NEW: Republicans Surpass Dems In Voter Registrations In Pivotal Swing State

Registered Republican voters have overtaken Democrats in the crucial battleground state of Nevada for the first time in 20 years. The massive shift comes just weeks after President Donald Trump became the first Republican to carry the state since 2004 in his November election win.

As of January, there were 187 more active voters registered as Republicans than Democrats, according to a monthly report released by the Nevada Secretary of State’s office this past Tuesday. The last time Republicans held an active voter registration voter edge was 2007, according to an analysis from the Associated Press.

Nonpartisan voters, who make up about a third of Nevada’s 2.1 million registered voters, maintain an edge over both major parties, however.  “This historic achievement is a testament to the hard work, dedication, and unwavering commitment of Republicans across our great state,” the Nevada GOP said in  response to the shift.

The latest update further solidifies Nevada’s status as a purple state after Trump managed to carry it by 3.1 percentage points back in November, a wider margin than the Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. The president managed to carry all three Rust Belt states in 2016, though he was unable to carry Nevada.

Nevada does have a Republican governor in Joe Lombardo, though both of the state’s U.S. Senators, Catherine Cortez-Masto and Jacky Rosen, narrowly managed to win re-election in 2022 and 2024 respectively. With the trends continuing as they have been, Democrats will likely have to divert additional resources in order to defend the seats or flip the governor’s mansion.

Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo
Photo: Gage Skidmore

The GOP has also continued to gain ground in the traditionally blue state of New Jersey, which came much closer than expected in the November elections. Republicans registered 10,000 new voters in the month of January while Democrats lost 2,000, continuing a trend that has held for months in the Garden State. Like Nevada, nonpartisan voters outnumber active registered voters with each of the two main political parties.

Republicans also flipped the reliably blue Florida county of Hillsborough last month, further solidifying the Sunshine State’s status as a red stronghold. While Florida was viewed as a swing state as recently as 2016, Republicans now hold a net voter registration edge of more than 1 million and have notched several blowout wins since 2020.

Additional swing states of Arizona and Pennsylvania have also seen massive swings towards Republican voter registrations, as the Democratic Party’s edge in both battlegrounds is currently in danger of slipping away.

“People switch the way they vote, then they switch their registrations. And you think about Nevada and New Jersey, those are two states that saw pretty significant shifts towards the Republicans in November,” said Marc Meredith, a political science professor at the University of Pennsylvania.