Dare County Democrats Changing Registration to Hijack Sheriff's Race

Two days before the Feb. 6 registration deadline, Natalie Jewett-Dutt went online and changed her party affiliation from Democrat to unaffiliated.

She is one of 168 Democrats in Dare County who have changed their registration to unaffiliated since May, 2025, according to Dare County Board of Elections data. Another 52 Democrats have switched their affiliation to Republican.

“I switched to unaffiliated as a pretty strong Democrat so I’d have a voice in the upcoming election,” said Jewett-Dutt.

There are 6,318 registered Democrats, 11,411 Republicans and 14,530 unaffiliated voters in the county. And those numbers may understate the Republicans’ dominance at the polls. All seven members of the Dare County Board of Commissioners are Republicans, as are all seven members of the Dare County Board of Education.

In the 2026 election cycle, there are three Republicans and no Democrats running for the District 1 seat on the Board of Commissioners, and the two candidates for the District 2 seat are Republicans. And while four Republicans are competing to succeed retiring Doug Doughtie in the closely watched Dare County Sheriff race, no Democrat entered the race.

The deadline to switch party affiliation for the 2026 elections has already passed, and while residents can register to vote and make some changes to their registration during the Early Voting period that began on Feb. 12, they cannot change party affiliation then.

Jewell-Dutt, and others interviewed by the Voice say their decision to change registration is largely due to the crowded Republican primary for Sheriff. [...] The Democrats who switched said that a central reason was to help elect someone other than [Teddy] Daniels.

Randy Cartwright of Nags Head said he changed registration several decades ago once Republicans became the dominant party in Eastern North Carolina and the state changed the rules to allow unaffiliated voters to pick their primary.

“Without the ability to vote in the Republican primary, in a county like ours where the Republican Party is dominant and its nominee will almost certainly win the election, a choice does not exist for the unaffiliated voter,” he said.

[...]

In a post on his Facebook page, Daniels stated that “The left should not be involved in Republican primaries. This is a REPUBLICAN primary for Sheriff. I will not pander to the extreme left… Most unaffiliated voters don’t want to be associated with the far left.”

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The Hatteras Island Democrats went so far as to promote a Democrat-organized candidate forum for Republican candidates, which Daniels has emphatically refused to support.

"These are the left wing of the Democrat party," said Daniels. "These are the ones who switch affiliations to just try and hijack a Republican primary. They don’t switch because they disagree with their party platform. It is solely in an attempt to dilute everyone’s vote."

Originally published in part by The Outer Banks Voice