In 1854, the Republican Party emerged to combat the expansion of slavery into western territories after the passing of theKansas–Nebraska Act. The early Republican Party consisted of northern Protestants, factory workers, professionals, businessmen, prosperous farmers, and after theCivil War also of black former slaves. The party had very little support from white Southerners at the time, who predominantly backed the Democratic Party in theSolid South, and from Irish and German Catholics, who made up a major Democratic voting block. While both parties adoptedpro-business policies in the 19th century, the early GOP was distinguished by its support for thenational banking system, thegold standard,railroads, andhigh tariffs. The party opposed the expansion of slavery before 1861 and led the fight to destroy theConfederate States of America (1861–1865). While the Republican Party had almost no presence in theSouthern United States at its inception, it was very successful in theNorthern United States, where by 1858 it had enlisted formerWhigs and formerFree Soil Democrats to form majorities in nearly every Northern state.
After theCivil Rights Act of 1964, theVoting Rights Act of 1965, and theSouthern strategy, the party's core base shifted with the Southern states becoming more reliably Republican in presidential politics and the Northeastern states becoming more reliably Democratic. White voters increasingly identified with the Republican Party after the 1960s.[52] Following the Supreme Court's 1973 decision inRoe v. Wade, the Republican Party opposed abortion in its party platform and grew its support amongevangelicals.[53] The Republican Party won five of the six presidential elections from 1968 to 1988. Two-term PresidentRonald Reagan, who held office from 1981 to 1989, was a transformative party leader. Hisconservative policies called for reduced socialgovernment spending andregulation, increased military spending,lower taxes, and a strong anti-Soviet Union foreign policy. Reagan's influence upon the party persisted into the 21st century.
Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th president (2017–2021; since 2025)
Inthe 2016 presidential election, Republican nomineeDonald Trump defeated Democratic nomineeHillary Clinton. The result was unexpected; polls leading up to the election showed Clinton leading the race.[57] Trump's victory was fueled by narrow victories in three states—Michigan,Pennsylvania, andWisconsin—that had been part of theDemocratic blue wall for decades.[58] It was attributed to strong support amongst working-class white voters, who felt dismissed and disrespected by the political establishment.[59][60] Trump became popular with them by abandoning Republican establishment orthodoxy in favor of a broader nationalist message.[58] His election accelerated the Republican Party's shift towards right-wing populism and resulted in decreasing influence among its conservative factions.[20]
Afterthe 2016 elections, Republicansmaintained their majority in the Senate,the House, andgovernorships, and wielded newly acquired executive power with Trump's election. The Republican Party controlled 69 of 99 state legislative chambers in 2017, the most it had held in history.[61] The Party also held 33 governorships,[62] the most it had held since 1922.[63] The party had total control of government in 25 states,[64][65] the most since 1952.[66] The opposing Democratic Party held full control of only five states in 2017.[67] Inthe 2018 elections, Republicans lost control of the House, but strengthened their hold on the Senate.[68]
The party went into the2022 elections confident and with analysts predicting ared wave, but it underperformed expectations, with voters inswing states and competitive districts joining Democrats in rejecting candidates who had been endorsed by Trump or who had denied the results of the 2020 election.[81][82][83] The party won control of the House with a narrow majority,[84] but lost the Senate and several state legislative majorities and governorships.[85][86][87] The results led to a number of Republicans and conservative thought leaders questioning whether Trump should continue as the party's main figurehead and leader.[88][89]
Despite those disappointments, Trumpeasily won the nomination to be the party's candidate again in2024, marking the third straight election of him being the GOP nominee.[90] Trump – who survived two assassination attempts during the campaign – achieved victory against Vice PresidentKamala Harris, who replaced President Biden on the Democratic ticket after his withdrawal in July. He won both theelectoral college and popular vote, becoming the first Republican to do so since George W. Bush in 2004, and improving his vote share amongworking class voters, particularly among young men, those without college degrees, andHispanic voters.[91] The Republicans also held a slim majority in the House and retook control of the Senate, securing the party's firsttrifecta since 2017.
Current status
As of 2025, the GOP holds the presidency, and majorities in both theU.S. House of Representatives andU.S. Senate, giving them a federalgovernment trifecta. It also holds 27state governorships, 28state legislatures, and 23 state government trifectas. Six of the nine currentU.S. Supreme Court justices were appointed by Republican presidents, three of them were appointed by Trump. There have been 19 Republicans who have served as president, the most from any one political party, the most recent being current presidentDonald Trump, who became the 47th president on January 20, 2025. Trump also served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021.[92]
Name and symbols
The Republican Party's founding members chose its name as homage to the values ofrepublicanism promoted by Democratic-Republican Party, which its founder, Thomas Jefferson, called the "Republican Party".[93] The idea for the name came from an editorial by the party's leading publicist, Horace Greeley, who called for "some simple name like 'Republican' [that] would more fitly designate those who had united to restore the Union to its true mission of champion and promulgator of Liberty rather than propagandist of slavery".[94] The name reflects the 1776 republican values of civic virtue and opposition to aristocracy and corruption.[95] "Republican" has a variety of meanings around the world, and the Republican Party has evolved such that the meanings no longer always align.[96][97]
The term "Grand Old Party" is a traditional nickname for the Republican Party, and the abbreviation "GOP" is a commonly used designation. The term originated in 1875 in theCongressional Record, referring to the party associated with the successful military defense of the Union as "this gallant old party". The following year in an article in theCincinnati Commercial, the term was modified to "grand old party". The first use of the abbreviation is dated 1884.[98]
The traditional mascot of the party is the elephant. A political cartoon byThomas Nast, published inHarper's Weekly on November 7, 1874, is considered the first important use of the symbol.[99] The cartoon was published during the debate overa third term for President Ulysses S. Grant. It draws imagery and text from theAesop fable "The Ass in the Lion's Skin", combined with rumors of animals escaping from theCentral Park Zoo.An alternate symbol of the Republican Party in states such as Indiana, New York and Ohio is the bald eagle as opposed to the Democratic rooster or the Democratic five-pointed star.[100][101] InKentucky, thelog cabin is a symbol of the Republican Party.[102]
Traditionally the party had no consistent color identity.[103][104][105] After the 2000 presidential election, the colorred became associated with Republicans. During and after the election, the major broadcast networks used the same color scheme for the electoral map: states won by Republican nominee George W. Bush were colored red and states won by Democratic nomineeAl Gore were colored blue. Due to the weeks-longdispute over the election results, these color associations became firmly ingrained, persisting in subsequent years. Although the assignment of colors to political parties is unofficial and informal, the media has come to represent the respective political parties using these colors. The party and its candidates have also come to embrace the color red.[106]
An 1874 cartoon byThomas Nast, featuring the first notable appearance of the Republican elephant[107]
The red, white and blue elephant as seen on the GOP web site in 2011
U.S. representativeThaddeus Stevens, considered a leader of the Radical Republicans, was a fierce opponent of slavery and discrimination againstAfrican Americans.
TheRadical Republicans were a major factor of the party from its inception in 1854 until the end of theReconstruction Era in 1877. They strongly opposedslavery, were hard-lineabolitionists, and later advocated equal rights for thefreedmen and women. They were heavily influenced by religious ideals andevangelical Christianity.[108] Radical Republicans pressed for abolition as a major war aim and they opposed the moderate Reconstruction plans of Abraham Lincoln as both too lenient on theConfederates and not going far enough to help former slaves. After the war's end and Lincoln's assassination, the Radicals clashed withAndrew Johnson over Reconstruction policy. Radicals led efforts to establish civil rights for former slaves and fully implement emancipation, pushing theFourteenth Amendment for statutory protections throughCongress. They opposed allowing ex-Confederate officers to retake political power in theSouthern U.S., and emphasized liberty, equality, and theFifteenth Amendment which providedvoting rights for thefreedmen. Many later becameStalwarts, who supported machine politics.
Moderate Republicans were known for their loyal support of PresidentAbraham Lincoln's war policies and expressed antipathy towards the more militant stances advocated by the Radical Republicans. In contrast to Radicals, Moderate Republicans were less enthusiastic on the issue of Black suffrage even while embracing civil equality and the expansive federal authority observed throughout theAmerican Civil War. They were also skeptical of the lenient, conciliatory Reconstruction policies of President Andrew Johnson. Members of the Moderate Republicans comprised in part of previous Radical Republicans who became disenchanted with the alleged corruption of the latter faction. They generally opposed efforts by Radical Republicans to rebuild the Southern U.S. under an economically mobile,free-market system.[109]
Right-wing populism became an increasingly dominant ideological faction within the GOP throughout the 2010s and helped lead to the election ofDonald Trump in 2016.[59] Starting in the 1970s and accelerating in the 2000s, American right-wing interest groups invested heavily in external mobilization vehicles that led to the organizational weakening of the GOP establishment. The outsize role of conservative media, in particularFox News, led to it being followed and trusted more by the Republican base over traditional party elites. The depletion of organizational capacity partly led to Trump's victory in the Republican primaries against the wishes of a very weak party establishment and traditional power brokers.[119]: 27–28 Trump's election exacerbated internal schisms within the GOP,[119]: 18 and saw the GOP move from a center coalition of moderates and conservatives to a solidly right-wing party hostile to liberal views and any deviations from the party line.[120]
The Party has since faced intense factionalism.[121][122] These factions are particularly apparent in theU.S. House of Representatives, where three Republican House leaders (Eric Cantor,John Boehner, andKevin McCarthy) have been ousted since 2009.[123][124][125][126][127][128] All three of the top Republican elected officials during Trump's first term (Vice President, Speaker of the House, and Senate Republican leader) were ousted or stepped down by Trump's second term.
