Boll weevil (named forthe type of beetle which feeds on cotton buds) was an American political term used in the mid-to-late 20th century to describeconservative Democrats, particularlySouthern Democrats.
During and after the administration ofFranklin D. Roosevelt, conservative SouthernDemocrats were part of the coalition generally in support of the economic policies of Democraticpresidents Roosevelt andHarry S. Truman, dubbed theNew Deal andFair Deal respectively, but were opposed todesegregation and thecivil rights movement.
On several occasions between 1948 and 1968, prominent conservative Southern Democrats broke from the Democrats to run athird party campaign for president on a platform ofstates' rights:Strom Thurmond in1948,Harry F. Byrd in1960, andGeorge Wallace in1968. In the1964 presidential election, five states in theDeep South (then a Democratic stronghold) voted forRepublican challengerBarry Goldwater over Southern DemocratLyndon B. Johnson, partly due to Johnson's support of theCivil Rights Act of 1964 and Goldwater's opposition to it.
After 1968, with desegregation a settled issue, the Republican Party began a strategy of trying to win conservative Southerners from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party (seeSouthern strategy andsilent majority).
RepresentativeHoward W. Smith ofVirginia took up theboll weevil as a symbol in the 1950s, duringDwight D. Eisenhower's administration,[1] but the term did not gain currency until the 1980s, when it was revived by RepresentativeCharles W. Stenholm ofTexas. The group adopted the name of the boll weevil, a pest destructive to cotton crops, because of the difficulty of eradicating the weevil and the pest's range in theSouthern United States.[2]
Nonetheless, a bloc of conservative Democrats, mostly Southerners, remained in theUnited States Congress throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These included Democratic House members as conservative asGeorgia'sLarry McDonald, who was also a leader in theJohn Birch Society. A caucus chaired byCharlie Stenholm was formed in 1981, until being succeeded by theBlue Dog Coalition.[3][4]
During the administration ofRonald Reagan, the term "boll weevils" was applied to this bloc of conservative Democrats, who consistently voted for Reagan administration policies, such as tax cuts, increases in military spending, andderegulation.[2][5] The boll weevils were contrasted with the "gypsy moth Republicans"—moderate Republicans from theNortheast andMidwest who opposed many ofReagan's economic policies.[2]
Most of the Democratic boll weevils eventually retired from politics, or in the case of some, such as SenatorsPhil Gramm of Texas andRichard Shelby ofAlabama, switched parties and joined the Republicans.[6] Since 1988, the term "boll weevils" has fallen out of favor.
A bloc of conservative Democrats in the House, including some younger or newer members as well as the remaining boll weevils who refused to bow to pressure to switch parties, organized themselves as the"Blue Dogs" in the early 1990s.[2] A different bloc of Democrats also emerged in the 1990s, under theDemocratic Leadership Council (DLC), espousing pro-business views on economic issues and moderate views on social issues.
