Republican Party (United States)

1850s to 1930s in Ripon, Wisconsin In 1854, the Republican Party began as an antislavery party to combat the expansion of slavery into western territories after the passing of the Kansas–Nebraska Act by the Democrats under Stephan Douglas. The party was formed in the Northern and Border states, but not the South. It rapidly gained support in the North, drawing in former Whigs and Free Soil Democrats. Under the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln it led the successful war effort against the Confederacy. By 1865 it encompassed northern Protestants, factory workers, professionals, businessmen, prosperous farmers, and also black former slaves. It also included a minority of white Southerners who had opposed the Confederacy—men ridiculed by Democrats as "Scalawags". The great majority of white southerners were Democrats, as were the great majority of Irish Catholics and German Catholics. While both parties adopted pro-business policies in the 19th century, the early GOP was distinguished by its support for the national banking system, the gold standard, railroads, and high tariffs. The Republican Party largely dominated the national political scene until 1932. However it split in 1912, as former president Theodore Roosevelt formed the liberal Progressive Party to oppose the conservatives under William Howard Taft. The split allowed Democrats under Woodrow Wilson to win in 1912. The GOP lost its congressional majorities during the Great Depression (1929–1940). Under Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S Truman, the Democrats formed a winning New Deal coalition that was dominant from 1932 through 1952. Shift rightward After the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Southern 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. Following the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, the Republican Party opposed abortion in its party platform and grew its support among evangelicals. The Republican Party won five of the six presidential elections from 1968 to 1988. Two-term President Ronald Reagan, who held office from 1981 to 1989, was a transformative party leader. His conservative policies called for reduced social government spending and regulation, increased military spending, lower taxes, and a strong anti-Soviet foreign policy. Reagan's influence upon the party persisted into the 21st century. Since the 1990s, the party's support has chiefly come from the South, the Great Plains, the Mountain States, and rural areas in the North. Trump era , the 45th (2017–2021) and 47th (since 2025) president In the 2016 presidential election, Republican nominee Donald Trump defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The result was unexpected; polls leading up to the election showed Clinton leading the race. Trump's victory was fueled by narrow victories in three states—Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—that had been part of the Democratic blue wall for decades. It was attributed to strong support amongst working-class white voters, who felt dismissed and disrespected by the political establishment. Trump became popular with them by abandoning Republican establishment orthodoxy in favor of a broader nationalist message. After the 2016 elections, Republicans maintained their majority in the Senate, the House, and governorships, 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. The Party also held 33 governorships, the most it had held since 1922. The party had total control of government in 25 states, the most since 1952. The opposing Democratic Party held full control of only five states in 2017. In the 2018 elections, Republicans lost control of the House, but strengthened their hold on the Senate. Over the course of his presidency, Trump appointed three justices to the Supreme Court. Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden but refused to concede the race, claiming widespread electoral fraud and attempting to overturn the results. On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol was attacked by Trump supporters following a rally at which Trump spoke. After the attack, the House impeached Trump for a second time on the charge of incitement of insurrection, making him the only federal officeholder to be impeached twice; however, he was not removed from office. The Senate acquitted him in February 2021, after he had already left office. Following the 2020 election, election denial became increasingly mainstream in the party, with the majority of Republican candidates in 2022 being election deniers. The party also made efforts to restrict voting based on false claims of fraud. By the early 2020s, the Republican Party had largely shifted towards illiberalism, with research conducted by the V-Dem Institute concluding that it was more similar to Europe's most right-wing parties such as Law and Justice in Poland or Fidesz in Hungary. Trump easily won the nomination to be the party's candidate again in 2024, marking the third straight election of him being the GOP nominee. Trump achieved victory against Vice President Kamala Harris. He won both the electoral college and a plurality of the popular vote, becoming the first Republican to do so since George W. Bush in 2004, and improving his vote share among working class voters, particularly among young men, those without college degrees, and Hispanic voters. the most recent being current president Donald Trump, who became the 47th president on January 20, 2025. Trump also served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021. During Trump's second term, the GOP has been partially divided on a number of key policies, including tariffs and support for Ukraine against Russia. == Name and symbols ==

The Republican Party's founding members chose its name as homage to the values of republicanism promoted by the Democratic-Republican Party, which its founder, Thomas Jefferson, called the "Republican Party". 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". The name was selected as it "connected voters with the original political organization of Thomas Jefferson in the 1790s, the Democratic-Republican Party". "Republican" has a variety of meanings around the world, and the Republican Party has evolved such that the meanings no longer always align. 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 the Congressional 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 the Cincinnati Commercial, the term was modified to "grand old party". The first use of the abbreviation is dated 1884. The traditional mascot of the party is the elephant. A political cartoon by Thomas Nast, published in ''Harper's Weekly'' on November 7, 1874, is considered the first important use of the symbol. In Kentucky, the log cabin is a symbol of the Republican Party. Traditionally the party had no consistent color identity. After the 2000 presidential election, the color red became politically 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 nominee Al Gore were colored blue. Due to the weeks-long dispute 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. Contrarily, the color red tends to represent left-leaning socialist, communist, and labor political movements in many nations, while blue is linked with conservatism. File:NastRepublicanElephant.jpg|An 1874 cartoon by Thomas Nast, featuring the first notable appearance of the Republican elephant File:Republicanlogo.svg|The red, white, and blue elephant as seen on the GOP website in 2011 File:GOP logo (2004–2015).svg|The GOP banner logo, File:GOP logo.svg|A GOP banner logo, == Factions ==