The party'sestablishment conservative faction has lost all of its influence.[129][130][131][132] Many conservatives critical of the Trumpist faction have also lost influence within the party, with no former Republican presidential or vice presidential nominees attending the2024 Republican National Convention.[133][134]
The victory of Trump in the 2024 presidential election saw the party increasingly shift towardsTrumpism,[135][17] and party criticism of Trump was described as being muted to non-existent.The New York Times described it as a "hostile takeover",[136] and a victory of right-wing populism over the old conservative establishment.[135][132][25] Polling found that 53% of Republican voters saw loyalty to Trump as central to their political identity and what it means to be a Republican.[137]
During Trump's second presidency, Republican members of Congress were described byThe New Republic magazine as submissive to Trump, letting him dictate policies without pushback.[138][139]
JD Vance, Donald Trump's vice president during Trump's second term. Initially critical of Trump, he became a staunch advocate ofTrumpism later into Trump's first term and has been described as aright-wing populist.[140]
The Republican Party's right-wing populist movements emerged in concurrence with a global increase in populist movements in the 2010s and 2020s,[116][118] coupled with entrenchment and increased partisanship within the party since 2010.[155] This included the rise of theTea Party movement, which has also been described asfar-right.[156] This faction gained further dominance in the GOP duringJoe Biden's presidency (2021-2025), including in the aftermath of the2021-2023 inflation surge andRussian invasion of Ukraine.[157]
According to political scientists Matt Grossmann and David A. Hopkins, the Republican Party's gains among white voters without college degrees and corresponding losses among white voters with college degrees contributed to the rise of right-wing populism.[24] Until 2016, white voters with college degrees were a Republican-leaning group, but have since become a Democratic-leaning group.[175] In the2020 presidential election,Joe Biden became the first Democratic president to win a majority of white voters with college degrees (51–48%) since1964, while Trump won white voters without college degrees 67–32%.[176][177][23]
Right-wing populism has broad appeal across income and wealth,[178] and is extremely polarized with respect to educational attainment among White voters.[179] According to a 2017 study, agreement with Trump on social issues, rather than economic pressure, increased support for Trump among White voters without college degrees. White voters without college degrees who were economically struggling were more likely to vote for Democrats and support the Democratic party's economic agenda.[180][181] Right-wing populism has appeal toHispanic andAsian voters,[182][183] but has little appeal to African American voters.[184]
The party's far-right faction includes members of theFreedom Caucus.[202][203][204][205] They generally reject compromise within the party and with theDemocrats,[206][207] and are willing to oust fellow Republican office holders they deem to be too moderate.[208][209] According to sociologistJoe Feagin, political polarization by racially extremist Republicans as well as their increased attention from conservative media has perpetuated the near extinction of moderate Republicans and created legislative paralysis at numerous government levels in the last few decades.[210][211]
Julia Azari, an associate professor of political science atMarquette University, noted that not all populist Republicans are public supporters of Donald Trump, and that some Republicans such asVirginia GovernorGlenn Youngkin endorse Trump policies while distancing themselves from Trump as a person.[212][213] The continued dominance of Trump within the GOP has limited the success of this strategy.[214][215][216] In 2024, Trump led a takeover of theRepublican National Committee.[217]
AFiveThirtyEight analysis found that of the 293 Republican members of Congress on January 20, 2017, just 121 (41%) were left on January 20, 2025. There were many reasons for the turnover, including retirements and deaths, losing general and primary elections, seeking other office, etc., but the extent of the change is still stark. There were 273 Republican members of Congress on January 20, 2025. Trump also changed his vice president and both houses of Congress had changed their top leadership.[218]
Ronald Reagan's presidential election in1980 established Reagan-styleAmerican conservatism as the dominant ideological faction of the Republican Party until the election of Donald Trump in 2016.[222] Trump's 2016 election split both the GOP and larger conservative movement intoTrumpist andanti-Trump factions, with the Trumpist faction winning.[223][224] According toNate Silver, in all three of Trump's runs for president income had no significant correlation with support for the Republican Party, that is voters across all incomes were closely divided between the two parties.[178][225]
Demographically, the party has lost majority support from white voters with college degrees, while continuing to gain among voters without college degrees.[226][23][24] Higher educational attainment is strongly correlated with higher income, as well as decreased support for Trump and social conservatism.[25] In the 2024 presidential election, DemocratKamala Harris won a majority of voters with annual incomes over $100,000 (51-47%) and $200,000 (52-46%). Harris was also very competitive among White voters making over $100,000 (49-50%) and $200,000 a year (48-51%).[227]
A core economic belief of Reagan-style American conservatism that has been opposed by the right-wing populist faction is support forneoliberalism,[30] including support formultilateralism andfree trade while opposing tariffs.[26] The right-wing populist faction has gained preeminence by appealing to White voters without college degrees who oppose globalization and free trade and instead support enacting tariffs,[31] particularly in theRust Belt states that were crucial to Donald Trump winning the presidency twice.[21] Donald Trump and his base have supported enactingmercantilist economic policies intended to bring back the economic model that dominated the world from roughly the16th to19th centuries.[36][27]
Conventional conservatism has been in decline across the Western world, not just the United States.[25] In theEuropean Union'smulti-party system, right-wing populist parties andEuropean conservative parties both received support from about a quarter of voters in the early 2020s, the highest share for right-wing populist parties since the end ofWorld War II.[228]
Trump's first vice presidentMike Pence has since distanced himself from Trump and did not endorse him in the 2024 presidential election.[229][230] Likewise, Trump decided not to have Pence as his vice president again, instead choosing JD Vance.[231]Mitch McConnell, who previously served as Senate Republican leader for 18 years (2007–2025), stepped down as leader in 2025 and will retire in 2026 due to declining health and age, as well as disagreements with Trump. McConnell was described as the last powerful member of the Republican establishment, with his retirement marking its end.[232][132][131]
TheRoberts Court (2005–present), three of whose members were appointed by Trump as of 2024, has been described as the most conservative Supreme Court since theVinson Court (1946-1953). It represents the last of the Republican establishment, withChief JusticeJohn Roberts the only Republican leader before Trump to have maintained office during Trump's second term.[233]
The party still maintains long-time ideologically conservative positions on many issues.[234] Traditional modern conservatives combine support for free-market economic policies withsocial conservatism and a hawkish approach to foreign policy.[235] Other parts of the conservative movement are composed offiscal conservatives anddeficit hawks.[236]
Long-term shifts in conservative thinking following the elections of Trump have been described as a "new fusionism" of traditional conservative ideology and right-wing populist themes.[40] These have resulted in shifts towards greater support fornational conservatism,[239]protectionism,[240]cultural conservatism, a morerealist foreign policy, a conspiracist sub-culture, a repudiation ofneoconservatism, reduced efforts to roll back entitlement programs, and a disdain for traditional checks and balances.[40][241] There are significant divisions within the party on the issues ofabortion and LGBT rights.[197][242]
The Christian right is strongest in theBible Belt, which covers most of theSouthern United States.[250]Mike Pence, Donald Trump's vice president from 2017 to 2021, was a member of the Christian right.[251] In October 2023, a member of the Christian right faction, Louisiana representativeMike Johnson, was elected the 56th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.[252][253]
Enacting high tariffs on foreign imports is a core component ofDonald Trump's fiscal agenda. Tariffs are taxes on foreign imports, mainly paid by domestic businesses, given that consumers generally do not import foreign goods directly.[32] By raising tariffs to their highest levels since theGilded Age, Trump enacted one of the largest tax increases on corporations by any Republican president.[38] The Constitution'sImport-Export Clause requires that only the federal government be allowed to collect tariff revenue from imports.[36]
Republicans also believe thatfree markets and individual achievement are the primary factors behind economic prosperity.[285] Reduction in income taxes for those with higher incomes[286][287] is a core component of Republicans' fiscal agenda.[288]
Donald Trump is amercantilist and staunch proponent of enacting tariffs,[27] that is taxes on imports from foreign countries paid by domestic importers, mostly corporations.[36] Mercantilism is nationalist, and opposestrade deficits andfree trade.[21]
In 2025, Trump raised American tariff rates to the highest in the world, at the highest level since theSmoot–Hawley Tariff Act of 1930.[289]
Donald Trump opposesglobalization, and his economic policies have been described as attempting to unravel the multilateral global economic order, including the power of theWorld Trade Organization (WTO).[26]
Taxes and trade
As of 2025[update] the Republican Party supports near-universaltariffs, but that has not always been the case. For example, during the last half of the 20th century, Republicans were strong proponents offree trade. The current Republican president, Donald Trump, has been a staunch proponent of enactingtariffs as a means of generating tax revenue, and has raised tariffs to their highest levels since World War II.[290] According to an April 2025 Economist/YouGov poll, "Republican voters overwhelmingly support Trump's tariffs, while Democratic voters generally do not."[31]
Trump has expressed his admiration for Republican presidentWilliam McKinley's tariff policies. McKinley was the author of theTariff Act of 1890, and both Trump and McKinley nicknamed themselves as a "Tariff Man".[33][32]
At its inception, the Republican Party supportedprotective tariffs. Abraham Lincoln enacted tariffs during the Civil War.[291][292] The great battle over the highPayne–Aldrich Tariff Act in 1910 caused a split in the party.[293] TheReciprocal Tariff Act of 1934 marked a sharp departure from the era ofprotectionism in the United States. American duties on foreign products declined from an average of 46% in 1934 to 12% by 1962, which included the presidency of Republican presidentDwight D. Eisenhower.[294] After World War II, the U.S. promoted theGeneral Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) established in 1947, to minimize tariffs and other restrictions, and to liberalize trade among all capitalist countries.[295][296]During theReagan andGeorge H. W. Bush administrations, Republicans abandoned protectionist policies[297] and came out against quotas and in favor of the GATT and theWorld Trade Organization policy of minimal economic barriers to global trade. Free trade with Canada came about as a result of theCanada–U.S. Free Trade Agreement of 1987, which led in 1994 to theNorth American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) based on Reagan's plan to enlarge the scope of the market for American firms to include Canada and Mexico. PresidentBill Clinton, with strong Republican support in 1993, pushed NAFTA through Congress over the vehement objection of labor unions.[298][299]
The 2016 presidential election marked a return to supporting protectionism, beginning withDonald Trump's first presidency.[300][301] In 2017, only 36% of Republicans agreed that free trade agreements are good for theUnited States, compared to 67% of Democrats. When asked if free trade has helped respondents specifically, the approval numbers for Democrats drop to 54%, however approval ratings among Republicans remain relatively unchanged at 34%.[302]
Income tax cuts have been at the core of Republican economic policy since 1980.[303] At the national level and state level, Republicans tend to pursue policies of tax cuts and deregulation.[304] Modern Republicans advocate the theory ofsupply-side economics, which holds that lower tax rates increase economic growth.[305] Many Republicans opposehigher tax rates for higher earners, which they believe are unfairly targeted at those who create jobs and wealth. They believe private spending is more efficient than government spending. Republican lawmakers have also sought to limit funding for tax enforcement andtax collection.[306]
As per a 2021 study that measured Republicans' congressional votes, the modern Republican Party's economic policy positions tend to align with business interests and the affluent.[307][308][309][310][311]
Spending
Republicans advocate in favor offiscal conservatism. Republican administrations have, since the late 1960s, supported sectors like national defense, veterans affairs, and infrastructure.[312][313][314]
Entitlements
Republicans believe individuals should take responsibility for their own circumstances. They also believe the private sector is more effective in helping the poor throughcharity than the government is through welfare programs and that social assistance programs often cause government dependency.[315] As of November 2022, all 11 states that had not expanded Medicaid had Republican-controlledstate legislatures.[316]
Labor unions and the minimum wage
The Republican Party is generally opposed to labor unions.[317][318] Republicans believe corporations should be able to establish their own employment practices, including benefits and wages, with the free market deciding the price of work. Since the 1920s, Republicans have generally been opposed bylabor union organizations and members. At the national level, Republicans supported theTaft–Hartley Act of 1947, which gives workers the right not to participate in unions. Modern Republicans at the state level generally support variousright-to-work laws.[b] Most Republicans also oppose increases in theminimum wage.[citation needed]
Democrats and Republicans have diverged on the seriousness of the threat posed by climate change, with Republicans' assessment remaining essentially unchanged over the past decade.[320]
Opinion about human causation of climate change increased substantially with education among Democrats, but not among Republicans.[321] Conversely, opinions favoring becoming carbon neutral declined substantially with age among Republicans, but not among Democrats.[321]
Many Republicans during thepresidency of Barack Obama opposed his administration's new environmental regulations, such as those on carbon emissions from coal. In particular, many Republicans supported building theKeystone Pipeline; this position was supported by businesses, but opposed by indigenous peoples' groups and environmental activists.[345][346][347]
According to theCenter for American Progress, a non-profit liberal advocacy group, more than 55% of congressional Republicans wereclimate change deniers in 2014.[348][349]PolitiFact in May 2014 found "relatively few Republican members of Congress ... accept the prevailing scientific conclusion thatglobal warming is both real and man-made." The group found eight members who acknowledged it, although the group acknowledged there could be more and that not all members of Congress have taken a stance on the issue.[350][351]
From 2008 to 2017, the Republican Party went from "debating how to combat human-caused climate change to arguing that it does not exist", according toThe New York Times.[352] In January 2015, the Republican-led U.S. Senate voted 98–1 to pass a resolution acknowledging that "climate change is real and is not a hoax"; however, an amendment stating that "human activity significantly contributes to climate change" was supported by only five Republican senators.[353]
Health care
The party opposes asingle-payer health care system,[354][355] describing it associalized medicine. It also opposes theAffordable Care Act[356] and expansions of Medicaid.[357] Historically, there have been diverse and overlapping views within both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party on the role of government in health care, but the two parties became highly polarized on the topic during 2008–2009 and onwards.[358]
Both Republicans and Democrats made various proposals to establish federally funded aged health insurance prior to the bipartisan effort to establishMedicare andMedicaid in 1965.[359][360][361] No Republican member of Congress voted for theAffordable Care Act in 2009, and after it passed, the party made frequent attempts to repeal it.[358][362] At the state level, the party has tended to adopt a position againstMedicaid expansion.[304][361]
The Republican Party has a persistent history of skepticism and opposition tomultilateralism in American foreign policy.[364]Neoconservatism, which supportsunilateralism and emphasizes the use of force and hawkishness in American foreign policy, has had some influence in all Republican presidential administrations since Ronald Reagan's.[365] Some, includingpaleoconservatives,[366] call fornon-interventionism and anisolationist "America First" foreign policy agenda.[40][237][238] This faction gained strength starting in 2016 with the rise of Donald Trump, demanding that the United States reset its previousinterventionist foreign policy and encourage allies and partners to take greater responsibility for their own defense.[367]
Israel
During the 1940s, Republicans predominantly opposed the cause of an independent Jewish state due to the influence ofconservatives of theOld Right.[368] The rise ofneoconservatism saw the Republican Party become predominantly pro-Israel by the 1990s and 2000s,[369] although notable anti-Israel sentiment persisted throughpaleoconservative figures such asPat Buchanan.[370] As president, Donald Trump generally supported Israel during most of his term, but became increasingly critical of Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu towards the end of it.[371] According toi24NEWS, the 2020s have seen declining support for Israel among nationalist Republicans, led by individuals such asTucker Carlson.[368][372] Nevertheless, the 2024 Republican Party platform reaffirmed the party would "stand with Israel" and called for the deportation of "pro-Hamas radicals", while expressing a desire for peace in the Middle East.[373] Although the Republican Party has often positioned itself as an opponent of antisemitism and denounced Democrats as insufficiently supportive of Israel,[374] many members of theChristian right support Israel primarily due totheological beliefs about the centrality of Israel to theSecond Coming of Jesus Christ and the conversion ordamnation of Jews and other non-Christians.[375][376]
Taiwan
In the party's 2016 platform,[377] its stance onTaiwan is: "We oppose any unilateral steps by either side to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Straits on the principle that all issues regarding the island's future must be resolved peacefully, through dialogue, and be agreeable to the people of Taiwan." In addition, if "China were to violate those principles, the United States, in accord with theTaiwan Relations Act, will help Taiwan defend itself".
