Jordan Meadows
Staff Writer
As the 19th century progressed, internal conflicts within the Democratic-Republican party led to the formation of the Democratic Party under Andrew Jackson and the Whig Party among his opponents. The 1850s saw new parties like the Free-Soil Party arise amid sectional tensions over slavery, with the Republican Party emerging from discontented Whigs and anti-slavery factions, achieving its first presidential victory in 1860.
After the Civil War, the Republican Party increasingly focused on economic growth, industry, and big business in the Northern states. Many wealthy politicians of the time saw little value in supporting the rights of Black Americans in a predominantly White nation. By the 1870s, a significant faction within the Republican Party believed they had done enough for Black citizens and ceased efforts to reform the Southern states.
New southern state legislatures enacted restrictive “Black Codes” to regulate the labor and behavior of formerly enslaved people and other Blacks. This sparked outrage in the North, diminishing support for Reconstruction and paving the way for the more radical faction of the Republican Party to gain influence. Newly enfranchised Black individuals gained a political voice for the first time in American history, securing seats in southern state legislatures and even in the U.S. Congress.
During this period, the Republican Party in the South was largely a coalition of Black voters. In early 1866, Congress passed Civil Rights Bills, which established that all persons born in the United States were national citizens entitled to legal equality. Despite Republican President Andrew Johnson’s veto of these bills, the Civil Rights Act became the first significant legislation to pass over a presidential veto.
Despite these gains, racism remained a powerful force in both the South and the North, and as the decade progressed, the Republican Party became more conservative and less committed to egalitarian ideals. By 1874, following an economic depression that left much of the South in poverty, the Democratic Party regained control of the House of Representatives for the first time since the Civil War.
The widespread suffering in cities starting in 1893 exposed the breakdown of social services and highlighted the inefficiency of municipal governments to an increasing number of urban middle-class Americans. This began the Progressive movement; a turn-of-the-century political initiative focused on promoting social and political reform, combating political corruption from machines, and reducing the influence of large corporations.
Initially, the movement centered on domestic issues. Progressives aimed to create a more transparent and accountable government that would work to enhance American society. Progressive Republican Teddy Roosevelt and Democrat Woodrow Wilson sought to improve American society and make big businesses more accountable through various regulations.
With Congress firmly in the hands of conservative Republicans by 1906, Teddy Roosevelt had become the leading voice of national progressivism and its most effective promoter. National progressivism was at its peak, with a faction of Republican progressives, known as “insurgents,” sitting in both houses of Congress. These insurgents, reflecting the views of many Americans, pushed for reforms like tariff reductions, an income tax, the direct election of senators, and stricter regulations on railroads and corporations.
A few years earlier, Booker T. Washington published his autobiography “Up From Slavery,” while Rep. George H. White (R-N.C.) left office, resulting in nearly three decades without a Black member in the House of Representatives; of about 2,000 Black officeholders during this time, only fifteen were Democrats.
The Niagara Movement, a civil rights organization of mostly African American lawyers, was founded in 1905, with W.E.B. Du Bois delivering a powerful critique of the Republican Party in their “Address to the Country,” accusing it of misleading Black voters. Tensions between African Americans and the GOP grew as groups like the Ku Klux Klan suppressed Black political engagement. Events such as the East St. Louis massacre of 1917 and the Red Summer of 1919 intensified these frustrations. By the 1920 presidential election, Du Bois penned an op-ed in the Nation, predicting that Black voters would increasingly abandon the Republican Party.
Many Republicans thrived during the prosperous 1920s until the stock market crash of 1929 triggered the Great Depression. In the aftermath of the economic crisis, many Americans blamed Republican President Herbert Hoover for the downturn, which contributed to the election of Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932.
To revitalize the economy, Roosevelt launched the New Deal, a series of progressive government-funded social programs designed to provide social security, enhance infrastructure, and establish a minimum wage. Over the following decades, Roosevelt’s Democrats adopted many principles of modern American liberalism, while the Republican Party leaned more toward conservatism.
This shift alienated many conservative Southern Democrats, who had opposed Roosevelt’s liberal policies, leading them to align with the Republican Party. Roosevelt’s initiatives profoundly transformed the Democratic Party’s platform, bringing it closer to modern liberal ideals.
In 1948, the Democratic National Convention debated changes to its platform regarding civil rights. The initial draft was pro-civil rights but lacked specific details. Some Southern delegates pushed to remove even this vague support and reaffirm the party’s commitment to “states’ rights.” These proposals were quickly rejected.
Liberals advocated for stronger civil rights language, and after an impassioned speech from Minneapolis Mayor Hubert Humphrey, the platform was ultimately strengthened, resulting in a walkout by several Southern White delegates. President Truman’s efforts attracted support from many Black voters who had historically supported the Republican Party due to its anti-slavery legacy in the 19th century.
In the 1950s and 1960s, race and equality moved back to the forefront of American politics, though it was largely viewed as a regional issue rather than strictly partisan. Both conservative Southern Democrats and Republicans resisted the early Civil Rights Movement, while liberal Northern Democrats began to support civil rights legislation as the movement gained momentum.