Civil War and Reconstruction era , considered a leader of the Radical Republicans, was a fierce opponent of slavery and discrimination against African Americans. The Radical Republicans were a major factor in the party from its inception in 1854 until the end of the Reconstruction Era in 1877. Like the moderate Republicans the radicals strongly opposed the expansion of slavery. Unlike the moderates they were hard-line abolitionists calling for the end of slavery in the South. By 1865 Both factions advocated equal rights for the freedmen. Radicals were heavily influenced by religious ideals and evangelical Christianity. 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 the Confederates and not going far enough to help former slaves. After the war's end and Lincoln's assassination, the Radicals clashed with Andrew Johnson over Reconstruction policy. Radicals led efforts to establish civil rights for former slaves and fully implement emancipation, pushing the Fourteenth Amendment for statutory protections through Congress. They opposed allowing ex-Confederate officers to retake political power in the Southern U.S., and emphasized liberty, equality, and the Fifteenth Amendment which provided voting rights for the freedmen. Many later became Stalwarts, who supported machine politics. Moderate Republicans were known for their loyal support of President Abraham 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 the American 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 the 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. 20th century speaks in support of Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater during the 1964 presidential campaign. The 20th century saw the Republican party split into an Old Right and a moderate-liberal faction in the Northeast that eventually became known as Rockefeller Republicans. Opposition to Roosevelt's New Deal saw the formation of the conservative coalition. The 1950s saw fusionism of traditionalist and social conservatism and right-libertarianism, along with the rise of the First New Right to be followed in 1964 with a more populist Second New Right. The rise of the Reagan coalition in the 1980s began what has been called the Reagan era. Reagan's rise displaced the liberal-moderate faction of the GOP and established Reagan-style conservatism as the prevailing ideological faction of the Party for the next thirty years, until the rise of the right-wing populist faction. Reagan conservatives generally supported policies that favored limited government, individualism, traditionalism, republicanism, and limited federal governmental power in relation to the states. 21st century Republicans began the 21st century with the election of George W. Bush in the 2000 United States presidential election and saw the peak of a neoconservative faction that held significant influence over the initial American response to the September 11 attacks through the war on terror. The election of Barack Obama saw the formation of the Tea Party movement in 2009 that coincided with a global rise in right-wing populist movements from the 2010s to 2020s. The global rise in right-wing populism has been attributed to factors including economic insecurity due to financialization, a decline in organized religion, backlash to globalization, and migrant crises. 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 outsized role of conservative media, in particular Fox 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. 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. The Party has since faced intense factionalism. These factions are particularly apparent in the U.S. House of Representatives, where three Republican House leaders (Eric Cantor, John Boehner, and Kevin McCarthy) have been ousted since 2009. 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's establishment conservative faction has lost all of its influence. Many conservatives critical of the Trumpist faction have also lost influence within the party, with no former Republican presidential or vice presidential nominees attending the 2024 Republican National Convention. The victory of Trump in the 2024 presidential election saw the party increasingly shift towards Trumpism, and a victory of right-wing populism over the old conservative establishment. During Trump's second presidency, Republican members of Congress were described by political commentators and news media as largely submissive to Trump, letting him dictate policies without pushback. Right-wing populists and Trumpists , Donald Trump's vice president during Trump's second term. Initially critical of Trump, he became a staunch advocate of Trumpism later in Trump's first term and has been described as a right-wing populist. Right-wing populism is the dominant political faction of the GOP. Sometimes referred to as the MAGA or "America First" movement, Republican populists have been described as consisting of a range of right-wing ideologies including but not limited to right-wing populism, national conservatism, neo-nationalism, mercantilism, The Republican Party's right-wing populist movements emerged in concurrence with a global increase in populist movements in the 2010s and 2020s, coupled with entrenchment and increased partisanship within the party since 2010. This included the rise of the Tea Party movement, which has also been described as far-right. This faction gained further dominance in the GOP during Joe Biden's presidency (2021–2025), including in the aftermath of the 2021–2023 inflation surge and Russian invasion of Ukraine. Businessman Elon Musk, the wealthiest individual in the world, is a notable proponent of right-wing populism. Since acquiring Twitter in 2022, Musk has shared far-right misinformation and numerous conspiracy theories, and his views are described as right-wing to far-right. However, Musk has also been described as in conflict with the populist wing of the party on some issues, particularly legal immigration, government spending, free trade, judicial reforms, and relations with China. 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. Until 2016, white voters with college degrees were a Republican-leaning group, but have since become a Democratic-leaning group. In the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden became the first Democratic president to win a majority of white voters with college degrees (51–48%) since 1964, while Trump won white voters without college degrees 67–32%. 