The 2016 Republican platform eliminated references to giving weapons toUkraine in its fight withRussia andrebel forces; the removal of this language reportedly resulted from intervention from staffers to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.[380] However, the Trump administration approved a new sale of anti-tank weapons to Ukraine in 2017.[381] Republicans generally question EuropeanNATO members' alleged insufficient investment in defense funding, and some are dissatisfied with U.S. aid to Ukraine.[382][383] Some Republican members of the U.S. Congress support foreign aid to Israel but not to Ukraine,[191][49] and have been described by U.S. media aspro-Russian.[197][192][193][194][195][196][51]
Amid theRussian invasion of Ukraine, several prominent Republicans criticized some colleagues and conservative media outlets for echoing Russian propaganda.Liz Cheney, formerly the third-ranking House Republican, said "aPutin wing of the Republican Party" had emerged. Former vice presidentMike Pence said, "There is no room in the Republican Party for apologists for Putin."House Foreign Affairs Committee chairmanMichael McCaul asserted that Russian propaganda had "infected a good chunk of my party's base."House Intelligence Committee chairmanMike Turner confirmed McCaul's assessment, asserting that some propaganda coming directly from Russia could be heard on the House floor. Republican senatorThom Tillis characterized the influential conservative commentatorTucker Carlson, who frequently expresses pro-Russia sentiments, as Russia's "useful idiot".[384][385][386][387]
In April 2024, a majority of Republican members of theU.S. House of Representatives voted against a military aid package to Ukraine.[388] Both Trump and SenatorJD Vance, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee and vice presidential nominee respectively, have been vocal critics of military aid to Ukraine and advocates of a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.[389][390][391][392] The 2024 Republican Party platform did not mention Russia or Ukraine, but stated the party's objectives to "prevent World War III" and "restore peace to Europe".[393]
In a 2014 poll, 59% of Republicans favored doing less abroad and focusing on the country's own problems instead.[395]
Republicans have frequently advocated for restrictingforeign aid as a means of asserting the national security and immigration interests of the United States.[396][397][398]
A survey by theChicago Council on Global Affairs shows that "Trump Republicans seem to prefer a US role that is more independent, less cooperative, and more inclined to use military force to deal with the threats they see as the most pressing".[399]
The Republican position onabortion has changed significantly over time.[246][405] During the 1960s and early 1970s, opposition to abortion was concentrated among members of the political left and the Democratic Party; most liberal Catholics—which tended to vote for the Democratic Party—opposed expanding abortion access while most conservative evangelical Protestants supported it.[405]
During this period, Republicans generally favored legalized abortion more than Democrats,[406][407] although significant heterogeneity could be found within both parties.[408] Leading Republican political figures, includingRichard Nixon,Gerald Ford,Ronald Reagan, andGeorge H. W. Bush, took pro-choice positions until the early 1980s.[406] However, starting at this point, both George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan described themselves as pro-life during their presidencies.
In the 21st century, bothGeorge W. Bush[409] andDonald Trump described themselves as "pro-life" during their terms. However, Trump stated that he supported the legality and ethics of abortion before his candidacy in 2015.[410]
Summarizing the rapid shift in the Republican and Democratic positions on abortion, Sue Halpern writes:[246]
...in the late 1960s and early 1970s, many Republicans were behind efforts to liberalize and even decriminalize abortion; theirs was the party of reproductive choice, while Democrats, with their large Catholic constituency, were the opposition. Republican governor Ronald Reagan signed the California Therapeutic Abortion Act, one of the most liberal abortion laws in the country, in 1967, legalizing abortion for women whose mental or physical health would be impaired by pregnancy, or whose pregnancies were the result of rape or incest. The same year, the Republican strongholds of North Carolina and Colorado made it easier for women to obtain abortions. New York, under GovernorNelson Rockefeller, a Republican, eliminated all restrictions on women seeking to terminate pregnancies up to twenty-four weeks gestation.... Richard Nixon, Barry Goldwater, Gerald Ford, and George H.W. Bush were all pro-choice, and they were not party outliers. In 1972, a Gallup poll found that 68 percent of Republicans believed abortion to be a private matter between a woman and her doctor. The government, they said, should not be involved...
Since the 1980s, opposition to abortion has become strongest in the party amongtraditionalist Catholics and conservative Protestant evangelicals.[246][408][411] Initially, evangelicals were relatively indifferent to the cause of abortion and overwhelmingly viewed it as a concern that wassectarian andCatholic.[411] HistorianRandall Balmer notes thatBilly Graham'sChristianity Today published in 1968 a statement by theologianBruce Waltke that:[412] "God does not regard the fetus as a soul, no matter how far gestation has progressed." Typical of the time,Christianity Today "refused to characterize abortion as sinful" and cited "individual health, family welfare, and social responsibility" as "justifications for ending a pregnancy."[413] Similar beliefs were held among conservative figures in theSouthern Baptist Convention, includingW. A. Criswell, who is partially credited with starting the "conservative resurgence" within the organization, who stated: "I have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from its mother that it became an individual person and it has always, therefore, seemed to me that what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed." Balmer argues that evangelical American Christianity being inherently tied to opposition to abortion is a relatively new occurrence.[413][414] After the late 1970s, he writes, opinion against abortion among evangelicals rapidly shifted in favor of its prohibition.[411]
Today, opinion polls show that Republican voters are heavily divided on the legality of abortion,[242] although vast majority of the party's national and state candidates areanti-abortion and oppose electiveabortion on religious or moral grounds. While many advocate exceptions in the case ofincest, rape or the mother's life being at risk, in 2012 the party approved a platform advocating banning abortions without exception.[415] There were not highly polarized differences between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party prior to theRoe v. Wade 1973 Supreme Court ruling (which made prohibitions on abortion rights unconstitutional), but after the Supreme Court ruling, opposition to abortion became an increasingly key national platform for the Republican Party.[416][417][418] As a result, Evangelicals gravitated towards the Republican Party.[416][417] Most Republicans oppose government funding for abortion providers, notablyPlanned Parenthood.[419] This includes support for theHyde Amendment.
Until its dissolution in 2018,Republican Majority for Choice, an abortion rights PAC, advocated for amending the GOP platform to include pro-abortion rights members.[420]
The Republican Party has pursued policies at the national and state-level to restrictembryonic stem cell research beyond the original lines because it involves the destruction of humanembryos.[421][422]
Republicans generally opposeaffirmative action, often describing it as a "quota system" and believing that it is notmeritocratic and is counter-productive socially by only further promotingdiscrimination. According to a 2023 ABC poll, a majority of Americans (52%) and 75% of Republicans supported the Supreme Court's decision inStudents for Fair Admissions v. Harvard prohibiting race as a factor in college admissions, compared to only 26% of Democrats.[425]
The 2012 Republican national platform stated, "We support efforts to help low-income individuals get a fair chance based on their potential and individual merit; but we reject preferences, quotas, and set-asides, as the best or sole methods through which fairness can be achieved, whether in government, education or corporate boardrooms...Merit, ability, aptitude, and results should be the factors that determine advancement in our society."[426][427][428][429]
Gun ownership
A 2021 survey of U.S. opinion on gun control issues, revealing deep divides along political lines.[430]
Republicans generally supportgun ownership rights and opposelaws regulating guns. According to a 2023 Pew Research Center poll, 45% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents personally own firearms, compared to 32% for the general public and 20% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.[431]
The Republican Party has generally promoted strict anti-crime policies, such asmandatory minimum sentences and thedeath penalty.[436] In the 2010’s, however, prominent Republicans demonstrated some interest incriminal justice reform designed to combatmass incarceration, with President Trump signing theFirst Step Act, which expanded good behavior credits for perpetrators of most nonviolent crimes and required the U.S. Attorney General to develop a system to assess the recidivism risk of all federal prisoners.[437] By 2024, however, the Republican Party and its leaders had largely left behind its prior support for reform of the justice system.[438] Republican elected officials have historically supported theWar on Drugs. They generally opposelegalization or decriminalization of drugs such asmarijuana.[439][440][441]
Opposition to the legalization of marijuana has softened significantly over time among Republican voters and politicians.[442][443][444] A 2021Quinnipiac poll found that 62% of Republicans supported the legalization of recreational marijuana use and that net support for the position was +30 points.[439] Some Republican-controlled states have legalized medical and recreational marijuana in recent years.[445] In September 2024, then-candidate Donald Trump endorsed the legalization of recreational marijuana.[446]
The Republican Party has taken widely varying views on immigration throughout its history, but have generally and traditionally taken an anti-immigration andnativist stance compared to the opposition.[10] In the period between 1850 and 1870, the Republican Party was more opposed to immigration than the Democrats. The GOP's opposition was, in part, caused by its reliance on the support of anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant parties such as theKnow-Nothings. In the decades following the Civil War, especially in the 1880s, the Republican Party lessened its stance on immigration, as it represented the manufacturers in the northeast (who wanted additional labor); although during this period, the Democratic Party still came to be seen as the party of both American and foreign labor, and many religious Republicansused anti-Irish and pro-Christian sentiments. Starting in the early 1930s, the parties focused onMexican emigration, as the Democrats proposed a softer stance on Mexican immigration during theGreat Depression andNew Deal, rather than Republicans underHerbert Hoover.[447][448]
In 2006, the Republican-led Senate passedcomprehensive immigration reform that would eventually have allowed millions of illegal immigrants to become citizens. Despite the support of Republican President George W. Bush, the House of Representatives (also led by Republicans) did not advance the bill.[449] After Republican Mitt Romney was defeated in the 2012 presidential election, particularly due to a lack of support among Latinos,[450][451] several Republicans advocated a friendlier approach to immigrants that would allow for more migrant workers and apath to citizenship for illegal immigrants. TheBorder Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 passed the Senate 68–32, but was not brought to a vote in the House and died in the113th Congress.[452] In a 2013 poll, 60% of Republicans supported the pathway to citizenship concept.[453]
In 2016,Donald Trump proposed to builda wall along the southern border of the United States. Trumpimmigration policies during his administration included atravel ban from multiple Muslim-majority countries, aRemain in Mexico policy for asylum-seekers,a controversial family separation policy, and attempting to endDACA.[187][454] During the tenure of Democratic President Joe Biden, the Republican Party has continued to take a hardline stance against illegal immigration. The Party largely opposes immigration reform,[455] although there are widely differing views on immigration within the Party.[452] The Party's proposed 2024 platform was opposed to immigration, and called for the mass deportation of all illegal immigrants in the United States.[39] A 2024 Pew Research Center poll found that 88% of Donald Trump's supporters favored mass deportation of all illegal immigrants, compared to 27% of Kamala Harris supporters.[456]
LGBT issues
Similar to the Democratic Party, the Republican position onLGBT rights has changed significantly over time, with continuously increasing support among both parties on the issue.[457][458] TheLog Cabin Republicans is a group within the Republican Party that representsLGBT conservatives and allies and advocates for LGBT rights.[459][460]
From the early-2000s to the mid-2010s, Republicans opposedsame-sex marriage, while being divided on the issue ofcivil unions anddomestic partnerships for same-sex couples.[461] During the 2004 election,George W. Bush campaigned prominently on a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage; many believe it helped Bush win re-election.[462][463] In both2004[464] and2006,[465] President Bush, Senate Majority LeaderBill Frist, and House Majority LeaderJohn Boehner promoted theFederal Marriage Amendment, a proposed constitutional amendment which would legally restrict the definition of marriage toheterosexual couples.[466][467][468] In both attempts, the amendment failed to secure enough votes to invokecloture and thus ultimately was never passed. As more states legalized same-sex marriage in the 2010s, Republicans increasingly supported allowing each state to decide its own marriage policy.[469] As of 2014, most state GOP platforms expressed opposition to same-sex marriage.[470] The 2016GOP Platform defined marriage as "natural marriage, the union of one man and one woman," and condemned the Supreme Court'sruling legalizing same-sex marriages.[471][472] The 2020 platform, which reused the 2016 platform, retained the statements against same-sex marriage.[473][474][475]
Following his election as president in 2016, Donald Trump stated that he had no objection to same-sex marriage or to the Supreme Court decision inObergefell v. Hodges, but had previously promised to consider appointing a Supreme Court justice to roll back the constitutional right.[462][476] In office, Trump was the first sitting Republican president to recognizeLGBT Pride Month.[477] Conversely, the Trump administration banned transgender individuals from service in the United States military and rolled back other protections for transgender people which had been enacted during the previous Democratic presidency.[478] However, other Republicans,such asVivek Ramaswamy, do not support such a ban,[479]