The civil rights movement led Republican politicians to develop strategies that attracted many White conservative voters who had historically supported the Democratic Party. This approach became known as the Southern Strategy. Many anti-civil rights Democrats left the party, including Senator Strom Thurmond, the Dixiecrats’ presidential candidate in 1948, who switched to the Republican Party.
In 1964, Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act into law. In contrast, Republican candidate Barry Goldwater publicly opposed the legislation during the 1964 election, arguing that it unnecessarily expanded federal power. This opposition marked a significant turning point in party makeup.
Doubling down after the passing of the Civil Rights Act by a Democratic administration, Richard Nixon employed a “Southern Strategy” to secure the presidency in subsequent years. This strategy focused on attracting Southern White voters by appealing to racial fears and neglecting Black voters. It emphasized “states’ rights” and “law and order.” The notion of states’ rights reassured Southern voters that Republicans would not advocate for Black interests, such as civil rights and integration. The commitment to law and order promised that local law enforcement would maintain control over any perceived Black dissent.
Over time, it became evident that conservatives were increasingly linked to the Republican Party. Through the 1960s and 1970s, Democrats pushed for reforms on issues like abortion and school prayer, which led many White Southern Democrats to become increasingly discontented with the party’s direction. Since 1972, Democratic candidates have consistently garnered at least 80 percent of the Black vote, while Republican candidates have secured a majority of the White vote.
By the 1980s, a significant number of conservative White Southerners had shifted their support to the Republican Party, resulting in a predominantly Republican South. Ronald Reagan notably utilized Nixon’s southern strategy in 1980 when he began his campaign. Today, the Republican Party is firmly conservative, while the Democratic Party is recognized as the liberal alternative.
The economic policies and views on income redistribution of the two parties have remained fairly consistent since the Progressive era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although liberal Republicans have largely faded from the scene and the number of conservative Democrats has decreased, the Republican Party has consistently leaned right on economic issues since 1896.
One notable difference in economic policy over the years has been trade; Republicans have typically favored tariffs, whereas Democrats have supported free trade. Franklin Roosevelt lowered tariffs during his presidency, but by 1993, when Bill Clinton advocated for the North American Free Trade Agreement, Democrats faced opposition from organized labor.
After the 1880s, the Democrats were largely content with their control over the South and the political machines in large cities like New York, leading to a period where national politics played a lesser role. Since the New Deal, however, federal policies and funding have become critical enough for both parties to actively contest national elections. Today, political discourse is heavily influenced by national media and polling, whereas a century ago, voter engagement was primarily local.
The political realignment of the twentieth century is not simply a case of voters staying put while parties shift; the Republicans have consistently represented pro-business conservative values since the era of William McKinley.
The coalitions within both parties have evolved, with Black voters largely transitioning from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party, while Southern and rural Whites have moved in the opposite direction. A closer look at state-level dynamics reveals that while this realignment has occurred, local circumstances complicate the picture.
In the wake of suburbanization, both affluent and low-income inner-city voters have become a more cohesive Democratic bloc than they were during the traditional era of urban machine politics.
One challenge in grasping these shifts through time is the tension that arises from the fact that voters in wealthier areas can be more liberal, especially regarding social issues, compared to their counterparts in less affluent regions. Politics has become more national and voting blocs find cohesion among contemporaries, and more recent political divisions have been generally stable with minor shifts.
After the September 11 attacks, neoconservatism emerged as a leading force within the Republican party, with many conservatives backing the Bush Doctrine, a foreign policy approach that promoted military engagement abroad as part of the war on terror. The early 21st century saw a resurgence of various social issues in political discourse. Democrats increasingly championed LGBT rights, including same-sex marriage, while Republicans largely opposed these advancements.
The 2010s were characterized by growing polarization and populism among both candidates and voters. The Tea Party movement arose in the Republican party as a libertarian and right-wing populist response to Barack Obama’s election in 2008, advocating for smaller government, lower taxes, and reduced spending.
This wave of populism set the stage for Donald Trump’s election in 2016, focusing on protectionist economic policies and cultural issues tied to immigration and identity politics. This faction of the Republican Party challenged democratic norms but also normalized political conspiracy theories.
At the same time, left-wing progressivism gained momentum within the Democratic Party, beginning with the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011 up to pro-Palestinian encampments on college campsues in 2024. Ideologies similar to those in Europe, such as social democracy, gained popularity in the Democratic party, emphasizing diversity, advocating for government-funded healthcare, and promoting civil rights.
States where the proportion of non-college-educated white adults has fallen below a majority have gradually shifted toward the Democratic Party, whereas states where these voters still make up a large part of the electorate have increasingly leaned Republican.
In the 16 states, along with D.C., where non-college whites now constitute less than 40 percent of the adult population, the Democratic share of the presidential vote consistently surpassed 55 percent in every election from 2008 to 2020. There is also an increasing gap between women and men in voting behavior; women are significantly more likely to vote and to support Democrats, while men of all ages are increasingly leaning toward the Republican Party.