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. Right-wing populism has appeal to Hispanic and Asian voters, but has little appeal to African American voters. According to historian Gary Gerstle, Trumpism gained support in opposition to neoliberalism, immigration, globalization, Compared to other Republicans, the populist faction is more likely to oppose legal immigration, free trade, neoconservatism, and environmental protection laws. It has been described as featuring anti-intellectualism and overtly racial appeals. In international relations, populists typically support American aid to Israel but not to Ukraine, though since 2025, a growing element is critical of aid to Israel as well. They are generally supportive of improving relations with Russia, and favor an isolationist "America First" foreign policy agenda. and are willing to oust fellow Republican office holders they deem to be too moderate. According to sociologist Joe 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. Julia Azari, an associate professor of political science at Marquette University, noted that not all populist Republicans are public supporters of Donald Trump, and that some Republicans such as Glenn Youngkin, a former Governor of Virginia, endorse Trump policies while distancing themselves from Trump as a person. The continued dominance of Trump within the GOP has limited the success of this strategy. In 2024, Trump led a takeover of the Republican National Committee. A FiveThirtyEight 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 offices, 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. Conservatives by state as of 2018, according to a Gallup poll: Ronald Reagan's presidential election in 1980 established Reagan-style American conservatism as the dominant ideological faction of the Republican Party until the election of Donald Trump in 2016. Trump's 2016 election split both the GOP and larger conservative movement into Trumpist and anti-Trump factions, with the Trumpist faction winning. According to Nate Silver, in all three of Trump's runs for president, income had no significant correlation with support for the Republican Party, as voters across all incomes were closely divided between the two parties. Demographically, the party has lost majority support from white voters with college degrees, while continuing to gain among voters without college degrees. particularly in the Rust Belt states that were crucial to Donald Trump winning the presidency twice. In the European Union's multi-party system, right-wing populist parties and European 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 of World War II. Trump's first vice president Mike Pence has since distanced himself from Trump and did not endorse him in the 2024 presidential election. Trump did not run with Pence again, instead choosing JD Vance. 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. The party still maintains long-time ideologically conservative positions on many issues. Traditional modern conservatives combine support for free-market economic policies with social conservatism and a hawkish approach to foreign policy. Other parts of the conservative movement are composed of fiscal conservatives and deficit hawks. In foreign policy, neoconservatives are a small faction of the GOP that support an interventionist foreign policy and increased military spending. They previously held significant influence in the early 2000s in planning the initial response to the 9/11 attacks through the war on terror. 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. protectionism, cultural conservatism, a more realist foreign policy, a conspiracist sub-culture, a repudiation of neoconservatism, reduced efforts to roll back entitlement programs, and a disdain for traditional checks and balances. There are significant divisions within the party on the issues of abortion and LGBT rights. Christian right (2023–present) Since the rise of the Christian right in the 1970s, the Republican Party has drawn significant support from evangelicals, Mormons, Christian nationalists, The Christian right faction is characterized by strong support of socially conservative and far-right Christian nationalist policies. A 2026 survey by the Public Religion Research Institute found that 56% of all Republicans identify as Christian nationalist "adherents" or "sympathizers". Christian conservatives seek to use the teachings of Christianity to influence law and public policy. Compared to other Republicans, the socially conservative Christian right faction of the party is more likely to oppose LGBT rights, marijuana legalization, and support significantly restricting the legality of abortion. The Christian right is strongest in the Bible Belt, which covers most of the Southern United States. Mike Pence, Donald Trump's vice president from 2017 to 2021, was a member of the Christian right. In October 2023, a member of the Christian right faction, Louisiana representative Mike Johnson, was elected the 56th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Libertarians The Republican Party has a libertarian faction. Barry Goldwater had a substantial impact on the conservative-libertarian movement of the 1960s. Compared to other Republicans, they are more likely to favor the legalization of marijuana, LGBT rights such as same-sex marriage, gun rights, oppose mass surveillance, and support reforms to current laws surrounding civil asset forfeiture. Right-wing libertarians are strongly divided on the subject of abortion. Prominent libertarian conservatives within the Republican Party include Rand Paul, Thomas Massie, and Mike Lee. During the 2024 United States elections, the Republican Party adopted pro-cryptocurrency policies, which were originally advocated by the libertarian wing of the party. As the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump addressed the 2024 Libertarian National Convention, pledging support for cryptocurrency, opposing central bank digital currency and expressing support for the commutation of Ross Ulbricht. Trump's 2024 campaign featured greater influence from technolibertarian elements, particularly Elon Musk, who was subsequently nominated to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). In June 2025, the libertarian wing strongly opposed Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act for contributing to the national debt, with Paul, Massie, and Musk all publicly criticizing the legislation. In response, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller, a figure associated with the populist wing of the party, criticized the libertarian faction, stating, "Certain libertarians in Congress, who are not MAGA, have their own agenda...and it's not yours." Moderates Moderates in the Republican Party are an ideologically centrist group that predominantly come from the Northeastern United States, and are typically located in swing states or blue states. Moderate Republican voters are typically highly educated, affluent, fiscally conservative, socially moderate or liberal and often "Never Trump". LGBT rights and same-sex marriage, legal access to and even public funding for abortion, gun control laws, more environmental regulation and action on climate change, fewer restrictions on immigration and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. In the 21st century, some former Republican moderates have switched to the Democratic Party, and the faction is in decline. Notable moderate Republicans include Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, Nevada governor Joe Lombardo, Vermont governor Phil Scott, New Hampshire governor Kelly Ayotte, and former Maryland governor Larry Hogan. == Political positions ==