The Republican Party platform previously opposed theinclusion of gay people in the military and opposed adding sexual orientation to the list of protected classes since 1992.[480][481][482] The Republican Party opposed the inclusion ofsexual preference in anti-discrimination statutes from 1992 to 2004.[483] The 2008 and 2012 Republican Party platform supported anti-discrimination statutes based on sex, race, age, religion, creed, disability, or national origin, but both platforms were silent onsexual orientation andgender identity.[484][485] The 2016 platform was opposed to sex discrimination statutes that included the phrase "sexual orientation".[486][487] The same 2016 platform rejectedObergefell v. Hodges, and was also used for the party's 2020 platform.[488] In the early 2020s, numerous Republican-led statesproposed or passed laws that have been described as anti-trans by critics,[489][490][491][492][493][494][495] as well as laws limiting or banningpublic performances of drag shows, and teaching schoolchildren about LGBT topics.[496]
On November 6, 2021, RNC ChairRonna McDaniel announced the creation of the "RNC Pride Coalition", in partnership with theLog Cabin Republicans, to promote outreach to LGBTQ voters.[497] However, after the announcement, McDaniel apologized for not having communicated the announcement in advance and emphasized that the new outreach program did not alter the 2016 GOP Platform.[498]
Virtually all restrictions on voting have in recent years been implemented by Republicans. Republicans, mainly at the state level, argue that the restrictions (such as the purging ofvoter rolls, limiting voting locations, and limitingearly andmail-in voting) are vital to preventvoter fraud, saying that voter fraud is an underestimated issue in elections. Polling has found majority support for early voting, automatic voter registration andvoter ID laws among the general population.[508][509][510]
In defending their restrictions to voting rights, Republicans have made false and exaggerated claims about the extent of voter fraud in the United States; all existing research indicates that it is extremely rare,[511][512][513][514] and civil and voting rights organizations often accuse Republicans of enacting restrictions to influence elections in the party's favor. Many laws or regulations restricting voting enacted by Republicans have been successfully challenged in court, with court rulings striking down such regulations and accusing Republicans of establishing them with partisan purpose.[513][514]
After the Supreme Court decision inShelby County v. Holder rolled back aspects of theVoting Rights Act of 1965, Republicans introduced cuts to early voting, purges of voter rolls and imposition of strict voter ID laws.[515] The 2016 Republican platform advocated proof of citizenship as a prerequisite for registering to vote and photo ID as a prerequisite when voting.[516]
Supporters of the bills argue they would improve election security and reverse temporary changes enacted during theCOVID-19 pandemic; they point to false claims of significant election fraud, as well as the substantial public distrust of the integrity of the 2020 election those claims have fostered,[c] as justification.[528][529][530] Political analysts say that the efforts amount tovoter suppression, are intended to advantage Republicans by reducing the number of people who vote, and would disproportionately affectminority voters.[531][532][533][534]
Composition and demographics
According to a 2025Gallup poll, 46% of Americans identify or lean towards Republicans, and 45% identify or lean towards Democrats. Republicans have held an edge since 2022, while the Democratic Party had previously held an overall edge in party identification from 1992 to 2021, since Gallup began polling on the issue in 1991.[535] In 2016,The New York Times stated that the party was strongest in theSouth, most of theMidwestern andMountain States, andAlaska.[536]
The Republican party's core voting demographics are White voters without college degrees andWhite Southerners. Racial polarization is extremely high in the Southern United States, withWhite Southerners almost entirely voting for the Republican Party andBlack Southerners almost entirely voting for the Democratic Party.[537]
Republicans have lost support amongupper middle class andcollege-educated whites.[178][542][546] In 2024, Trump only narrowly won White voters making $100,000 to $199,999 (50-49%), over $200,000 (51-48%), and White men with college degrees (50-48%), all on par with Trump winning the popular vote 50-48%.[175]
Income
Median U.S. household income per County in 2021, showing the distribution of income geographically in the United States
Until 2016, higher income was strongly correlated to voting for the Republican Party among the general electorate. However, in all three of Trump's elections in 2016, 2020, and 2024, the previous correlation between higher incomes and voting for the Republican Party was largely eliminated among the electorate as a whole.[225] For White voters, instead higher educational attainment was strongly correlated with higher support for the Democratic Party.[175] According to a 2024 Pew Research Center poll, homeowners are slightly more likely to be Republicans (51-45%), while renters are much more likely to be Democrats (64-32%).[547]
In the 2024 presidential election, Trump did better among lower-income voters than high-income voters, the first time ever for the Republican nominee in modern American political history.[542] Trump lost voters making annual incomes over $100,000 (47-51%) and $200,000 (46-52%) to DemocratKamala Harris, with voters making over $200,000 a year being Trump's weakest income demographic. Trump won voters making less than $100,000 (51-47%) and $50,000 (50-48%), though Trump did lose voters making less than $30,000 (46-50%).[227]
Men without college degrees, particularlyblue-collar men, are Donald Trump's strongest demographic. Per exit polls, Trump won White men without college degrees (69-29%) and around half of Hispanic men in the 2024 presidential election.[550]
Some of the oldest Republican strongholds in the country are in theSouthern United States, particularly majority-WhiteUnionist counties inAppalachia.[551] The Republican Party gradually gained power in theSouthern United States since1964. AlthoughRichard Nixon carried 49 states in1972, including every Southern state, the Republican Party remained quite weak at the local and state levels across the entire South for decades. Republicans first won a majority of U.S. House seats in the South in the1994 "Republican Revolution", and only began to dominate the South after the2010 elections.[552]
Since the 2010s,White Southerners are the Republican Party's strongest racial demographic, in someDeep South states voting nearly as Republican as African Americans vote Democratic.[537] This is partially attributable to religiosity, with Whiteevangelical Christians in theBible Belt, which covers most of the South, being the Republican Party's strongest religious demographic.[22] In particular, in 2024 Trump won every state with a significant presence in the Bible Belt except Virginia, becauseNorthern Virginia is part of the heavily DemocraticWashington metropolitan area.[553][554]
White Southerners with college degrees remain strongly Republican. In 2024, Trump won White Southerners 67-32%, including White Southerners with college degrees 57-41%. Trump won White evangelicals 82-17%, including White evangelicals with college degrees 75-23%.[22]
Age
The Republican Party does best withmiddle age andolder voters, particularly voters over the age of 50. In the 2024 presidential election, Trump lost voters aged 18–29 (43-54%) and 30-39 (45-51%), tied with voters aged 40–49 (49-49%), did best among voters aged 50–64 (54-44%), and narrowly won voters 65 and older (50-49%). This also holds when controlling for race.[227]
Trump tied among Whites aged 18–29 (49-49%), and won Whites aged 30–44 (54-44%), 45-64 (61-37%), and 65 and older (56-43%).
There was little difference among Black voters, with Trump losing Black voters aged 18–29 (16-83%), 30-44 (15-83%), 45-64 (14-84%), and particularly Black voters 65 and older (6-93%).
Trump narrowly lost Hispanic voters aged 18–29 (45-51%) and 30-44 (45-52%), narrowly won Hispanic voters aged 45–64 (51-48%), and lost Hispanic voters 65 and older (58-41%).
Gender
The median wealth of married couples exceeds that of single individuals, regardless of gender and across all age categories.[555]
Since 1980, a "gender gap" has seen stronger support for the Republican Party among men than among women. Unmarried and divorced women were far more likely to vote for DemocratJohn Kerry than for RepublicanGeorge W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election.[556] Exit polls from the 2012 elections revealed a continued weakness among unmarried women for the GOP, a large and growing portion of the electorate.[557] Although women supported Obama overMitt Romney by a margin of 55–44% in 2012, Romney prevailed amongst married women, 53–46%.[558] Obama won unmarried women 67–31%.[559]
However, according to a December 2019 study, "White women are the only group of female voters who support Republican Party candidates for president. They have done so by a majority in all but 2 of the last 18 elections".[560][561]
Non-College and College White vote in the2020 presidential election by state. A key for approximate margins is provided.[562]
In all three of Donald Trump's elections in 2016, 2020, and 2024, for White voters lower educational attainment was strongly correlated with higher support for Trump.[178][175][563] When controlling for educational attainment among White voters, there still remain large variations by state and region. In particular, college-educatedWhite Southerners remain strongly Republican.[562]
The Republican Party has steadily increased the percentage of votes it receives from white voters without college degrees since the 1970s, while theeducational attainment of the United States has steadily increased.[24] White voters without college degrees are more likely to live in rural areas.[564][565]
Voters with college degrees as a whole were a Republican-voting group until the 1990s. Despite losing in a landslide, Republican nomineeBarry Goldwater nearly won a majority of voters with college degrees 48–52% in1964.[177] Republican presidentGerald Ford won voters with college degrees 55-43% in1976, while narrowly losing toJimmy Carter.[566] Since the 1990s, a majority of voters with graduate degrees have consistently voted for the Democratic Party. For example,George W. Bush won voters with just a bachelor's degree 52-46% while losing voters with a graduate degree 44–55%, while winning re-election in2004.[567]
Until 2016, white voters with college degrees were a Republican-leaning group.[23] Despite Obama's decisive2008 victory, Republican nomineeJohn McCain won a majority of white voters with college degrees 51-47% and white voters without college degrees 58-40%.[568] In2012, Republican nomineeMitt Romney won white voters with college degrees 56-42%, though Obama won voters with college degrees as a whole 50-48% while winning re-election.[569] Since the 2010s,[23] white voters with college degrees have been increasingly voting for the Democratic Party.[570][571] Following the 2016 presidential election, exit polls indicated that "Donald Trump attracted a large share of the vote from Whites without a college degree, receiving 72 percent of the White non-college male vote and 62 percent of the White non-college female vote." Overall, 52% of voters with college degrees voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, while 52% of voters without college degrees voted for Trump.[572]
In the2020 United States presidential election, Donald Trump won white voters without college degrees 67-32%, while losing white voters with a college degree 48–51%.[570][571][573] In the2024 United States presidential election, Trump maintained his margins among white voters without college degrees 66-32% and lost white voters with a college degree 45-52%. In 2024, Trump won 56% of voters without a college degree, compared to 42% of voters with a college degree.[227]
Republicans have consistently won the White vote in every presidential election after the1964 presidential election.[574] There exist large variations among White voters by region and state. In particular, Republicans lose White voters in theNortheast, parts of theUpper Midwest andWest Coast.[22] Republicans are strongest withWhite Southerners, particularly Whiteevangelical Christians in theBible Belt, which covers most of theSouthern United States. White Southerners with college degrees remain strongly Republican. In someDeep South states, Whites vote nearly as Republican as African Americans vote Democratic. In the 2024 presidential election, Trump won White Southerners 67-32%.[537]
Republicans have been winning under 15% of the African American vote in national elections since 1980. Until theNew Deal of the 1930s, Black people supported the Republican Party by large margins.[575] Black delegates were a sizable share of southern delegates to the national Republican convention from Reconstruction until the start of the 20th century when their share began to decline.[576] Black people shifted in large margins to the Democratic Party in the 1930s, when Black politicians such as Arthur Mitchell and William Dawson supported the New Deal because it would better serve the interest of Black Americans.[577] Black voters would become one of the core components of theNew Deal coalition. In the South, after theVoting Rights Act to prohibit racial discrimination in elections was passed by a bipartisan coalition in 1965, Black people were able to vote again and ever since have formed a significant portion (20–50%) of the Democratic vote in that region.[578]
In the 2010 elections, two African American Republicans,Tim Scott andAllen West, were elected to the House of Representatives. As of January 2023, there are four African-American Republicans in the House of Representatives and one African American Republican in the United States Senate.[579] In recent decades, Republicans have been moderately successful in gaining support fromHispanic andAsian American voters. George W. Bush, who campaigned energetically for Hispanic votes, received 35% of their vote in 2000 and 44% in 2004.[580][581][582] The party's strong anti-communist stance has made it popular among some minority groups from current and former Communist states, in particularCuban Americans,Korean Americans,Chinese Americans andVietnamese Americans. The 2007 election ofBobby Jindal as Governor of Louisiana was hailed as pathbreaking.[583] Jindal became the first elected minority governor inLouisiana and the first state governor ofIndian descent.[584]
Republicans have gained support among racial and ethnic minorities, particularly among those who are working class, Hispanic or Latino, or Asian American since the 2010s.[585][586][587][588][589][590] According toJohn Avlon, in 2013, the Republican party was more ethnically diverse at the statewide elected official level than the Democratic Party was; GOP statewide elected officials included Latino Nevada GovernorBrian Sandoval and African-American U.S. senatorTim Scott of South Carolina.[591]
In the2008 presidential election, Republican presidential candidateJohn McCain won 55% of White votes, 35% of Asian votes, 31% of Hispanic votes and 4% of African American votes.[592] In 2012, 88% of Romney voters were White while 56% of Obama voters were White.[593] In the2024 presidential election, Trump won 57% of White voters, 46% of Hispanic voters, 39% of Asian voters, and 13% of African American voters.[227]
Religion has always played a major role for both parties, but in the course of a century, the parties' religious compositions have changed. Religion was a major dividing line between the parties before1960, with Catholics, Jews, and southern Protestants heavily Democratic and northeastern Protestants heavily Republican. Most of the old differences faded away after the realignment of the 1970s and 1980s that undercut the New Deal coalition.[595] Since 1980, a large majority ofevangelicals has voted Republican; 70–80% voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004 and 70% for Republican House candidates in2006.
