Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. Founded in 1828, it is the world's oldest active political party. Its main rival since the 1850s has been the Republican Party, and together they have dominated American politics.
The Democratic Party emerged in 1828 from the remnants of the Democratic-Republican Party. Senator Martin Van Buren played a central role in building the coalition of state organizations that formed the new party as a vehicle to help elect Andrew Jackson as president that year. Initially, it supported Jacksonian democracy, agrarianism, and geographical expansionism while opposing a national bank and high tariffs. Democrats won six of the eight presidential elections from 1828 to 1856, losing twice to the Whigs. In 1860, the party split into Northern and Southern factions over slavery. After the American Civil War, the Southern states became solidly Democratic in opposition to Republican Reconstruction policies. The party remained dominated by agrarian interests, contrasting with Republican support for the big business of the Gilded Age. Democratic candidates won the presidency only twice between 1860 and 1908, although they won the popular vote two more times during that period. During the Progressive Era, some factions of the party supported progressive reforms, with Woodrow Wilson being elected president in 1912 and 1916.
In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president after campaigning on a strong response to the Great Depression. His New Deal programs created a broad Democratic coalition that united White southerners, Northern workers, labor unions, African Americans, and Catholic and Jewish communities, along with progressives and liberals. From the late 1930s, a conservative minority in the party's Southern wing allied with Republicans to slow and halt further progressive domestic reforms. After the civil rights movement and the Great Society era of progressive legislation under Lyndon B. Johnson, who often managed to overcome the conservative coalition in the 1960s, many White southerners transitioned to the Republican Party as the Northeastern states became more reliably Democratic. The party's labor union element has diminished since the 1970s amid deindustrialization, and during the 1980s, it lost many White working-class voters to the Republicans under Ronald Reagan. The election of Bill Clinton in 1992 marked a shift for the party toward centrism and the Third Way, adjusting its economic stance toward market-based policies. Barack Obama oversaw the party's passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.
In the 21st century, the Democratic Party's strongest demographics include urban voters, college graduates (especially those with graduate degrees), African Americans, women, younger voters, irreligious voters, the unmarried, and LGBTQ individuals. On social issues, it advocates for abortion rights, LGBT rights, action on climate change, and the legalization of marijuana. On economic issues, the party favors healthcare reform, paid sick leave, and support for unions. In foreign policy, the party endorses liberal internationalism alongside a tough stance against China and Russia.
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