The Republican Party is a neo-nationalist and right-wing populist party; until 2017, it was generally described as upholding American conservatism, with conservatives now only making up a minority of the party. Comparative politics studies by V-DEM Institute, Polity Data Series, Global Party Survey, Protect Democracy, The Washington Post, and the Manifesto Project Database classify the party as "far-right" in an international context, as well as a majority of political scientists. Freedom House, which is generally respected in the political science field but has also received criticism for dependence on federal government funding, described "the Republicans on the right and the Democrats on the left" in its 2026 report for the United States. By the early 2020s, the Republican Party distanced itself from its traditional international conservative allies and aligned itself with the global far-right, and scholars consistently find that racial animus regarding blacks, immigrants, and Muslims are the best predictors of support for Trump. In 2026, elected Republicans have increasingly used blatantly anti-Muslim rhetoric which was described by commentators as mirroring a prior increase in such rhetoric by the GOP following the 9/11 attacks in 2001. The second presidency of Trump saw him nominate several White House officials with ties to antisemitic extremists. His administration promoted social media content promoting remigration and containing antisemitic slurs, and was criticized as promoting white nationalism and Nazism. Other social media posts from multiple government agencies have variously alluded to neo-Nazi and white supremacist literature and promoted ethnic cleansing and QAnon conspiracies. The Southern Poverty Law Center found that some "images and language appear to come directly from antisemitic and neo-Nazi publications and a white Christian nationalist website". In October 2025, Politico revealed leaked group chats among high-ranking leaders of the "Young Republicans" that included language praising Adolf Hitler and promoting Nazism, encouraging the rape and killing of political opponents, extensive use of antisemitic and racial slurs, and favorable opinions on slavery. The messages drew bipartisan condemnation, and another incident involving the display of an American flag with a swastika in Republican Congressman David Taylor's office a day later spurred significant political commentary about the future of the GOP and condemnation about the prominence of Nazi ideology within the Republican Party. The same month, Politico posted more leaked messages from Republican Office of Special Council nominee Paul Ingrassia where he stated he had "a Nazi streak", that he wanted white men in positions of leadership, used ethnic slurs for Black people and Italians, and proposed making Kwanzaa and all celebrations of Black culture illegal. Also starting in October 2025, Axios, Politico, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times described the party as undergoing a "rift" among a growing cohort of anti-Jewish and antisemitic voices within the party and debate over how expansive the party's coalition should be. In January 2026, Trump publicly came out against those with antisemitic views in the party, which The New York Times and The Economist described as being contrasted with J.D. Vance's prior refusal to condemn the incidents and statement that the party did not need "purity tests". Economic policies Enacting high tariffs on foreign imports is a core component of Donald 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. The Constitution's Import-Export Clause requires that only the federal government be allowed to collect tariff revenue from imports. Reduction in income taxes for those with higher incomes Taxes and trade the Republican Party supports near-universal tariffs, but that has not always been the case. For example, during the last half of the 20th century, Republicans were strong proponents of free trade. However 68% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents approve of the increasing tariffs while the Democrats overwhelmingly disapprove of it at 89%. The current Republican president, Donald Trump, has been a staunch proponent of enacting tariffs as a means of generating tax revenue and has been described as a mercantilist. In 2025, Trump raised American tariff rates to the highest in the world, at the highest level since the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. Donald Trump opposes globalization, and his economic policies have been described as attempting to unravel the multilateral global economic order, including the power of the World Trade Organization (WTO). According to an April 2025 Economist/YouGov poll, "Republican voters overwhelmingly support Trump's tariffs, while Democratic voters generally do not." The great battle over the high Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act in 1910 caused a split in the party. The Reciprocal Tariff Act of 1934 marked a sharp departure from the era of protectionism 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 president Dwight D. Eisenhower. After World War II, the U.S. promoted the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) established in 1947, to minimize tariffs and other restrictions, and to liberalize trade among all capitalist countries. During the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, Republicans abandoned protectionist policies and came out against quotas and in favor of the GATT and the World Trade Organization policy of minimal economic barriers to global trade. Free trade with Canada came about as a result of the Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement of 1987, which led in 1994 to the North 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. President Bill Clinton, with strong Republican support in 1993, pushed NAFTA through Congress over the vehement objection of labor unions. The 2016 presidential election marked a return to supporting protectionism, beginning with Donald Trump's first presidency. In 2017, only 36% of Republicans agreed that free trade agreements are good for the United 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%. Income tax cuts have been at the core of Republican economic policy since 1980. At the national level and state level, Republicans tend to pursue policies of tax cuts and deregulation. Modern Republicans advocate the theory of supply-side economics, which holds that lower tax rates increase economic growth. Many Republicans oppose higher 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 and tax collection. The modern Republican Party's economic policy positions tend to align with business interests and the affluent. Republicans have traditionally advocated in favor of fiscal conservatism. By the 2020s, Republicans have largely abandoned fiscal conservatism as an ideological cornerstone. Labor unions and the minimum wage The Republican Party is generally opposed to labor unions. 