Members of the Mormon faith had a mixed relationship with Donald Trump during his tenure, despite 67% of them voting for him in2016 and 56% of them supporting his presidency in2018, disapproving of his personal behavior such as that shown during theAccess Hollywood controversy.[596] In the2020 United States presidential election in Utah, Trump won the state by about 21.5%, by a margin more than 20% lower compared to Mitt Romney (who is Mormon) in2012 and George W. Bush in2004. Their opinion on Trump had not affected their party affiliation, however, as 76% of Mormons in 2018 expressed preference for generic Republican congressional candidates.[597] Similarly, while Trump again won majority-MormonUtah in 2024, the state had one of the smallest swings to the right and Trump's 22% margin was well below that of prior Republican presidential nominees.[598]
Jews continue to vote 70–80% Democratic; however, a slim majority ofOrthodox Jews voted for the Republican Party in 2016, following years of growing Orthodox Jewish support for the party due to its social conservatism and increasingly pro-Israel foreign policy stance.[599] Over 70% of Orthodox Jews identify as Republican or Republican leaning as of 2021.[600] An exit poll conducted by theAssociated Press for 2020 found 35% ofMuslims voted for Donald Trump.[601] The mainline traditional Protestants (Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Disciples) have dropped to about 55% Republican (in contrast to 75% before 1968). Democrats have close links with the African American churches, especially theNational Baptists, while their historic dominance among Catholic voters has eroded to 54–46 in the 2010 midterms.[602]
Although once strongly Democratic,American Catholic voters have been politically divided in the 21st century with 52% of Catholic voters voting for Trump in2016 and 52% voting for Biden in2020. While Catholic Republican leaders try to stay in line with the teachings of the Catholic Church on subjects such as abortion, contraception, euthanasia, and embryonic stem cell research, they tend to differ on the death penalty and same-sex marriage.[603]
^Tariffs are taxes on foreign imports paid by domestic importers, mostly corporations.[31][32][33]
^Right-to-work laws banunion security agreements, which require all workers in a unionized workplace to pay dues or a fair-share fee regardless of whether they are members of the union or not.[319]
^According to an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, while more than 60% of Americans believe the 2020 election was secure, a large majority of Republican voters say they do not trust the results of the 2020 election.[526] According to a poll byQuinnipiac, 77% of Republicans believe there was widespread voter fraud.[527]
^Incumbent vice-presidentJames S. Sherman was re-nominated as Taft's running-mate, but died six days prior to the election. Butler was chosen to receive the Republican vice-presidential votes after the election.
^Although Hayes won a majority of votes in the Electoral College, DemocratSamuel J. Tilden won a majority of the popular vote.
^Although Harrison won a majority of votes in the Electoral College, DemocratGrover Cleveland won a plurality of the popular vote.
Winberg, Oscar (2017)."Insult Politics: Donald Trump, Right-Wing Populism, and Incendiary Language".European Journal of American Studies.12 (2):1–16.doi:10.4000/ejas.12132.ISSN1991-9336.Archived from the original on December 31, 2024. RetrievedFebruary 2, 2025. pp. 5–6:With the presidency of George W. Bush, coinciding with the ascendance of the conservative media establishment and ending with the mass protests of the Tea Party, the long tradition of right-wing populism was a firmly institutionalized part of the conservative movement and, by extension, the Republican Party. Trump's rise should be understood as part of the long tradition of right-wing populism and the ultimate triumph of the Tea Party movement; a right-wing populist eruption within the Republican Party fueled by both a conservative media establishment and anti-intellectual and, at times, overtly racial appeals.
Fiorino, Daniel J. (2022)."Climate change and right-wing populism in the United States".Environmental Politics.31 (5):801–819.Bibcode:2022EnvPo..31..801F.doi:10.1080/09644016.2021.2018854.ISSN0964-4016.Archived from the original on June 12, 2024. RetrievedFebruary 2, 2025.In recent years, the Republican Party in the United States has taken on the characteristics of right-wing populism, especially under President Donald Trump. Like most right-wing populist parties, the party under Trump is hostile to climate mitigation. This is reflected in skepticism or rejection of climate science, opposition to multilateral institutions and agreements, aggressive domestic exploitation of fossil fuels, and depiction of climate advocates and experts as 'elites' set on undermining the will of 'the people'.
Cohn, Nate (November 25, 2024)."How Democrats Lost Their Base and their Message".The New York Times.Archived from the original on November 25, 2024. RetrievedNovember 25, 2024.Donald Trump's populist pitch bumped Democrats off their traditional place in American politics.
Burn-Murdoch, John (March 6, 2025)."Why the Maga mindset is different".Financial Times. RetrievedMarch 18, 2025.US decisions can no longer be analyzed using assumptions shared across the democratic west
Aratani, Lauren (February 26, 2021)."Republicans unveil two minimum wage bills in response to Democrats' push".The Guardian. Archived fromthe original on August 14, 2021. RetrievedSeptember 7, 2021.In keeping with the party's deep division between its dominant Trumpist faction and its more traditionalist party elites, the twin responses seem aimed at appealing on one hand to its corporate-friendly allies and on the other hand to its populist rightwing base. Both have an anti-immigrant element.
Lewis, Andrew R. (August 28, 2019)."The Inclusion-Moderation Thesis: The U.S. Republican Party and the Christian Right".Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.665.ISBN978-0-19-022863-7.Considering all the evidence, the most apt description is that conservative Christianity has transformed the Republican Party, and the Republican Party has transformed conservative Christianity ... With its inclusion in the Republican Party, the Christian right has moderated on some aspects ... At the same time, the Christian right has altered Republican politics.
Trollinger, William (October 8, 2019)."Fundamentalism turns 100, a landmark for the Christian Right".The Conversation.ISSN2201-5639.Archived from the original on May 7, 2022. RetrievedJuly 3, 2022.The emergent Christian Right attached itself to the Republican Party, which was more aligned with its members' central commitments than the Democrats ... By the time Falwell died, in 2007, the Christian Right had become the most important constituency in the Republican Party. It played a crucial role in electing Donald Trump in 2016.
Thomson-DeVeaux, Amelia (October 27, 2022)."How Much Power Do Christians Really Have?".FiveThirtyEight.Archived from the original on April 10, 2024. RetrievedJune 16, 2024.In the 1980s and 1990s, as white Christian conservatives forged an alliance with the Republican Party, Christianity itself started to become a partisan symbol. Identifying as a Christian was no longer just about theology, community or family history — to many Americans, the label became uncomfortably tangled with the Christian Right's political agenda, which was itself becoming increasingly hard to separate from the GOP's political agenda.
^abWilbur, Miller (2012). "Libertarianism".The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America. Vol. 3.Thousand Oaks, California:SAGE Publications. pp. 1006–1007.ISBN978-1-4129-8876-6.While right-libertarianism has been equated with libertarianism in general in the United States, left-libertarianism has become a more predominant aspect of politics in western European democracies over the past three decades. ... Since the 1950s, libertarianism in the United States has been associated almost exclusively with right-libertarianism ... As such, right-libertarianism in the United States remains a fruitful discourse with which to articulate conservative claims, even as it lacks political efficacy as a separate ideology. However, even without its own movement, libertarian sensibility informs numerous social movements in the United States, including the U.S. patriot movement, the gun-rights movement, and the incipient Tea Party movement.
Greenberg, David (January 27, 2021)."An Intellectual History of Trumpism".Politico Magazine.Archived from the original on April 11, 2024. RetrievedJune 13, 2024.The larger ideology that the president-elect represents is a post-Iraq War, post-crash, post-Barack Obama update of what used to be called paleoconservatism: On race and immigration, where the alt-right affinities are most pronounced, its populist ideas are carrying an already right-wing party even further right.
Wineinger, Catherine; Nugent, Mary K. (January 2, 2020). "Framing Identity Politics: Right-Wing Women as Strategic Party Actors in the UK and US".Journal of Women, Politics & Policy.41 (1): 5.doi:10.1080/1554477X.2020.1698214.ISSN1554-477X.
Jessosula, Matteo; Natili, Marcello; Pavolini, Emmanuele (August 8, 2022). "'Exclusionary welfarism': a new programmatic agenda for populist right-wing parties?".Contemporary Politics.28 (4):447–449.doi:10.1080/13569775.2021.2011644.ISSN1356-9775.
Cliffe, Jeremy (February 15, 2023)."The strange death of the centre right".The New Statesman.Archived from the original on February 11, 2025. RetrievedFebruary 5, 2025.In Western democracies conventional conservatism is foundering. How did this once-dominant political force become so diminished?
^abcdeKimmage, Michael (February 25, 2025)."The World Trump Wants: American Power in the New Age of Nationalism".Foreign Affairs. RetrievedMarch 18, 2025.In the two decades that followed the Cold War's end, globalism gained ground over nationalism. Simultaneously, the rise of increasingly complex systems and networks—institutional, financial, and technological—overshadowed the role of the individual in politics. But in the early 2010s, a profound shift began. By learning to harness the tools of this century, a cadre of charismatic figures revived the archetypes of the previous one: the strong leader, the great nation, the proud civilization. ... They are self-styled strongmen who place little stock in rules-based systems, alliances, or multinational forums. They embrace the once and future glory of the countries they govern, asserting an almost mystical mandate for their rule.Although their programs can involve radical change, their political strategies rely on strains of conservatism, appealing over the heads of liberal, urban, cosmopolitan elites to constituencies animated by a hunger for tradition and a desire for belonging.
^abcdeJain, Lakshya; Lavelle, Harrison; Thomas, Armin (March 24, 2023)."Where Do Democrats Win White Voters?".Split Ticket. RetrievedDecember 20, 2024.More generally, evangelicalism is heavily correlated with Republican vote share among whites, and so its relative absence in secular and Catholic areas helps explain why these regions tend to have higher-than-expected white Democratic vote shares. Meanwhile, Protestant denominations that affiliate with evangelicalism are much more Republican. Nowhere is this religious and cultural contrast among similarly-educated white voters on greater display than in the South. Southern rural areas have some of the highest levels of religiosity and racial polarization in the nation, and this combination makes them much more Republican than similarly-white areas elsewhere in the country — in fact, Democrats did not win the white vote in a single rural county in the South. But this is not just limited to rural areas; Biden still failed to win the white vote in diverse, Democratic-trending Atlanta metro counties like Gwinnett and Cobb, and the surprisingly more Republican white splits extend to other southern metros, such as Fort Worth and the Charlotte suburbs. This likely has a good deal to do with southern cultural conservatism, which is elevated relative to the nation thanks in part to marked Protestant religiosity, particularly among white Baptists. For this reason, support for abortion is exceptionally high in the Midwest, but extremely low in the South.This regional mix of religiosity and racial polarization results in something quite striking: whites in virtually every southern county are significantly more Republican than their northern counterparts.
^abcdef"Polarisation by education is remaking American politics".The Economist. October 13, 2024.From 1952 to 2000, a majority of white voters with college degrees self-identified as Republicans. Starting with the 2012 election, this affiliation began to weaken. It loosened even more once [Donald] Trump became the Republican standard-bearer in 2016. By 2020, the college-educated called themselves Democrats by a 2:1 margin. And there were many more of them; their share of the electorate rose from 8% in 1952 to 40% in 2020. Had the party held on to the rest of its support, this would have ensured an enduring majority. Yet at the same time, Democrats lost support among whites without college degrees. They now favour Republicans by their own margin of 2:1.
^abcdeGrossmann, Matt; Hopkins, David A."Polarized by Degrees: How the Diploma Divide and the Culture War Transformed American Politics".Cambridge University Press.Archived from the original on February 27, 2024. RetrievedMay 23, 2024.Democrats have become the home of highly-educated citizens with progressive social views who prefer credentialed experts to make policy decisions, while Republicans have become the populist champions of white voters without college degrees who increasingly distrust teachers, scientists, journalists, universities, non-profit organizations, and even corporations.
^abcdCliffe, Jeremy (February 15, 2023)."The strange death of the centre right".The New Statesman.Archived from the original on February 11, 2025. RetrievedFebruary 5, 2025.In Western democracies conventional conservatism is foundering. How did this once-dominant political force become so diminished? ... The picture today is drastically different. In every one of those countries the moderate conservative tendency represented by those leaders has been sidelined in one way or another. It has either been displaced by more hard-line elements within the same party, or by another party farther to the right; or it has started cooperating with the hard-line right; or has been partly or wholly marginalised within the political system. In one notable case (Orbán) it has self-radicalised. In several countries more than one of these things has occurred. ... The traditional centre right of the postwar decades could do so by "bundling" moderate social conservatism (moderate by the standards of its day, at least) with the pro-business economic conservatism favoured by higher earners.But today those two elements are coming apart: richer folk are more likely to have gone to university and be socially liberal, while social conservatism is more associated with poorer groups. That puts centre-right politics in zugzwang: forced to move, but with no good options. It can emphasize its social conservatism and lose pro-business graduates to the centre, or play it down, shore up its support among those voters and lose social conservatives to the radical right.
^abcFleming, Sam; Strauss, Delphine (April 4, 2025)."Trump's aggressive push to roll back globalisation".Financial Times. RetrievedApril 4, 2025.The US president wants to unwind decades of economic integration. The risk of a 1930s-style global trade war is causing markets to panic.
^abcdHelleiner, Eric (January 5, 2021)."The Return of National Self-Sufficiency. Excavating Autarkic Thought in a De-Globalizing Era".International Studies Review.23 (3):933–957.doi:10.1093/isr/viaa092.ISSN1521-9488.PMC7928914.The election of Donald Trump as American president in 2016 encouraged further interest in ideas of national self-sufficiency. ...Trump's worldview was much closer to a neomercantilist one than an autarkist one, but some of his supporters on the far right are more clearly in the latter camp.14 For example, in a 2020 publication from the Claremont Institute, Curtis Yarvin called for the promotion of an "isolationist" policy of "neo-Sakoku". Like some other past autarkists, he argued that a world of autarkic states would be more peaceful because the reasons for conflict would diminish (Yarvin 2020). The Trump administration also indirectly encouraged new interest in greater national self-sufficiency in other countries because of its protectionism and its broader "weaponization" of America's international economic relations (Farrell and Newman 2019).
