By SUZANNE DOWNING
July 13, 2026 – Are Alaska Democrats aging out of the electorate faster than they’re replacing themselves? Are they really “childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made,” as JD Vance once quipped?
The latest voter registration numbers from the Alaska Division of Elections show the party has fallen below 70,000 registered voters for what appears to be the first time in decades, continuing a long-term decline that has seen Democrats lose ground both in raw numbers and as a share of Alaska’s electorate.
The party now has 69,792 registered voters, representing just 11.6% of Alaska’s roughly 600,489 registered voters.
The decline is not just a matter of percentages. It is also a loss of raw numbers.
Twenty-five years ago, in 2001, Alaska had 461,082 registered voters. Of those, about 74,000 were registered Democrats, giving the party roughly 16.0% of the statewide electorate. Republicans numbered 115,424, or about 25.0%.
Today, with approximately 600,000 registered voters, Democrats have slipped to 69,792 registered voters, or 11.6% of the electorate, while Republicans stand at 141,851, or 23.8%.
The numbers tell two different stories.
Since 2001, Alaska has added roughly 135,379 registered voters, an increase of about 29.4%. Republicans have grown by approximately 26,427 voters during that period, an increase of nearly 23%. Democrats, meanwhile, have actually lost about 4,208 registered voters, a decline of roughly 5.7%.
The percentage decline is even more striking. Democrats have fallen from approximately 16.0% of Alaska’s electorate in 2001 to about 11.7% today, a drop of more than 4.3 percentage points, or about 27% of their share of registered voters.
The party’s share has continued sliding even in recent years. Even so, Democrats control the Alaska Legislature, both House and Senate.
Based on historical registration reports, Democrats generally remained above 72,000 registered voters throughout 2025. Assuming an average registration of about 72,879 voters and a statewide registration between 597,000 and 608,288, Democrats represented roughly 12.0% to 12.2% of registered voters last year.
Just one year later, they have fallen below the 70,000 mark.
Republicans remain Alaska’s largest recognized political party, although the state’s largest voting bloc continues to be voters who decline to affiliate with either major party.
Current registration stands as follows:
- Undeclared: 297,084 (49.5%)
- Republicans: 141,851 (23.6%)
- Nonpartisan: 81,636 (13.6%)
- Democrats: 69,792 (11.6%)
- Libertarians: 6,098 (1.0%)
The 2024 general election turnout also illustrates important differences among Alaska’s political groups.
Republicans posted the highest turnout, with 100,152 of 149,531 registered Republicans voting, a turnout rate of 67%.
Democrats turned out 48,446 of 76,027 registered voters, or 63.7%.
Nonpartisan voters participated at 62.9%, while Libertarians recorded 47.6%. The state’s largest registration category — undeclared voters — had the lowest participation among the major registration groups, with just 44.9% casting ballots. Many of these undeclared voters have not cast a ballot in years.
Compared to the statewide turnout of 55.3%:
- Republicans exceeded the state average by 11.7 percentage points.
- Democrats exceeded it by 8.4 points.
- Nonpartisan voters exceeded it by 7.6 points.
- Libertarians trailed the average by 7.7 points.
- Undeclared voters fell 10.4 points below the statewide average.
- The turnout gap between Republicans and undeclared voters was more than 22 percentage points.
While the number of registered voters has grown substantially over the past quarter century, nearly all of that growth has occurred outside the Democratic Party. More Alaskans are choosing to register as Republican, nonpartisan, or undeclared, while Democratic registration has steadily eroded both in raw numbers and as a share of the electorate.
10 thoughts on “Losing steam? Aging out? Alaska Democrat voters drop to 11.6% of total registrants”
They’ll just manufacture more votes
“……..Are Alaska Democrats aging out of the electorate faster than they’re replacing themselves?………”
No. They’re changing their designation to Republican and becoming RINOs.
Hear hear!
Part of the Undeclared group simply wishes to vote in the (old style) Rep. primaries, even tho they are Progressive-Liberals. A truly closed primary system — which I support completely — would send many undeclared/NPs to change their registration. Not me, I’d remain undeclared and simply skip the primary. I’d still be able to vote ballot measures and initiatives and in the general in November.
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Another element in the undeclared group (in accordance with the %s above) consider it a waste of time to vote. They were automatically registered when they signed up for the PFD, but don’t ever vote (one fellow I know hasn’t voted in over 40 years. He was quite angered when the State registered him to vote). I believe several of these folks would concur with Mr. Clarke’s assessment. Disgust runs high among those of us ‘not of the left.’
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And, let’s face it, the shenanigans going on in the Senate this summer are the biggest steaming pile of 🐎💩 we’ve seen come out of Juneau in many years. Lacking candidates of conscience and commitment to the party banner under which they claim allegiance, what IS the point of voting. Of course, what does that (Republican) party actually stand for? Personal power? Grift/graft? Ego? I wish we could tell the pretenders to go back to where they came from, but Giessel and Murkowski were both spawned in Alaska. WTF, Over?
while GenXers, Millennials moving more toward a Uni-party or a One World government. Many think we need to do away with political parties All together. But what their ignorance don’t see, yet, is the one party system they want will eliminate all different opinions, viewpoints, and removal of healthy dissent.
In real life observation to my neighbors I seeing a lot of baby boomers (both Republican and Democrats) increasing in death and entering into caregiving facilities because of age has finally caught up with them and they can’t out run aging no longer.
Before laughing at that Democrats arent increasing their voter registrations, AKGOP registration also remains flat and not expediently increasing. The AkGOP need to find a way to meet their neighbors who are undeclared and nonpartisan to tell them what is being Republican and why its form of government will benefit us more than a Democrat form of government; so AkGOP can try to get 50,000 non partisan and undeclared registrations switching to Republican because of the outreach.
And finally. In Nov 2025 I changed my Undeclared to reflect my Republican beliefs, opinions, and values instead of safely hiding behind the undeclared label. Changing it I felt better. I felt honest.
Now the Democrats running for my district no longer have to waste their time coming to my door when I’m never going to support them.
For ten years!! I been a Hard right and conservative Republican masquerading as an undeclared.
I can’t be alone. There has to be a few hundred undeclared and non partisan voters who always vote Democrat or Republican and who should just change registration to reflect their government style preference.
They are dying off. The old Democrat farts with white pony tails, far-faded blue jeans, saggy eyes, wrinkled bodies, and bald heads etc….are down to their last legs. The old Vietnam War protesters, hippies, chronically addicted potsmokers, acid heads, and rockers are now living with their kids or in dementia homes. Liberalism is a mental disorder. Even with retirement bank accounts from their government jobs, they have ruined their bodies and minds over the decades. Interestingly, they have just enough energy and enthusiasm left to hate Trump. But Trump, at 80, is going strong and won’t beat any of them to the grave.
Love that picture with this story. Notice how none of the Democrats have a happy look on their faces. Tells the story of a life not lived well.
Anymore the Constitutionally ignorant Republicans aren’t conservative or for governments limited by our Constitutions. Our Alaskans for Independence was infiltrated and destroyed from within. Now it’s all their UNIPARTY