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 by labor union organizations and members. At the national level, Republicans supported the Taft–Hartley Act of 1947, which gives workers the right not to participate in unions. Modern Republicans at the state level generally support various right-to-work laws. Most Republicans also oppose increases in the minimum wage. Environmental policies Historically, progressive leaders in the Republican Party supported environmental protection. Republican President Theodore Roosevelt was a prominent conservationist whose policies eventually led to the creation of the National Park Service. While Republican President Richard Nixon was not an environmentalist, he signed legislation to create the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and had a comprehensive environmental program. However, this position has changed since the 1980s and the administration of President Ronald Reagan, who labeled environmental regulations a burden on the economy. Since then, Republicans have increasingly taken positions against environmental regulation, with many Republicans rejecting the scientific consensus on climate change. Republican voters are divided over the human causes of climate change and global warming. Since 2008, many members of the Republican Party have been criticized for being anti-environmentalist and promoting climate change denial in opposition to the general scientific consensus, making them unique even among other worldwide conservative parties. with the court ruling against the Bush administration in 2007. Bush also publicly opposed ratification of the Kyoto Protocols which sought to limit greenhouse gas emissions and thereby combat climate change; his position was heavily criticized by climate scientists. The Republican Party rejects cap-and-trade policy to limit carbon emissions. In the 2000s, Senator John McCain proposed bills (such as the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act) that would have regulated carbon emissions, but his position on climate change was unusual among high-ranking party members. Many Republicans during the presidency of Barack Obama opposed his administration's new environmental regulations, such as those on carbon emissions from coal. In particular, many Republicans supported building the Keystone Pipeline; this position was supported by businesses, but opposed by indigenous peoples' groups and environmental activists. According to the Center for American Progress, a non-profit liberal advocacy group, more than 55% of congressional Republicans were climate change deniers in 2014. PolitiFact in May 2014 found "relatively few Republican members of Congress ... accept the prevailing scientific conclusion that global 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. 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 to The New York Times. By 2025, the GOP during the second Trump administration moved to abandon all efforts to regulate greenhouse gases by reversing the endangerment finding, and Trump criticized global warming as a "hoax" and a "con job". The Energy Department also released a report promoting climate change denial and refuting the scientific consensus on climate change after several climate skeptics were given government jobs. Health care The party opposes a single-payer health care system, describing it as socialized medicine. It also opposes the Affordable Care Act and expansions of Medicaid. 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. Both Republicans and Democrats made various proposals to establish federally funded aged health insurance prior to the bipartisan effort to establish Medicare and Medicaid in 1965. No Republican member of Congress voted for the Affordable Care Act in 2009, and after it passed, the party made frequent attempts to repeal it. At the state level, the party has tended to adopt a position against Medicaid expansion. As of November 2022, all 11 states that had not expanded Medicaid had Republican-controlled state legislatures. By 2020, Republican officials had increasingly adopted anti-vaccine activism and policy. Foreign policy The Republican Party has a persistent history of skepticism and opposition to multilateralism in American foreign policy. Neoconservatism, which supports unilateralism 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. Some, including paleoconservatives, call for non-interventionism and an isolationist "America First" foreign policy agenda. Israel During the 1940s, many Republicans, particularly Senator Robert A. Taft, advocated for recognition of Israel, leading to support for Israel being integrated into the 1948 Republican Party platform. Nevertheless, some Republicans at the time opposed the cause of an independent Jewish state due to the influence of conservatives of the Old Right. The rise of neoconservatism saw the Republican Party become further pro-Israel by the 1990s and 2000s, although notable anti-Israel sentiment persisted through paleoconservative figures such as Pat Buchanan. As president, Donald Trump generally supported Israel during most of his term, but became increasingly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu towards the end of it. According to i24NEWS, the 2020s have seen declining support for Israel among nationalist Republicans, led by individuals such as Tucker Carlson. 