^abcBurn-Murdoch, John (March 6, 2025)."Why the Maga mindset is different".Financial Times. RetrievedMarch 18, 2025.US decisions can no longer be analyzed using assumptions shared across the democratic west ... But the series of shock decisions ... are less brain-bendingly inexplicable once you realise this: their version of America is operating on an entirely different set of values from the rest of the western world. ... A government seemingly driven by zero-sum ideology and a commitment to reducing international co-operation is one whose threats of a trade war you should probably take seriously despite possible economic self-harm. Likewise, a leadership team that believes geopolitics is a game of cards played by strong men and great powers is one whose support and co- operation other countries should quickly build independence from.
^Lawder, David; Hunnicutt, Trevor (April 5, 2025)."US starts collecting Trump's new 10% tariff, smashing global trade norms".Reuters. RetrievedApril 5, 2025.U.S. customs agents began collecting President Donald Trump's unilateral 10% tariff on all imports from many countries on Saturday, with higher levies on goods from 57 larger trading partners due to start next week.
^abcdSanger, David E. (February 1, 2025)."To Trump, Tariffs Are Not a Means but an End".The New York Times.Archived from the original on February 2, 2025. RetrievedFebruary 1, 2025.Many presidents use tariffs to force negotiations. But for President Trump, they are the point, a source of revenue as he pursues a Gilded Age vision.
^abcHaberman, Maggie; Goldmacher, Shane; Swan, Jonathan (July 8, 2024)."Trump Presses G.O.P. for New Platform That Softens Stance on Abortion".The New York Times.Archived from the original on July 18, 2024. RetrievedJuly 9, 2024.The platform is even more nationalistic, more protectionist and less socially conservative than the 2016 Republican platform that was duplicated in the 2020 election.
^abJimison, Robert (February 19, 2025)."As Trump Turns Toward Russia and Against Ukraine, Republicans Are Mum".The New York Times.Congressional Republicans have mostly tempered their criticism or deferred to the president as he topples what were once their party's core foreign policy principles.
^Zingher, Joshua N. (2018). "Polarization, Demographic Change, and White Flight from the Democratic Party".The Journal of Politics.80 (3):860–872.doi:10.1086/696994.ISSN0022-3816.S2CID158351108.
"The Republican Party has lurched towards populism and illiberalism".The Economist. October 31, 2020.ISSN0013-0613.Archived from the original on June 2, 2024. RetrievedNovember 9, 2024.In the late 20th century the Republican Party already looked a bit less liberal and more populist than most mainstream European parties. But according to the V-Dem Institute's analysis, it only really started to deviate to "illiberalism" when it embraced religious values under Mr Bush after his election in 2000. The party then veered into populism in 2010 with the rise of the Tea Party movement, which vowed to curb what it saw as the unjustifiable expansion of the federal government under Barack Obama. However, the greatest shift, especially towards illiberalism, came with the election of Mr Trump.
Encarnación, Omar G. (June 12, 2023)."Democratic Backsliding: Comparative Reflections on the American Experience".Political Science Quarterly.138 (3):407–424.doi:10.1093/psquar/qqad036.ISSN0032-3195.Archived from the original on November 12, 2024. RetrievedNovember 12, 2024. pp. 410–423:Despite the appearance of being consolidated, the American political system is institutionally vulnerable to backsliding—from an electoral system fraught with so many deficiencies that election experts deem it archaic and undemocratic; to an imperial presidency that sits at the center of federal power and towers over the legislature and the judiciary; to the recent transformation of the Republican Party into an illiberal force more interested in acquiring power than in governing. ... The Republican Party's pivotal role in enabling backsliding in the Trump era mirrors the post-Communist experience. In recent years, the Republican party has fashioned itself after the Fidesz Party in Hungary (Europe's most sobering example of backsliding), from embracing the ideology of Christian Nationalism to using the state to fight culture wars to cynically rejecting the idea of democracy. In connection to the last point, a popular argument among Republican election deniers is that the United States is not a democracy but a republic. As noted by the New York Times, "There is more at stake than the health of the Republican Party when its core activists, as well as a growing number of officials and those campaigning for governmental positions, openly espouse hostility not just to democratic principles, but, increasingly, to the word 'democracy' itself." Indeed, this illiberal behavior puts American democracy in peril.
Main, Thomas J. (January 4, 2022).The Rise of Illiberalism. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. p. 188.ISBN9780815738503.Archived from the original on January 28, 2025. RetrievedNovember 12, 2024.A sharp repudiation at the polls would have checked the vogue for illiberal and identitarian ideologies and driven the Republican party back within the bounds of the liberal democratic political spectrum.
Laruelle, Marlene (March 1, 2022)."Illiberalism: a conceptual introduction".East European Politics.38 (2):303–327.doi:10.1080/21599165.2022.2037079.ISSN2159-9165. pp. 315–316:Classical conservatives—such as the Christian Democrats in Europe or the Republican Party in the US before Donald Trump—are/were fervent supporters of political rights and constitutionalism, while illiberalism challenges them ... The struggle of the European People's Party to win concessions from Orbán's Fidesz or the Polish PiS, as well as the subjugation of the Republican Party by Donald Trump, have revealed how attractive illiberal leaders may be to the more mainstream right. As Marc Plattner has stated, the future of liberal democracy will largely depend on how successful or unsuccessful the classical conservative right is at resisting illiberalism.
Cooley, Alexander; Nexon, Daniel H. (January–February 2022)."The Real Crisis of Global Order: Illiberalism on the Rise".Foreign Affairs. Vol. 101, no. 1. New York City, New York:Council on Foreign Relations.ISSN0015-7120. RetrievedNovember 12, 2024.The election of Donald Trump in 2016 sparked a major debate over the nature and fate of the liberal international order, suddenly caught, it seemed, between the Charybdis of illiberal great-power challengers and the Scylla of a hostile U.S. president. Trump may have lost the presidency in 2020, but the liberal order remains under threat. ... In the United States, one of the two major political parties remains beholden to an authoritarian demagogue. Motivated by the "Big Lie" (the objectively false claim that Democrats stole the election from Trump through systematic voter fraud), the Republican Party is purging officials who stood in the way of efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Republican voter-suppression efforts are accelerating.
Dunwoody, Phillip T.; Gershtenson, Joseph; Plane, Dennis L.; Upchurch-Poole, Territa (August 9, 2022)."The fascist authoritarian model of illiberal democracy".Frontiers in Political Science.4.doi:10.3389/fpos.2022.907681.ISSN2673-3145. p. 12:All the components of the fascist authoritarian model of illiberal democracy were evidenced in the recent 2020 U.S. presidential election. … In classic authoritarian fashion, Trump sought to remain in power by asserting his preferred fiction over more objective realities promoted by those in traditional, truth-based professions. Trump engaged in threat othering to work up his base so that they would support the use of force to "save" their country. The result of these combined mechanisms was the support of blatantly illiberal antidemocratic behavior at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Norris, Pippa (2017)."Online Exchange on "Democratic Deconsolidation"(PDF).Journal of Democracy.12. RetrievedNovember 9, 2024. pp. 14–15–18:The rise of populist authoritarianism in the United States, especially by the risks that President Trump poses to core democratic values, practices and institutions, pose major threats to liberal democracy. ... When the populist style of governance is coupled with authoritarian values, however, this potent combination presents most dangerous risk to the principles and practices at the heart of liberal democracy. Trump falls into this category. ... populist-authoritarian forces threatening to dismantle core values in liberal democracy pose the gravest risk, especially in America, given the vast powers of the U.S. presidency and its hegemonic role in the world. The mainstream news media, the courts, and a reenergized civil society are actively pushing back to resist the threats to democracy arising from the Trump administration. In Congress and State Houses, however, the Democrats are decimated, and the Republican party and conservative activists seem willing to be seduced by dreams of power.
^"The Republican Party has lurched towards populism and illiberalism".The Economist. October 31, 2020.ISSN0013-0613.Archived from the original on June 2, 2024. RetrievedNovember 9, 2024.In the late 20th century the Republican Party already looked a bit less liberal and more populist than most mainstream European parties. But according to the V-Dem Institute's analysis, it only really started to deviate to "illiberalism" when it embraced religious values under Mr Bush after his election in 2000. The party then veered into populism in 2010 with the rise of the Tea Party movement, which vowed to curb what it saw as the unjustifiable expansion of the federal government under Barack Obama. However, the greatest shift, especially towards illiberalism, came with the election of Mr Trump.
^Lührmann, Anna; Medzihorsky, Juraj; Hindle, Garry; Lindberg, Staffan I. (October 2020)."New Global Data on Political Parties: V-Party"(PDF). Briefing Paper #9. V-Dem Institute.Archived(PDF) from the original on November 14, 2024. RetrievedNovember 13, 2024.
^Adams, Ian (2001).Political Ideology Today (reprinted, revised ed.). Manchester: Manchester University Press. pp. 32–33.ISBN978-0719060205.Archived from the original on January 20, 2023. RetrievedFebruary 2, 2023.Ideologically, all US parties are liberal and always have been. Essentially they espouse classical liberalism, that is a form of democratised Whig constitutionalism plus the free market. The point of difference comes with the influence of social liberalism" and the proper role of government... ...the American right has nothing to do with maintaining the traditional social order, as in Europe. What it believes in is... individualism... The American right has tended towards... classical liberalism...
^abcdMaxwell, Rahsaan (March 5, 2019)."Analysis | Why are urban and rural areas so politically divided?".The Washington Post.ISSN0190-8286.Archived from the original on October 30, 2020. RetrievedMay 6, 2024.In general, the core supporters of right-wing populist political parties across Europe are in more rural areas, where they feel left behind by the globalized economy and alienated from the multiculturalism of European capitals.
^McKay, David (2020), Crewe, Ivor; Sanders, David (eds.),"Facilitating Donald Trump: Populism, the Republican Party and Media Manipulation",Authoritarian Populism and Liberal Democracy, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 107–121,doi:10.1007/978-3-030-17997-7_7,ISBN978-3-030-17997-7, retrievedJune 13, 2024,the Republicans changed from being a right of centre coalition of moderates and conservatives to an unambiguously right-wing party that was hostile not only to liberal views but also to any perspective that clashed with the core views of an ideologically cohesive conservative cadre of party faithfuls
^abcDesiderio, Andrew; Sherman, Jake; Bresnahan, John (February 7, 2024)."The end of the Old GOP".Punchbowl News.Archived from the original on February 7, 2024. RetrievedFebruary 8, 2024.The structures and standards that have come to define the GOP have been breaking down since the Tea Party movement began in 2009. They were further eroded when Trump won the White House in 2016. But in recent months, the last holdout of the old Republican Party — the Senate GOP Conference — has all but abandoned many of its generational positions on foreign policy and governance. ... McConnell, perhaps the embodiment of the Republican Party for the last 40 years, is increasingly looking like an anachronism — and not just on policy.
^abCohn, Nate (December 25, 2024)."Trump's Re-election Defines a New Era of American Politics".The New York Times.Archived from the original on December 25, 2024. RetrievedDecember 25, 2024.Instead, it's the three Trump elections — in 2016, 2020 and 2024 — that look as if they have the makings of a new era of politics, one defined by Donald J. Trump's brand of conservative populism. ... Much of the Republican Party's old establishment — like the Cheneys, the Romneys, Paul Ryan — is now without a home.
^Swan, Jonathan; Haberman, Maggie (December 12, 2024)."The Stock Market and TV: Trump's Most Durable Guardrails".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Archived from the original on January 28, 2025. RetrievedJanuary 20, 2025.Mr. Trump is likely to receive only the meekest resistance from his own party, which will control both the House and Senate and whose members fear Trump-backed primary challengers. He has completed his hostile takeover of the Republican Party and the dissenters have been driven into retirement, defeated in primaries or cowed into silence.
^Linkins, Jason (February 23, 2025)."The Incredible Disappearing Republican Lawmaker".The New Republic. RetrievedFebruary 23, 2025.The GOP's total withdrawal from governing is nearly complete, and they're increasingly determined to push the entire legislative branch into functional irrelevance.
^Green, Erica L.; Kanno-Youngs, Zolan; Haberman, Maggie (March 20, 2025)."How Trump Is Trying to Consolidate Power Over Courts, Congress and More".The New York Times. RetrievedMarch 20, 2025.President Trump's expansive interpretation of presidential power has become the defining characteristic of his second term.
^The Christian Science Monitor (November 5, 2020)."Why Trumpism is here to stay".The Christian Science Monitor.Archived from the original on June 12, 2024. RetrievedFebruary 3, 2025.
^Mazzetti, Mark; Kingsley, Patrick (March 21, 2025)."For Trump and Netanyahu, Similar Strategies With Similar Goals".The New York Times. RetrievedMarch 22, 2025.The American and Israeli leaders have been mirroring each other as they go to war with their own governments
^"Saudi Arabia Has Its Own 'Deal of the Century' for Trump".Newsweek. November 24, 2024.The president-elect's "America First" platform resounds heavily with the transformative, increasingly nationalist path on which Riyadh's monarch-in-waiting has embarked.
^abCohen, Patricia (June 18, 2023)."Why It Seems Everything We Knew About the Global Economy Is No Longer True".The New York Times. RetrievedMarch 22, 2025.A lot has happened between then and now: A global pandemic hit; war erupted in Europe; tensions between the United States and China boiled. And inflation, thought to be safely stored away with disco album collections, returned with a vengeance. ... The economic conventions that policymakers had relied on since the Berlin Wall fell more than 30 years ago — the unfailing superiority of open markets, liberalized trade and maximum efficiency — look to be running off the rails. ... The idea that trade and shared economic interests would prevent military conflicts was trampled [in 2022] under the boots of Russian soldiers in Ukraine.
