Kinston, NC · which candidate this place backed 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 this place is a single county: Lenoir County, North Carolina. The figures below are that county’s, which is the same territory — not a larger unit standing in for it.
Presidential nominating contests in Kinston, 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+13.5
vs
Presidential vote · 2024R+6.8
Kinston, NC registers Democratic but votes Republican — a 20-point gap between how voters register and how they vote, the signature of ancestral registration that trails realignment.
DemocraticRepublicanUnaffiliatedOther parties
Voter registration in Kinston, NC
Year
Total registered
Democratic
Republican
Unaffiliated
Other
2008
37,847
23,862
8,858
5,117
10
2012
40,152
23,955
9,682
6,465
50
2016
39,627
21,924
9,712
7,893
98
2020
38,569
18,787
10,347
9,279
156
2022
37,246
16,885
10,222
9,994
145
2024
39,568
16,310
10,965
11,874
419
domestic migration
Who moves in and out
Net domestic migration over time
+563 net domestic migration · 2025
20112025
Net −1,468 over 2011–2025 · gain loss
Domestic migration in Kinston, NC in Kinston, NC: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
−80
2012
−310
2013
−325
2014
−463
2015
−277
2016
−667
2017
−518
2018
−546
2019
+80
2021
−113
2022
+131
2023
+552
2024
+505
2025
+563
Kinston anchors a historically Democratic tobacco-farming corridor that has shifted sharply toward Republicans over the past two decades, mirroring broader rural realignment patterns across eastern North Carolina's Black Belt counties.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 88.7 points in 1936 and a Republican high of 49.4 points in 1972. Between 2020 and 2024 the metro moved 3.3 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 6.8 points.
A population of 54,919, a 47% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $45,143 describe the metro. The metro's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Americus, GA and McComb, MS.
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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Kinston, NC, North Carolina. Akashic. https://akashic.app/cbsa/28820/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
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In 2024, Kinston, NC, North Carolina voted Republican by 6.8 points (R+6.8), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 27,503 votes cast, 12,700 went Democratic and 14,564 went Republican.
When did Kinston, NC, North Carolina last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Kinston, NC, North Carolina voted Democratic was 1964.
How many people live in Kinston, NC, North Carolina?
Kinston, NC, North Carolina has a population of 54,919 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Kinston, NC, North Carolina?
Median household income in Kinston, NC, North Carolina is $45,143 — below the national median of $80,734. The North Carolina state median is $72,388.
What is the political history of Kinston, NC, North Carolina?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in Kinston, NC, North Carolina from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 19 went Democratic and 14 went Republican.