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. Although the Republican Party has often positioned itself as an opponent of antisemitism and denounced Democrats as insufficiently supportive of Israel, many members of the Christian right support Israel primarily due to theological beliefs about the centrality of Israel to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the conversion or damnation of Jews and other non-Christians. Taiwan In the party's 2016 platform, its stance on Taiwan 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 the Taiwan Relations Act, will help Taiwan defend itself". Mention of Taiwan was omitted from the party's 2024 platform. War on terror Since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, neoconservatives in the party have supported the war on terror, including the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War. The George W. Bush administration took the position that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to unlawful combatants, while other prominent Republicans, such as Ted Cruz, strongly oppose the use of enhanced interrogation techniques, which they view as torture. In the 2020s, Trumpist Republicans such as Matt Gaetz supported reducing American military presence abroad and ending intervention in countries such as Somalia. Europe, Russia and Ukraine The 2016 Republican platform eliminated references to giving weapons to Ukraine in its fight with Russia and rebel forces; the removal of this language reportedly resulted from intervention from staffers to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. However, the Trump administration approved a new sale of anti-tank weapons to Ukraine in 2017. Republicans generally question European NATO members' alleged insufficient investment in defense funding, and some are dissatisfied with American aid to Ukraine. Some Republican members of the U.S. Congress support foreign aid to Israel but not to Ukraine, In April 2024, a majority of Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted against a military aid package to Ukraine. Both Trump and Senator JD 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. 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". In February 2025, during the Trump–Zelenskyy meeting, Trump and Vance hostilely berated Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Foreign relations and aid In a 2014 poll, 59% of Republicans favored doing less abroad and focusing on the country's own problems instead. Republicans have frequently advocated for restricting foreign aid as a means of asserting the national security and immigration interests of the United States. A survey by the Chicago 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". Social issues The Republican Party is generally associated with social conservative policies, although it does have dissenting centrist and libertarian factions. The social conservatives support laws that uphold their traditional values, such as opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion, and marijuana. The Republican Party's positions on social and cultural issues are in part a reflection of the influential role that the Christian right has had in the party since the 1970s. Most conservative Republicans also oppose gun control, affirmative action, and illegal immigration. Abortion and embryonic stem cell research The Republican position on abortion has changed significantly over time. 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. although significant heterogeneity could be found within both parties. Leading Republican political figures, including Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, took pro-choice positions until the early 1980s. and Donald 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. Summarizing the rapid shift in the Republican and Democratic positions on abortion, Sue Halpern writes: Initially, evangelicals were relatively indifferent to the cause of abortion and overwhelmingly viewed it as a concern that was sectarian and Catholic. "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." Similar beliefs were held among conservative figures in the Southern Baptist Convention, including W. 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. After the late 1970s, he writes, opinion against abortion among evangelicals rapidly shifted in favor of its prohibition. although the vast majority of the party's national and state candidates are anti-abortion and oppose elective abortion on religious or moral grounds. While many advocate exceptions in the case of incest, rape, or the mother's life being at risk, in 2012 the party approved a platform advocating banning abortions without exception. There were not highly polarized differences between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party before the Roe 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. As a result, Evangelicals gravitated towards the Republican Party. This includes support for the Hyde 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. The Republican Party has pursued policies at the national and state levels to restrict embryonic stem cell research beyond the original lines because it involves the destruction of human embryos. After the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, a majority of Republican-controlled states passed near-total bans on abortion, rendering it largely illegal throughout much of the United States. Affirmative action Republicans generally oppose affirmative action, often describing it as a "quota system" and believing that it is not meritocratic and is counter-productive socially, with critics arguing that it promotes reverse discrimination. According to a 2023 ABC poll, a majority of Americans (52%) and 75% of Republicans supported the Supreme Court's decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard prohibiting race as a factor in college admissions, compared to only 26% of Democrats. 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." Gun ownership Republicans generally support gun ownership rights and oppose laws regulating guns with 23% of republicans favoring stricter gun laws compared to 86% of democrats. 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. The National Rifle Association of America, a special interest group in support of gun ownership, has consistently aligned itself with the Republican Party. Following gun control measures under the Clinton administration, such as the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, the Republicans allied with the NRA during the Republican Revolution in 1994. Since then, the NRA has consistently backed Republican candidates and contributed financial support. In contrast, George H. W. Bush, formerly a lifelong NRA member, was highly critical of the organization following their response to the Oklahoma City bombing authored by CEO Wayne LaPierre, and publicly resigned in protest. Criminal justice The Republican Party has generally promoted strict anti-crime policies, such as mandatory minimum sentences and the death penalty. In the 2010s, however, prominent Republicans demonstrated some interest in criminal justice reform designed to combat mass incarceration, with President Trump signing the First 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. By 2024, however, the Republican Party and its leaders had largely left behind its prior support for reform of the justice system. Opposition to the legalization of marijuana has softened significantly over time among Republican voters and politicians. A 2021 Quinnipiac poll found that 62% of Republicans supported the legalization of recreational marijuana use and that net support for the position was +30 points. In September 2024, then-candidate Donald Trump endorsed the legalization of recreational marijuana. Immigration