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Unaffiliated voters outnumber Republicans

By Lightning Reports, Published: June 15, 2016

Henderson County is no longer a Republican county — at least by party registration.

Unaffiliated voters outnumber Republicans by 44 votes and Democrats by 12,817, according to figures from the state Board of Elections. Henderson County actually trailed two neighboring (and less historically Republican) counties in the ascendancy of the independent voter. In Polk County, unaffiliated voters lead Republicans by 157 and Democrats by 957. In Transylvania County, the independents outnumber Republicans by 1,493 and outnumber Democrats by 2,616.
Buncombe is the outlier in the N.C. mountains in terms of a tilt toward one of established parties. It has 75,686 Democrats, 66,123 independents and 46,501 Republicans.
The rise of the unaffiliated voter has not done much to change the county’s solid Republican performance in terms of voter behavior. The county remains reliably red in local, state and national elections. Voters here haven’t elected a Democrat in a partisan countywide election since Tax Collector Terry Lyda won his last re-election campaign, in 2002.