Also, I would think that a lot of young people entering the electorate who are very left leaning and probably vote mostly for democrats in practice, are also way less partisan in their identification than older liberals and probably identify as independents in large margins. If both these things are true, maybe we’ll see a shrinking advantage in partisan ID for Ds in coming national elections, even in ones where they might do quite well.
That's been going on in California for a few years. All of my Dem friends are Indys/NPP because they don't want to feel like they're grouped with a particular party. At the same time, they've voted Democrat 99% of the time and not once voted for a Republican.
Also, with automatic voter registration at the DMV, most folks (Primarily Hispanics & young people) don't want to bother with picking a party at that moment so they just pick NPP & get it over with. (
https://capitolweekly.net/ca120-surprise-how-some-voters-chose-partisanship/)
Then again, your registered party don't mean anything here outside of the presidential primary