The Republican Party has taken widely varying views on immigration throughout its history, but has generally and traditionally taken an anti-immigration and nativist stance compared to the opposition. In 2006, the Republican-led Senate passed comprehensive 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. After Republican Mitt Romney was defeated in the 2012 presidential election, particularly due to a lack of support among Latinos, several Republicans advocated a friendlier approach to immigrants that would allow for more migrant workers and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. The Border 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 the 113th Congress. In a 2013 poll, 60% of Republicans supported the pathway to citizenship concept. In 2016, Donald Trump proposed to build a wall along the southern border of the United States. Trump immigration policies during his administration included a travel ban from multiple Muslim-majority countries, a Remain in Mexico policy for asylum-seekers, a controversial family separation policy, and attempting to end DACA. 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, although there are widely differing views on immigration within the Party. which during Trump's second presidency was extended to immigrants without permanent legal status. 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. LGBT issues Similar to the Democratic Party, the Republican position on LGBT rights has changed significantly over time, with continuously increasing support among both parties on the issue. The Log Cabin Republicans is a group within the Republican Party that represents LGBT conservatives and allies and advocates for LGBT rights. From the early 2000s to the mid-2010s, Republicans opposed same-sex marriage, while being divided on the issue of civil unions and domestic partnerships for same-sex couples. 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. In both 2004 and 2006, President Bush, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and House Majority Leader John Boehner promoted the Federal Marriage Amendment, a proposed constitutional amendment which would legally restrict the definition of marriage to heterosexual couples. In both attempts, the amendment failed to secure enough votes to invoke cloture 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. As of 2014, most state GOP platforms expressed opposition to same-sex marriage. The 2016 GOP Platform defined marriage as "natural marriage, the union of one man and one woman," and condemned the Supreme Court's ruling legalizing same-sex marriages. The 2020 platform, which reused the 2016 platform, retained the statements against same-sex marriage. 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 in Obergefell v. Hodges, but had previously promised to consider appointing a Supreme Court justice to roll back the constitutional right. In office, Trump was the first sitting Republican president to recognize LGBT Pride Month. 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. However, other Republicans, such as Vivek Ramaswamy, do not support such a ban. The Republican Party platform previously opposed the inclusion of gay people in the military and opposed adding sexual orientation to the list of protected classes since 1992. The Republican Party opposed the inclusion of sexual preference in anti-discrimination statutes from 1992 to 2004. 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 on sexual orientation and gender identity. The 2016 platform was opposed to sex discrimination statutes that included the phrase "sexual orientation". The same 2016 platform rejected Obergefell v. Hodges, and was also used for the party's 2020 platform. In the early 2020s, numerous Republican-led states proposed or passed laws that have been described as anti-trans by critics, On November 6, 2021, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel announced the creation of the "RNC Pride Coalition", in partnership with the Log Cabin Republicans, to promote outreach to LGBTQ voters. 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. As of 2023, a majority of Republican voters support same-sex marriage. According to FiveThirtyEight, as of 2022, Republican voters are consistently more open to same-sex marriage than their representatives. The party platform approved at the 2024 Republican National Convention no longer states that marriage should be between "one man and one woman", though it did oppose the inclusion of transgender women in women's sports and teaching about LGBT topics in schools. The 2024 Republican National Convention saw extensive use of homophobic and transphobic rhetoric by multiple speakers according to an NBC News analysis. Also in 2024, Trump nominated Scott Bessent for United States Secretary of the Treasury, who would be the second openly gay man to serve in the Cabinet of the United States (after Pete Buttigieg). Voting rights 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 of voter rolls, limiting voting locations, and limiting early and mail-in voting) are vital to prevent voter fraud, saying that voter fraud is an underestimated issue in elections. Polling has found majority support for early voting, automatic voter registration, and voter ID laws among the general population. 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, After the Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder rolled back aspects of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Republicans introduced cuts to early voting, purges of voter rolls, and imposition of strict voter ID laws. After Donald Trump and his Republican allies made false claims of fraud during the 2020 presidential election, Republicans launched a nationwide effort to impose tighter election laws at the state level. Such bills are centered around limiting mail-in voting, strengthening voter ID laws, shortening early voting, eliminating automatic and same-day voter registration, curbing the use of ballot drop boxes, and allowing for increased purging of voter rolls. Republicans in at least eight states have also introduced bills that would give lawmakers greater power over election administration, after they were unsuccessful in their attempts to overturn election results in swing states won by Biden. Political analysts say that the efforts amount to voter suppression, are intended to advantage Republicans by reducing the number of people who vote, and would disproportionately affect minority voters. == Composition and demographics ==

