The latest figures compiled by the Secretary of State’s Office show the precipitous decline of registered Democrats in the West Virginia continues.
The data show that the percentage of Democrats among all registered voters has fallen to its lowest level in decades, just 39.84 %.
The downward trend has been steady. In 1994 two out of every three voters in the state were Democrats (65%). Since then, the numbers have continually declined — 58% in 2004, 52% in 2012, 45% in 2016, and now less than 40%.
Twenty years ago, 659,000 West Virginians were registered as Democrats. Today that number is down to 488,000. That’s a decline of 26%.
The drop has occurred for several reasons:
As the national Democratic Party moved farther to the left, it lost moderate blue collar West Virginians who were uncomfortable with the party’s position on issues such as climate change and immigration.
More voters are registering “no party.” Both parties have opened their primaries to independent voters, and they can choose whether to vote in the Democrat or Republican Primary Election.
The Republican Party has outperformed the Democratic Party in West Virginia in recruiting candidates. Not long ago, the general election ballot frequently had empty spaces where there should have been Republican candidates, especially in southern West Virginia, but not anymore.
And finally, the state’s county clerks, with guidance from Secretary of State Mac Warner’s office, have conducted what was often long overdue updating of the voter registration rolls. The clerks, using a variety of data sources, have removed over 185,000 inactive voters since 2016.
The biggest chunk of those — nearly 93,000 — were Democrats, which stands to reason since there are more Democrats in West Virginia than Republicans.
Over 51,000 of the cancelations were Republicans. However, the GOP more than made up the difference with 65,000 new registrations, while the Democratic Party gained only 9,600 new members for a net loss of over 83,000 registrations.
There are still more Democrats than Republicans in West Virginia, but the numbers are getting closer, and Independents are making up an increasingly large portion of the electorate.
Meanwhile, Republicans now represent 34% (33.62%) of all voters in West Virginia. That is the highest percentage since the early 1970s.
Republican registration has trailed the Democrats for generations in West Virginia. One of the GOP’s high points in the last 75 years came in 1956.
That year, Republican registration reached 38% as West Virginia voters helped re-elect Republican President Eisenhower and chose Republican Cecil Underwood for governor.
But it was a steady decline after that until the 2000 election, when West Virginia voters helped send George W. Bush to the White House. Since then, Republicans have made significant inroads.
As voter registration has increased over the last 20 years — from 1,060,349 in 2000 to 1,225,201 today — Republicans have gained in numbers, while Democrats have declined.
In 2000, Republican voters made up 29% of the electorate. That equaled 310,000 voters. Percentage-wise, that has gradually risen to 34%. However, the number of registered Republicans has shot up by over 100,000, to 411,872.
Today, Republican registration trails Democrats by just 76,000 voters. Twenty five years ago, Democrats had a numerical advantage of a whopping 349,000 voters.
The Republican registration strength is particularly evident just since the last election. Over the last four years, county clerks have done a remarkable job clearing the voter registration rolls of inactive voters.
As I pointed out, that hit Democrats particularly hard. They lost 93,000 registrations, while gaining just 9,600 new voters for a net loss of 83,000 voters.
Republicans lost over 51,000 voters when the rolls were updated. However, the GOP added nearly 65,000 new voters for a net gain of 13,000. The Democrat losses and the Republican gains are a net swing of 96,000 voters, and that’s a lot in a small state.
Hoppy Kercheval is a MetroNews anchor and the longtime host of “Talkline.” Contact him at hoppy.kercheval@wvradio.com.
