--- title: Daily Update - February 3, 2026 description: Daily Update - February 3, 2026Republicans gain voters. Independents gain more.Listen@the-wilmington-standard Transcript About Reuel Sample This is the Wilmingt... canonical_url: https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/podcast/the-daily-update/daily-update-february-3-2026 language: en-GB date: 2026-02-03T15:44:20Z notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/podcast/the-daily-update/daily-update-february-3-2026. Schema.org structured data included at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. markdown-tokens: 1417 --- > **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/podcast/the-daily-update/daily-update-february-3-2026. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content. > **Structured data** as JSON-LD may be found at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers. > **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above. ![Voting](https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/images/daily_update/2026/february/feb03/DailyUpdate-February032026-article.png) This is the Wilmington Standard Daily Update for Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026. According to the [Center Square](https://www.thecentersquare.com/north_carolina/article_9a8615af-89ec-440a-8318-440bcf08ead8.html): With less than a week remaining to register to vote for the 2026 midterm primaries in North Carolina, Democrats have lost 7% of their registrations since the 2022 midterm primaries in a net swing with Republicans of more than 300,000. Overall in our state, just over 39% of the electorate are registered as independents or unaffiliated, 30.2% are registered with the Grand Old Party, and 30.1% are with the Democrats. Republicans have every right to crow over the gains in their party’s registrations. At a time when the legacy media is doing everything it can to take down President Trump and the GOP, it is not an insignificant victory. North Carolinians are responding to the madness of the Democrats with their party registration. But it does not mean that North Carolina has gone solidly red. [Gallop](https://news.gallup.com/poll/655157/gop-holds-edge-party-affiliation-third-straight-year.aspx) found that under the Biden-Harris administration, independent voters tended to lean right in response to the Democrat Disaster that influenced and infected our entire culture. But now Gallup is also [reporting](https://news.gallup.com/poll/700499/new-high-identify-political-independents.aspx) that trend among independents has reversed, with more political independents - 47% - leaning left. There is a reason why this year’s North Carolina Senate race is slated to be one of the most expensive races in our state’s history. The candidate who gets through the primary will not only need to hold their own party, but demonstrate to a very skeptical independent conglomerate why his or her policies bring about practical answers to problems that affect everyone. Just like President Trump’s successful campaign, what will win for Republicans in all races here in North Carolina is not ideological purity, but practical wisdom and solutions. The far right does well in primaries. But time and time again, the far right often cannot make it through the general elections, and on the off chance that they do – demonstrate they are so caught up in being ideologically pure they cannot govern – and end up taking good Republicans down with them. As we head to the polls next week, will Republicans primary voters keep this in mind? For the Wilmington Standard, I’m Reuel Sample. Thanks for listening. ```json { "@context": "http://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Article", "author": { "@id": "https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/#reuel_sample_e0470786cd" }, "dateModified": "2026-02-03T15:44:20Z", "datePublished": "2026-02-03T15:41:59Z", "description": "Daily Update - February 3, 2026Republicans gain voters. Independents gain more.Listen@the-wilmington-standard Transcript About Reuel Sample This is the Wilmingt...", "headline": "Daily Update - February 3, 2026", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/images/daily_update/2026/february/feb03/DailyUpdate-February032026-article.png", "caption": null, "description": "Voting", "width": 1080, "height": 1080 } ], "inLanguage": "en-GB", "mainEntityOfPage": { "@type": "WebPage", "url": "https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/podcast/the-daily-update/daily-update-february-3-2026" }, "publisher": { "@id": "https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/#defaultPublisher" }, "url": "https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/podcast/the-daily-update/daily-update-february-3-2026" }, { "@type": "Person", "name": "Reuel Sample", "@id": "https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/#reuel_sample_e0470786cd" }, { "@id": "https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/#defaultPublisher", "@type": "Organization", "url": "https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/", "logo": { "@id": "https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/#defaultLogo" }, "name": "The Wilmington Standard", "location": { "@id": "https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/#defaultPlace" } }, { "@id": "https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/#defaultLogo", "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/images/banners/tws-og.png", "width": 1200, "height": 630 }, { "@id": "https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/#defaultPlace", "@type": "Place", "address": { "@id": "https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/#defaultAddress" } }, { "@id": "https://thewilmingtonstandard.com/#defaultAddress", "@type": "PostalAddress", "addressLocality": "Wilmington", "addressRegion": "", "postalCode": "28403", "streetAddress": "", "addressCountry": "" } ] } ```