According to a 2025 Gallup 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. In 2016, The New York Times stated that the party was strongest in the South, most of the Midwestern and Mountain States, and Alaska. The Republican party's core voting demographics are White voters without college degrees and White Southerners. As of 2024, the Republican Party has support from a majority of White voters, and increasingly among Hispanics and Asians. voters vote for the party. Traditionalist religious voters, including Evangelicals, and Catholic and Hispanics. 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%. In the 2024 presidential election, Trump did better among lower-income voters than high-income voters, the first time for the Republican nominee in modern American political history. Most of the lowest-income counties are majority-Black counties in the Southern Black Belt, which Trump lost. Men without college degrees, particularly blue-collar men, are Donald Trump's strongest demographic. Per exit polls, Trump won White men without college degrees (69-29%) and just over half of Hispanic men in the 2024 presidential election. Region Some of the oldest Republican strongholds in the country are in the Southern United States, particularly majority-White Unionist counties in Appalachia. The Republican Party gradually gained power in the Southern United States since 1964. Although Richard Nixon carried 49 states in 1972, 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 the 1994 "Republican Revolution", and only began to dominate the South after the 2010 elections. Since the 2010s, White Southerners are the Republican Party's strongest racial demographic, in some Deep South states voting nearly as Republican as African Americans vote Democratic. 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%. 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 Democrat John Kerry than for Republican George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election. Exit polls from the 2012 elections revealed a continued weakness among unmarried women for the GOP, a large and growing portion of the electorate. Although women supported Obama over Mitt Romney by a margin of 55–44% in 2012, Romney prevailed amongst married women, 53–46%. Obama won unmarried women 67–31%. 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". Education 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. When controlling for educational attainment among White voters, there remain large variations by state and region. In particular, college-educated White Southerners remain strongly Republican. Voters with college degrees as a whole were a Republican-voting group until the 1990s. Despite losing in a landslide, Republican nominee Barry Goldwater nearly won a majority of voters with college degrees 48–52% in 1964. 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 in 2004. Until 2016, White voters with college degrees were a Republican-leaning group. In 2012, Republican nominee Mitt 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. Since the 2010s, White voters with college degrees have been increasingly voting for the Democratic Party. 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. In the 2020 United States presidential election, Donald Trump won White voters without college degrees 67-32%, while losing White voters with a college degree 48–51%. Ethnicity Republicans have consistently won the White vote in every presidential election after the 1964 presidential election. There exist large variations among White voters by region and state. In particular, Republicans often lose White voters in the Northeast, parts of the Upper Midwest, and West Coast. 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. 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. Black voters would become one of the core components of the New Deal coalition. In the South, after the Voting 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. In the 2010 elections, two African American Republicans, Tim Scott and Allen 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. In recent decades, Republicans have been moderately successful in gaining support from Hispanic and Asian American voters. George W. Bush, who campaigned energetically for Hispanic votes, received 35% of their vote in 2000 and 44% in 2004. The party's strong anti-communist stance has made it popular among some minority groups from current and former Communist states, in particular Cuban Americans, Korean Americans, Chinese Americans, and Vietnamese Americans. The 2007 election of Bobby Jindal as Governor of Louisiana was hailed as pathbreaking. Jindal became the first elected minority governor in Louisiana and the first state governor of Indian descent. 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. According to John 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 Governor Brian Sandoval and African-American U.S. senator Tim Scott of South Carolina. In the 2008 presidential election, Republican presidential candidate John McCain won 55% of White votes, 35% of Asian votes, 31% of Hispanic votes, and 4% of African American votes. In 2012, 88% of Romney voters were White while 56% of Obama voters were White. In the 2024 presidential election, Trump won 57% of White voters, 46% of Hispanic voters, 39% of Asian voters, and 13% of African American voters. Religious communities 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 before 1960, 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. Since 1980, a large majority of evangelicals has voted Republican; 70–80% voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004 and 70% for Republican House candidates in 2006. Members of the Mormon faith had a mixed relationship with Donald Trump during his tenure, despite 67% of them voting for him in 2016 and 56% of them supporting his presidency in 2018, disapproving of his personal behavior such as that shown during the Access Hollywood controversy. In the 2020 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) in 2012 and George W. Bush in 2004. Their opinion on Trump had not affected their party affiliation, however, as 76% of Mormons in 2018 expressed a preference for generic Republican congressional candidates. Similarly, while Trump again won majority-Mormon Utah 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. Jews continue to vote 70–80% Democratic; however, a slim majority of Orthodox 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. Over 70% of Orthodox Jews identify as Republican or Republican-leaning as of 2021. An exit poll conducted by the Associated Press for 2020 found 35% of Muslims voted for Donald Trump. The mainline Protestants have dropped to about 55% Republican (in contrast to 75% before 1968). Democrats have close links with the African American churches, especially the National Baptists, while their historic dominance among Catholic voters has eroded to 54–46 in the 2010 midterms. Although once strongly Democratic, American Catholic voters have been politically divided in the 21st century with 52% of Catholic voters voting for Trump in 2016 and 52% voting for Biden in 2020. 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. == Republican presidents ==

As of 2025, there have been 19 Republican presidents, which is 3 more than the Democratic Party. ==Election results==

In congressional elections: 1950–present In presidential elections: 1856–present == See also ==