Durham-Chapel Hill, NC · how this place’s counties split between candidates in each party’s presidential nominating contest, cycle by cycle. A primary is a contest inside one party, so it has no Democratic–Republican margin and is not part of the general-election record above.
Akashic reports votes cast, not delegates awarded. The two can disagree: Clinton led the 2008 national primary popular vote by less than half a point and did not win the nomination.
Primary returns are published at county grain and there is no roll-up above it. Each cell counts how many of this place’s counties a candidate led — a count of records, not a vote total. Who led the place as a whole is not knowable from these returns, because county rows carry a leader and a lead but no per-candidate votes.
Presidential nominating contests in Durham-Chapel Hill, NC, by party and cycle.
○no contest record — Akashic holds no result for that party and cycle here. It is not a claim that no contest was held. Telling apart a contest that was cancelled, one that went uncontested, and one simply not yet ingested needs a nominating-contest calendar, which is a separate ingest from results and does not exist yet.
Republican presidential primaries are not yet ingested — the Republican series runs from 1856 and is in scope. The row is kept so its absence is visible: a Democratic-only panel would otherwise read as though no one else held a contest.
Akashic carries 10 states for 2012 and 3 states for 2024. Cycles in which an incumbent president seeks renomination are thin by nature — few states run a contested primary — so a sparse column is politics, not a hole in the record.
County returns carry a leader and a lead over the runner-up, and nothing more. The full candidate field with vote shares is published at state grain — follow a cycle above to the state contest for it.
voter registration
Registered voters
By party of registration, over time
Party registration · 2024D+32.6
vs
Presidential vote · 2024D+45.9
Registration leans Democratic; the presidential vote runs 13 points more Democratic than the rolls.
DemocraticRepublicanUnaffiliatedOther parties
Voter registration in Durham-Chapel Hill, NC
Year
Total registered
Democratic
Republican
Unaffiliated
Other
2008
343,307
197,553
62,705
82,750
299
2012
398,379
216,362
68,006
112,730
1,281
2016
428,005
217,480
67,188
141,232
2,105
2020
443,429
218,025
63,847
158,793
2,764
2022
439,541
211,794
60,590
164,788
2,369
2024
461,543
212,393
62,052
183,445
3,653
domestic migration
Who moves in and out
Net domestic migration over time
+663 net domestic migration · 2025
20112025
Net +44,829 over 2011–2025 · gain loss
Domestic migration in Durham-Chapel Hill, NC in Durham-Chapel Hill, NC: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
+2,078
2012
+3,925
2013
+3,268
2014
+3,600
2015
+3,326
2016
+4,815
2017
+1,832
2018
+6,886
2019
+2,413
2021
+8,555
2022
+2,770
2023
+1,362
2024
−664
2025
+663
Home to Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, and NC Central, Durham-Chapel Hill posts some of North Carolina's widest Democratic margins—Biden carried the metro by roughly 40 points in 2020—driven by a dense concentration of university employees, graduate students, and a historically Black urban core.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 63.0 points in 1940 and a Republican high of 21.3 points in 1928. Between 2020 and 2024 the metro moved 0.7 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 45.9 points.
A population of 601,724, a 53% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $84,598 describe the metro. The metro's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Ann Arbor, MI and Boulder, CO.
Akashic
Political twins — metros
The metros whose fingerprint — 2000–2024 trajectory, demographics, ancestry, religion — sits closest to this one, and why.
Twin score (0–100) = weighted cosine between tier-standardized fingerprints: presidential margins 2000–2024 with 12-yr trend and elasticity, ACS income, age, education, population and race, top reported ancestries, and religious adherence — chips name the closest-shared dimensions and the widest gap. Re-weight the groups in the twins explorer.
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
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All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Durham-Chapel Hill, NC, North Carolina. Akashic. https://akashic.app/cbsa/20500/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
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How did Durham-Chapel Hill, NC, North Carolina vote in 2024?
In 2024, Durham-Chapel Hill, NC, North Carolina voted Democratic by 45.9 points (D+45.9), carried by the Democratic candidate. Out of 343,056 votes cast, 247,203 went Democratic and 89,675 went Republican.
When did Durham-Chapel Hill, NC, North Carolina last vote Republican?
The most recent presidential election in which Durham-Chapel Hill, NC, North Carolina voted Republican was 1972.
How many people live in Durham-Chapel Hill, NC, North Carolina?
Durham-Chapel Hill, NC, North Carolina has a population of 601,724 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Durham-Chapel Hill, NC, North Carolina?
Median household income in Durham-Chapel Hill, NC, North Carolina is $84,598 — above the national median of $80,734. The North Carolina state median is $72,388.
What is the political history of Durham-Chapel Hill, NC, North Carolina?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in Durham-Chapel Hill, NC, North Carolina from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 30 went Democratic and 4 went Republican.
