New registered voter data shows a true crisis facing the Republican Party in California.
According to a report from Politico, independents now outnumber registered Republicans by 73,000.
The California county registrars show that, heading into the 2018 primary, 8.4 million Democrats are registered to vote in the state compared to 4.84 million independents and 4.77 million Republicans.
“This isn’t surprising. Voters have been becoming more and more independent for years,” California GOP spokesman Matt Fleming said of the data. “But no party preference doesn’t mean voters are becoming Democrats, and we will continue to reach out to all voters.”
“The rise in NPP suggests that voters are fed up with the status quo in California, which, by any objective measure, is Democrat control of Sacramento.”
Fleming isn’t wrong in regard to the Democrats. While they currently make up 44.6 percent of the state electorate, that number has fallen, albeit very slightly, compared to 10 years ago, when that figure was closer to 47 percent.
Paul Mitchell of Political Data Inc, the firm that gathered the data cited by Politico, seemed to echo Fleming’s sentiments.
“It’s not as if the independents are picking the pockets of the Republican Party,” he explained. “It’s really a loss for both parties in terms of their raw numbers.”
“It doesn’t mean as much in terms of actual elections.”
