Wilmington · 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 Wilmington, 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 · 2024R+8.9
vs
Presidential vote · 2024R+15.8
Registration leans Republican; the presidential vote runs 6.9 points more Republican than the rolls.
DemocraticRepublicanUnaffiliatedOther parties
Voter registration in Wilmington
Year
Total registered
Democratic
Republican
Unaffiliated
Other
2008
313,855
141,191
98,545
73,838
281
2012
339,951
138,412
105,437
94,867
1,235
2016
365,434
130,484
114,515
118,647
1,788
2020
397,879
120,103
133,236
141,597
2,943
2022
413,810
116,032
139,661
155,262
2,855
2024
445,841
113,210
152,714
175,764
4,153
domestic migration
Who moves in and out
Net domestic migration over time
+13,025 net domestic migration · 2025
20112025
Net +138,690 over 2011–2025 · gain loss
Domestic migration in Wilmington in Wilmington: net domestic migration by year
Year
Net domestic migration
2011
+4,187
2012
+4,251
2013
+6,553
2014
+6,499
2015
+8,060
2016
+9,907
2017
+9,953
2018
+10,742
2019
+9,061
2021
+14,486
2022
+16,383
2023
+13,529
2024
+12,054
2025
+13,025
Wilmington's media market punches above its size by doubling as the primary broadcast footprint for a small but delegate-rich state, making it a consistent stop for Senate and presidential-cycle advertising.
Across the recorded series it reached a Democratic high of 63.9 points in 1940 and a Republican high of 44.8 points in 1972. Between 2020 and 2024 the market moved 2.6 points toward the Republican candidate; the 2024 margin was 15.8 points.
A population of 533,053, a 74% non-Hispanic-white share, and a median household income of $72,105 describe the market. The market's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Salisbury and Bangor.
Akashic
Political twins — media markets
The media markets 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.
Wilmington, North Carolina. Akashic. https://akashic.app/dma/550/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
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In 2024, Wilmington, North Carolina voted Republican by 15.8 points (R+15.8), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 330,187 votes cast, 137,099 went Democratic and 189,276 went Republican.
When did Wilmington, North Carolina last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Wilmington, North Carolina voted Democratic was 1992.
How many people live in Wilmington, North Carolina?
Wilmington, North Carolina has a population of 533,053 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Wilmington, North Carolina?
Median household income in Wilmington, North Carolina is $72,105 — below the national median of $80,734. The North Carolina state median is $72,388.
What is the political history of Wilmington, North Carolina?
Akashic tracks 34 presidential elections in Wilmington, North Carolina from 1892 to 2024. Of those, 21 went Democratic and 12 went Republican.
