REGISTERED INDEPENDENTS OUTNUMBER REPUBLICANS FOR FIRST TIME

For the first time in history, there are more registered independents in the United States than there are registered Republicans.

New data from Ballot Access News, which tracks registrations in the 31 states that require voters to register by party, show that independents now account for 29.09 percent of voters in them, compared to 28.87 percent for Republicans. As recently as 2004, Republicans outpaced independents by nearly 10 percentage points.

There are still far more registered Democrats; 39.66 percent are registered with that party.

This marks the first time since party registration began in the early 1900s that the number of registered independents in the United States has surpassed either major political party, according to Ballot Access News.

While independents have surpassed Republicans, there hasn't been a huge drop in GOP party registration since Donald Trump took office. Since October 2016, GOP registration has dropped by half a percentage point. Democrats have declined by nearly a full point over the same span. Independents have benefited from both drops.

And they have been doing so for years. Democrats are more than three points off their peak this century, which was in 2008 when Barack Obama was about to become president. At the time, 43.62 percent of voters were registered Democrats.

Republicans are also more than three points off where they were four years earlier, in 2004, when 32.79 percent of voters were Republicans and George W. Bush won reelection.