^abcdEnten, Harry (November 29, 2016)."Even Among The Wealthy, Education Predicts Trump Support".FiveThirtyEight.First, it's clear from the exit polls that for white voters, every bit of extra education meant less support for Trump. ... Second, education matters a lot even when separating out income levels. ... Third, Trump saw little difference in his support between income levels within each education group.
^Glueck, Katie (November 18, 2024)."Is This the End of the White Working-Class Democrat?".The New York Times. RetrievedJanuary 13, 2025.Democrats hoped to lose by less in blue-collar areas that had drifted toward Donald Trump. In many places, they may have lost by more.
^Chait, Jonathan (January 13, 2025)."Maybe It Was Never About the Factory Jobs".The Atlantic. RetrievedJanuary 13, 2025.The theory that populist economic policies can win back the working class for Democrats has been tried, and it has failed.
^Karma, Rogé (December 10, 2024)."Why Democrats Got the Politics of Immigration So Wrong for So Long".The Atlantic. RetrievedDecember 10, 2024.The election of Donald Trump this year shattered a long-standing piece of conventional wisdom in American politics: that Latinos will vote overwhelmingly for whichever party has the more liberal approach to immigration, making them a reliable Democratic constituency. ... If that analysis were true, then the nomination of the most virulently anti-immigration presidential candidate in modern history for three straight elections should have devastated the GOP's Latino support. Instead, the opposite happened. Latinos, who make up about a quarter of the electorate, still lean Democratic, but they appear to have shifted toward Republicans by up to 20 points since 2012. ... And polling suggests that Trump's restrictionist views on immigration may have actually helped him win some Latino voters, who, like the electorate overall, gave the Biden administration low marks for its handling of the issue.
^Yam, Kimmy (November 6, 2024)."Asian Americans favored Harris but shifted right by 5 points".NBC News. RetrievedDecember 10, 2024.Fifty-four percent of Asian American voters chose Harris, while 39% voted for Trump, NBC exit polls showed. Experts point to the economy as a main factor.
^abJones, Kent (2021). "Populism, Trade, and Trump's Path to Victory".Populism and Trade: The Challenge to the Global Trading System.Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0190086350.
^abBaker, Paula; Critchlow, Donald T. (2020).The Oxford Handbook of American Political History. Oxford University Press. p. 387.ISBN978-0190628697.Archived from the original on December 15, 2023. RetrievedApril 23, 2021 – via Google Books.Contemporary debate is fueled on one side by immigration restrictionists, led by President Donald Trump and other elected republicans, whose rhetorical and policy assaults on undocumented Latin American immigrants, Muslim refugees, and family-based immigration energized their conservative base.
^Smith, Jordan Michael; Logis, Rich; Logis, Rich; Shephard, Alex; Shephard, Alex; Kipnis, Laura; Kipnis, Laura; Haas, Lidija; Haas, Lidija (October 17, 2022)."The Neocons Are Losing. Why Aren't We Happy?".The New Republic.ISSN0028-6583.Archived from the original on May 5, 2023. RetrievedMay 5, 2023.
^Winberg, Oscar (2017)."Insult Politics: Donald Trump, Right-Wing Populism, and Incendiary Language".European Journal of American Studies.12 (2):1–16.doi:10.4000/ejas.12132.ISSN1991-9336.Archived from the original on December 31, 2024. RetrievedFebruary 2, 2025. pp. 5–6:With the presidency of George W. Bush, coinciding with the ascendance of the conservative media establishment and ending with the mass protests of the Tea Party, the long tradition of right-wing populism was a firmly institutionalized part of the conservative movement and, by extension, the Republican Party. Trump's rise should be understood as part of the long tradition of right-wing populism and the ultimate triumph of the Tea Party movement; a right-wing populist eruption within the Republican Party fueled by both a conservative media establishment and anti-intellectual and, at times, overtly racial appeals.
^abLillis, Mike (February 28, 2024)."GOP strained by Trump-influenced shift from Reagan on Russia".The Hill.Archived from the original on February 28, 2024. RetrievedFebruary 28, 2024.Experts say a variety of factors have led to the GOP's more lenient approach to Moscow, some of which preceded Trump's arrival on the political scene ... Trump's popularity has only encouraged other Republicans to adopt a soft-gloves approach to Russia.
^abJonathan, Chait (February 23, 2024)."Russian Dolls Trump has finally remade Republicans into Putin's playthings".Intelligencer.Archived from the original on February 29, 2024. RetrievedFebruary 28, 2024.But during his time in office and after, Trump managed to create, from the grassroots up, a Republican constituency for Russia-friendly policy ... Conservatives vying to be the Trumpiest of them all have realized that supporting Russia translates in the Republican mind as a proxy for supporting Trump. Hence the politicians most willing to defend his offenses against democratic norms — Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan, Tommy Tuberville, Mike Lee, J. D. Vance — hold the most anti-Ukraine or pro-Russia views. Conversely, the least-Trumpy Republicans, such as Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney, have the most hawkish views on Russia. The rapid growth of Trump's once-unique pro-Russia stance is a gravitational function of his personality cult.
^"Trump is teasing US expansion into Panama, Greenland and Canada".CNN. December 23, 2024.His pitch to seize the Panama Canal – which he described as a "vital national asset" though it's been decades since America controlled it – reflected a similarly nationalist agenda that Trump often describes as "America First."
^"AS REPUBLICANS THIRST FOR WAR WITH MEXICO, DEMOCRATS PUSH TO MAKE THEM VOTE ON IT".The Intercept. August 31, 2023.The response to the war powers resolution from the office of Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. — who has led recent efforts to reduce the U.S. military's foreign entanglements — highlights populist Republicans' growing pains in their emerging anti-war coalition with progressive Democrats.
^Shephard, Alex (August 1, 2023)."The End of "Trumpism Without Trump"".The New Republic. RetrievedSeptember 4, 2024.The former president's primary rivals thought that they could pass themselves off as a better version of the real thing. They thought wrong.
^Rakich, Nathaniel; Marriner, Katie (February 10, 2025)."The GOP is Trump's party now".FiveThirtyEight. RetrievedFebruary 10, 2025.Most Republicans in Congress were elected in the Trump era.
^Cohn, Nate (November 25, 2024)."How Democrats Lost Their Base and their Message".The New York Times.Archived from the original on November 25, 2024. RetrievedNovember 25, 2024.Donald Trump's populist pitch bumped Democrats off their traditional place in American politics.
^"Hard-right parties are now Europe's most popular".The Economist. February 28, 2025. RetrievedMarch 21, 2025.But over the past 15 years hard-right parties have made substantial gains across the region. Drawing on the work of political scientists, our analysis shows that they now make up Europe's most popular family of political parties by vote share, beating out the conservative and social-democratic blocs for the first time in modern European history.
^"Mike Pence Tears into Donald Trump at 2024 Campaign Launch".BBC News. June 7, 2023. RetrievedJune 13, 2023.[Pence] added that Mr. Trump's actions on 6 January should disqualify him from returning to power. 'I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the constitution should never be president of the United States,' he said. 'And anyone who asked someone else to put them over the constitution should never be president of the United States again.'
^"Pence says he won't endorse Trump in 2024 race".The Hill. March 15, 2024.Archived from the original on March 15, 2024. RetrievedMarch 15, 2024.'In each of these cases Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years,' Pence said. 'And that's why I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign.'
^Biskupic, Joan (April 4, 2023).Nine Black Robes: Inside the Supreme Court's Drive to the Right and Its Historic Consequences.ISBN978-0063052789.Today's bench—with its conservative majority—is desperately ideological. The Court has been headed rightward and ensnared by its own intrigues for years, but the Trump appointments hastened the modern transformation.
^Aratani, Lauren (February 26, 2021)."Republicans unveil two minimum wage bills in response to Democrats' push".The Guardian. Archived fromthe original on August 14, 2021. RetrievedFebruary 8, 2024.In keeping with the party's deep division between its dominant Trumpist faction and its more traditionalist party elites, the twin responses seem aimed at appealing on one hand to its corporate-friendly allies and on the other hand to its populist rightwing base. Both have an anti-immigrant element.
^abcdWilliams, Daniel K. (May 9, 2022)."This Really Is a Different Pro-Life Movement".The Atlantic.Archived from the original on May 10, 2022. RetrievedFebruary 2, 2023.This was not merely a geographic shift, trading one region for another, but a more fundamental transformation of the anti-abortion movement's political ideology. In 1973 many of the most vocal opponents of abortion were northern Democrats who believed in an expanded social-welfare state and who wanted to reduce abortion rates through prenatal insurance and federally funded day care. In 2022, most anti-abortion politicians are conservative Republicans who are skeptical of such measures. What happened was a seismic religious and political shift in opposition to abortion that has not occurred in any other Western country.
"A Christian Nation? Understanding the Threat of Christian Nationalism to American Democracy and Culture".Public Religion Research Institute. February 8, 2023.Archived from the original on June 15, 2024. RetrievedJune 16, 2024.Partisanship is closely linked to Christian nationalist views. Most Republicans qualify as either Christian nationalism sympathizers (33%) or adherents (21%), while at least three-quarters of both independents (46% skeptics and 29% rejecters) and Democrats (36% skeptics and 47% rejecters) lean toward rejecting Christian nationalism. Republicans (21%) are about four times as likely as Democrats (5%) or independents (6%) to be adherents of Christian nationalism.
Baker, Joseph O.; Perry, Samuel L.; Whitehead, Andrew L. (August 6, 2020). "Crusading for Moral Authority: Christian Nationalism and Opposition to Science".Sociological Forum.35 (3):587–607.doi:10.1111/socf.12619.hdl:1805/26816.Christian nationalism has become a powerful predictor of supporting conservative policies and political candidates. This is in large part due to the Republican Party platform becoming synonymous with "restoring" the sacred values, moral superiority, unity, pride, and prosperity of America's mythic past.
Whitehead, Andrew L.; Perry, Samuel L.; Baker, Joseph O. (January 25, 2018). "Make America Christian Again: Christian Nationalism and Voting for Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election".Sociology of Religion.79 (2):147–171.doi:10.1093/socrel/srx070.The current study establishes that, independent of these influences, voting for Trump was, at least for many Americans, a symbolic defense of the United States' perceived Christian heritage. Data from a national probability sample of Americans surveyed soon after the 2016 election shows that greater adherence to Christian nationalist ideology was a robust predictor of voting for Trump...
Lauter, David (February 17, 2024)."Will Republicans become a Christian nationalist party? Can they win if they do?".Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California.ISSN0458-3035.Archived from the original on April 5, 2024. RetrievedJune 16, 2024.The strength of Christian nationalist sentiment can be clearly seen in a wide range of issues that Republican elected officials have stressed, including efforts to curtail the rights and visibility of transgender people, but also some less obvious topics, such as immigration.
Whitehead, Andrew L.; Perry, Samuel L. (February 17, 2024)."Is Christian nationalism growing or declining? Both".The Washington Post.ISSN0190-8286.Archived from the original on June 16, 2024. RetrievedJune 16, 2024.According to political scientists Stella Rouse and Shibley Telhami, most Republicans support declaring the United States a Christian nation. And Christian nationalists are running for office at all levels of government, from local school boards to presumptive presidential candidates. Though the numbers of those who claim Christian nationalist beliefs may decline, Christian nationalism's influence in public life only continues to grow.
Perry, Samuel (August 5, 2022)."After Trump, Christian nationalist ideas are going mainstream – despite a history of violence".The Conversation.ISSN2201-5639.Archived from the original on June 1, 2024. RetrievedJune 16, 2024.The presence of Christian nationalist ideas in recent political campaigns is concerning, given its ties to violence and white supremacy. Trump and his advisers helped to mainstream such rhetoric with events like his photo op with a Bible in Lafayette Square in Washington following the violent dispersal of protesters, and making a show of pastors laying hands on him. But that legacy continues beyond his administration.
Cummings, Mike (March 15, 2022)."Yale sociologist Phil Gorski on the threat of white Christian nationalism".Yale News.Archived from the original on June 12, 2024. RetrievedJune 16, 2024.White Christian nationalism is a dangerous threat because it's incredibly well-organized and powerful. There's absolutely nothing like it on the left.
Rouse, Stella; Telhami, Shibley (September 21, 2022)."Most Republicans Support Declaring the United States a Christian Nation".Politico.Archived from the original on September 27, 2022. RetrievedFebruary 22, 2024.Christian nationalism, a belief that the United States was founded as a white, Christian nation and that there is no separation between church and state, is gaining steam on the right. Prominent Republican politicians have made the themes critical to their message to voters in the run up to the 2022 midterm elections.
^Brunn, Stanley D., Gerald R. Webster, and J. Clark Archer. "The Bible Belt in a changing south: Shrinking, relocating, and multiple buckles."Southeastern Geographer 51.4 (2011): 513–549.onlineArchived January 29, 2023, at theWayback Machine
^Stanley D. Solvick, "William Howard Taft and the Payne-Aldrich Tariff."Mississippi Valley Historical Review 50.3 (1963): 424–442onlineArchived March 7, 2021, at theWayback Machine
^Bailey, Michael A.; Goldstein, Weingast (April 1997). "The Institutional Roots of American Trade Policy".World Politics.49 (3):309–38.doi:10.1353/wp.1997.0007.S2CID154711958.
