The Seattle area leans overwhelmingly Democratic, but that doesn’t mean Republicans and independents don’t have a presence here. With the Aug. 4 primary here, I thought I’d take a look at what the data tells us about political party affiliation in our region.

According to survey data from market research firm Nielsen, roughly 1.56 million registered voters in the Seattle metro area identified as Democrats or leaned Democratic. That was a majority — 54% of the region’s 2.9 million registered voters — but not an overwhelming one.

Republicans and Republican-leaning people accounted for about 683,000 voters, or 24% of the total. Independents made up another 433,000, or 15%. The remaining 220,000 voters, or 8%, didn’t identify with any of the three groups — a category that included supporters of smaller parties like the Libertarians or Democratic Socialists, along with those who considered themselves apolitical.

In Washington, voters don’t register by party, so affiliation is more informal than in some other states.

Nielsen surveyed around 5,800 adults in the Seattle metro area, which includes King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, from February 2024 to March 2026. In all three counties, Democrats made up the plurality, but only in King were they the majority.

About 61% of voters were Democrats or leaned Democratic in King County. In Snohomish, it was around 49%, and in Pierce 40%.

Pierce County was the most Republican, at 32%, compared with 28% in Snohomish and a mere 19% in King.

Beyond geography, demographic fault lines ran deep, starting with the generational divide. Generally speaking, the older voters were in the Seattle area, the more likely they were to lean right.

Among young adults ages 18 to 34, voters were slightly more likely to lean Democratic than the regional average, but were significantly less likely to identify as Republicans. Of the 802,000 voters in this age group, only around 147,000 were Republican. This younger cohort was also highly likely to reject all labels — about 12% did not identify with any major party, significantly higher than the 8% average.

Middle-aged voters (35 to 49) were much closer to the regional baseline across the board.

But past the half-century mark, the political landscape shifted. Voters 50 and older were 19% more likely to be Republicans and 11% more likely to be independents than average. In fact, more than half of the region’s total Republican voters — about 366,000 people — fell into this older demographic.

Gender was another strong predictor of party affiliation. Men were more likely to be Republican and less likely to be Democratic than women. There were about 408,000 Republican men compared with 275,000 women in the three-county area.

When it came to race and ethnicity, the data showed that white, non-Hispanic residents were slightly more likely to lean Republican than the regional average. Conversely, Asian residents were 14% more likely to be Democrats, with roughly 166,000 identifying as Democrats and just 38,000 identifying as Republicans. Asian voters were the most Democratic among the major racial/ethnic groups.

Black voters showed a strong propensity to reject party labels altogether — with 55% more likely to claim “none of these” than the average voter. Hispanic voters, meanwhile, leaned Democratic. They were notably less likely than average to identify as independent, though only modestly less likely to identify as Republican.

But the starkest demographic divide in the entire data set centered on sexual orientation and gender identity. LGBTQ+ residents were 38% more likely to identify as Democrats and a whopping 85% less likely to identify as Republicans. Of the roughly 368,000 LGBTQ+ voters in the metro area, just around 13,000 leaned right.

Education and career paths also offered clear signals of political preference. Those with a bachelor’s degree or higher were nearly 20% more likely to vote blue. Voters who had attended a trade, technical, or vocational school, meanwhile, were 21% more likely to be Republican and 27% more likely to be independent than average.

The data suggested you were most likely to find Republicans among specific life stages and employment statuses. For example, current or past military service was a strong indicator, with veterans and active-duty members being 44% more likely to be Republicans. Retirees and parents with children under 18 also leaned Republican compared with the regional average.

On the other hand, local students leaned heavily Democratic, but they were also more than twice as likely as the average resident to reject all political labels, suggesting a younger demographic more skeptical of the two-party system.