper.

• Accounting for those taken off the rolls or switching parties, the net increase amounts to 443 registered voters, North Carolina State Board of Elections data shows.
• Meanwhile, new voter registrations for Republicans and unaffiliated voters were down 24% and 14%, according to Cooper.

Reality check: Overall unaffiliated and Republican voter registrations were up 3,499 and 2,063 respectively, for that week.

• Plus, voter registrations tend to rise in the summer before a presidential election, the director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, Andy Jackson, notes .
• Still, the bump in Democratic numbers is a trend reversal for the party, as it has lost voters every week except one since the beginning of February.

The big picture: Democrats now have more than 2.4 million registered voters in North Carolina. Republicans have close to 2.3 million.

• Unaffiliated voters account for the highest share at 2.8 million.

The bottom line: "A Harris effect? Yes. One big enough to win an election? We'll see," Cooper said.

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