^John H. Barton,Judith L. Goldstein, Timothy E. Josling, and Richard H. Steinberg,The Evolution of the Trade Regime: Politics, Law, and Economics of the GATT and the WTO (2008)
^McClenahan, William (1991). "The Growth of Voluntary Export Restraints and American Foreign Economic Policy, 1956–1969".Business and Economic History.20:180–190.JSTOR23702815.
^Swedberg, Richard (2018). "Folk economics and its role in Trump's presidential campaign: an exploratory study".Theory and Society.47:1–36.doi:10.1007/s11186-018-9308-8.S2CID149378537.
^abGrumbach, Jacob M.; Hacker, Jacob S.; Pierson, Paul (2021), Hertel-Fernandez, Alexander; Hacker, Jacob S.; Thelen, Kathleen; Pierson, Paul (eds.),"The Political Economies of Red States",The American Political Economy: Politics, Markets, and Power, Cambridge University Press, pp. 209–244,ISBN978-1316516362,archived from the original on November 23, 2021, retrievedNovember 10, 2021
^Paul Kiel, Jesse Eisinger (December 11, 2018)."How the IRS Was Gutted".ProPublica.Archived from the original on December 11, 2018. RetrievedDecember 11, 2018.
^abcdDunlap, Riley E.; McCright, Araon M. (August 7, 2010). "A Widening Gap: Republican and Democratic Views on Climate Change".Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development.50 (5):26–35.doi:10.3200/ENVT.50.5.26-35.S2CID154964336.
^Davenport, Coral;Lipton, Eric (June 3, 2017)."How G.O.P. Leaders Came to View Climate Change as Fake Science".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331. RetrievedSeptember 22, 2017.The Republican Party's fast journey from debating how to combat human-caused climate change to arguing that it does not exist is a story of big political money, Democratic hubris in the Obama years and a partisan chasm that grew over nine years like a crack in the Antarctic shelf, favoring extreme positions and uncompromising rhetoric over cooperation and conciliation.
^Dunlap, Riley E.; McCright, Araon M. (August 7, 2010). "A Widening Gap: Republican and Democratic Views on Climate Change".Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development.50 (5):26–35.doi:10.3200/ENVT.50.5.26-35.S2CID154964336.
^Båtstrand, Sondre (2015). "More than Markets: A Comparative Study of Nine Conservative Parties on Climate Change".Politics and Policy.43 (4):538–561.doi:10.1111/polp.12122.ISSN1747-1346.S2CID143331308.The U.S. Republican Party is an anomaly in denying anthropogenic climate change.
^abChait, Jonathan (September 27, 2015)."Why Are Republicans the Only Climate-Science-Denying Party in the World?".New York. RetrievedSeptember 20, 2017.Of all the major conservative parties in the democratic world, the Republican Party stands alone in its denial of the legitimacy of climate science. Indeed, the Republican Party stands alone in its conviction that no national or international response to climate change is needed. To the extent that the party is divided on the issue, the gap separates candidates who openly dismiss climate science as a hoax, and those who, shying away from the political risks of blatant ignorance, instead couch their stance in the alleged impossibility of international action.
^Matthews, Chris (May 12, 2014). "Hardball With Chris Matthews for May 12, 2014".Hardball With Chris Matthews.MSNBC. NBC news.According to a survey by the Center for American Progress' Action Fund, more than 55 percent of congressional Republicans are climate change deniers. And it gets worse from there. They found that 77 percent of Republicans on the House Science Committee say they don't believe it in either. And that number balloons to an astounding 90 percent for all the party's leadership in Congress.
^"Earth Talk: Still in denial about climate change".The Charleston Gazette.Charleston, West Virginia. December 22, 2014. p. 10.... a recent survey by the non-profit Center for American Progress found that some 58 percent of Republicans in the U.S. Congress still "refuse to accept climate change. Meanwhile, still others acknowledge the existence of global warming but cling to the scientifically debunked notion that the cause is natural forces, not greenhouse gas pollution by humans.
^Davenport, Coral;Lipton, Eric (June 3, 2017)."How G.O.P. Leaders Came to View Climate Change as Fake Science".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Archived from the original on September 14, 2017. RetrievedSeptember 22, 2017.The Republican Party's fast journey from debating how to combat human-caused climate change to arguing that it does not exist is a story of big political money, Democratic hubris in the Obama years and a partisan chasm that grew over nine years like a crack in the Antarctic shelf, favoring extreme positions and uncompromising rhetoric over cooperation and conciliation.
^"Trump admin approves new sale of anti-tank weapons to Ukraine". ABC News. RetrievedOctober 1, 2019.The Trump administration first approved the sale of Javelins to Ukraine in December 2017 – a step that former President Barack Obama never took and that Trump allies have pointed to as a sign of Trump's toughness on Russia.
^See "July 3, 2014 – Iraq – Getting In Was Wrong; Getting Out Was Right, U.S. Voters Tell Quinnipiac University National Poll"Quinnipiac University PollArchived April 2, 2016, at theWayback Machine item #51
^Gould, Eric D.; Klor, Esteban F. (2019). "Party hacks and true believers: The effect of party affiliation on political preferences".Journal of Comparative Economics.47 (3):504–524.doi:10.1016/j.jce.2019.03.004.S2CID241140587.
^Leonhardt, David (April 6, 2023)."The Power and Limits of Abortion Politics".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Archived from the original on April 6, 2023. RetrievedApril 7, 2023.After the Supreme Court overturned Roe last June and allowed states to ban abortion, more than a dozen quickly imposed tight restrictions. Today, abortion is largely illegal in most of red America, even though polls suggest many voters in these states support at least some access.
^Siegel, Reva B. "Dead or Alive: Originalism as Popular Constitutionalism in Heller."The Second Amendment on Trial: Critical Essays on District of Columbia v. Heller, edited by Saul Cornell and Nathan Kozuskanich, University of Massachusetts Press, 2013, p. 104.
^Astor, Maggie (September 22, 2022)."For First Time in at Least 25 Years, No Democrat Has Top Grade From N.R.A."The New York Times. Archived fromthe original on September 22, 2022. RetrievedSeptember 11, 2023.The Democratic break from the National Rifle Association is complete: For the first time in at least 25 years, not a single Democrat running for Congress anywhere in the country received an A in the group's candidate ratings, which were once a powerful influence in U.S. elections.
^Jones, Robert P.; Cox, Daniel; Navarro-Rivera, Juhem (February 26, 2014)."A Shifting Landscape"(PDF).Public Religion Research Institute. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on April 17, 2016. RetrievedDecember 27, 2016.
^Cohn, Nate (August 10, 2023)."It's Not Reagan's Party Anymore".The New York Times.Archived from the original on December 2, 2023. RetrievedAugust 23, 2023.It's not Mr. Reagan's party anymore. Today, a majority of Republicans oppose many of the positions that defined the party as recently as a decade ago, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll released last week. Only around one-third of Republican voters... [oppose]... same-sex marriage...
^abcSuss, Joel; Xiao, Eva; Burn-Murdoch, John; Murray, Clara; Vincent, Jonathan (November 9, 2024)."Poorer voters flocked to Trump — and other data points from the election".Financial Times. RetrievedNovember 12, 2024.In contrast to 2020, the majority of lower-income households or those earning less than $50,000 a year voted for Trump this election. Conversely, those making more than $100,000 voted for Harris, according to exit polls.
^Levitz, Eric (October 19, 2022)."How the Diploma Divide Is Remaking American Politics".New York.Archived from the original on October 20, 2022. RetrievedOctober 21, 2022.Blue America is an increasingly wealthy and well-educated place. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, Americans without college degrees were more likely than university graduates to vote Democratic. But that gap began narrowing in the late 1960s before finally flipping in 2004... A more educated Democratic coalition is, naturally, a more affluent one... In every presidential election from 1948 to 2012, white voters in the top 5 percent of America's income distribution were more Republican than those in the bottom 95 percent. Now, the opposite is true: Among America's white majority, the rich voted to the left of the middle class and the poor in 2016 and 2020, while the poor voted to the right of the middle class and the rich.
^Oliver Perry Temple,East Tennessee and the Civil War (Cincinnati: R. Clarke, 1972), pp. 15–17, 547, 556–8.
^"The long goodbye".The Economist. November 11, 2010. RetrievedFebruary 20, 2023.In 1981 Republicans took control of the Senate for the first time since 1953, but most Southern elected officials remained white Democrats. When Republicans took control of the House in 1995, white Democrats still comprised one-third of the South's tally. ... white Southern Democrats have met their Appomattox: they will account for just 24 of the South's 155 senators and congressmen in the 112th United States Congress.
^Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt. Knopf. 1997.ISBN978-0-679-44638-5.Revealing a surprising paradox at the heart of America's "Bible Belt," Christine Leigh Heyrman examines how the conservative religious traditions so strongly associated with the South evolved out of an evangelical Protestantism that began with very different social and political attitudes. Although the American Revolution swept away the institutional structures of the Anglican Church in the South, the itinerant evangelical preachers who subsequently flooded the region at first encountered resistance from southern whites, who were affronted by their opposition to slaveholding and traditional ideals of masculinity, their lack of respect for generational hierarchy, their encouragement of women's public involvement in church affairs, and their allowance for spiritual intimacy with blacks. As Heyrman shows, these evangelicals achieved dominance in the region over the course of a century by deliberately changing their own "traditional values" and assimilating the conventional southern understandings of family relationships, masculine prerogatives, classic patriotism, and martial honor. In so doing, religious groups earlier associated with nonviolence and antislavery activity came to the defense of slavery and secession and the holy cause of upholding both by force of arms--and adopted the values we now associate with the "Bible Belt."
^"Unmarried Women in the 2004 Presidential Election"Archived January 1, 2016, at theWayback Machine (PDF). Report by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, January 2005. p. 3: "The marriage gap is one of the most important cleavages in electoral politics. Unmarried women voted for Kerry by a 25-point margin (62 to 37 percent), while married women voted for President Bush by an 11-point margin (55 percent to 44 percent). Indeed, the 25-point margin Kerry posted among unmarried women represented one of the high water marks for the Senator among all demographic groups."
^Miller, Gary; Schofield, Norman (2008). "The Transformation of the Republican and Democratic Party Coalitions in the U.S.".Perspectives on Politics.6 (3):433–450.doi:10.1017/S1537592708081218.ISSN1541-0986.S2CID145321253.1964 was the last presidential election in which the Democrats earned more than 50 percent of the white vote in the United States.
^In the South, they were often not allowed to vote, but still received some Federal patronage appointments from the Republicans
^Teixeira, Ruy (November 6, 2022)."Democrats' Long Goodbye to the Working Class".The Atlantic.Archived from the original on January 7, 2023. RetrievedNovember 8, 2022.As we move into the endgame of the 2022 election, the Democrats face a familiar problem. America's historical party of the working class keeps losing working-class support. And not just among White voters. Not only has the emerging Democratic majority I once predicted failed to materialize, but many of the non-White voters who were supposed to deliver it are instead voting for Republicans... From 2012 to 2020, the Democrats not only saw their support among White working-class voters — those without college degrees — crater, they also saw their advantage among non-White working-class voters fall by 18 points. And between 2016 and 2020 alone, the Democratic advantage among Hispanic voters declined by 16 points, overwhelmingly driven by the defection of working-class voters. In contrast, Democrats' advantage among White college-educated voters improved by 16 points from 2012 to 2020, an edge that delivered Joe Biden the White House.
^Cohn, Nate (July 13, 2022)."Poll Shows Tight Race for Control of Congress as Class Divide Widens".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Archived from the original on July 20, 2022. RetrievedAugust 27, 2022.But the cofluence of economic problems and resurgent cultural issues has helped turn the emerging class divide in the Democratic coalition into a chasm, as Republicans appear to be making new inroads among non-White and working class voters... For the first time in a Times/Siena national survey, Democrats had a larger share of support among White college graduates than among non-White voters – a striking indication of the shifting balance of political energy...
^Kraushaar, Josh (July 14, 2022)."The Great American Realignment".Axios.Archived from the original on July 20, 2022. RetrievedAugust 2, 2022.Shifts in the demographics of the two parties' supporters — taking place before our eyes — are arguably the biggest political story of our time. Republicans are becoming more working class and a little more multiracial. Democrats are becoming more elite and a little more White...
^Kraushaar, Josh (July 13, 2022)."The Democratic electorate's seismic shift".Axios.Archived from the original on July 20, 2022. RetrievedAugust 2, 2022.Democrats are becoming the party of upscale voters concerned more about issues like gun control and abortion rights. Republicans are quietly building a multiracial coalition of working-class voters, with inflation as an accelerant... In the Times/Siena poll, Ds hold a 20-point advantage over Rs among White college-educated voters — but are statistically tied among Hispanics.
^To some extent theUnited States Supreme Court decisionRoe v. Wade (1973) caused American Christians to blur their historical division along the line between Catholics and Protestants and instead to realign as conservatives or liberals, irrespective of theReformation Era distinction.
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