How many major political parties are there?

The United States has two major political parties: the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. While other parties exist and sometimes win local or state offices, the two major parties dominate federal politics and most state-level politics. No third-party or independent candidate has won the presidency since the Republican Party itself emerged as a third party in the 1850s and quickly displaced the Whigs to become one of the two major parties.

The Democratic Party traces its roots to the Democratic-Republican Party founded in the 1790s by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and to the modern Democratic Party that emerged in the late 1820s under Andrew Jackson. The Republican Party was founded in 1854 in opposition to the expansion of slavery into new territories, drawing former Whigs and members of other parties. Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican president in 1861.

Both parties have changed dramatically over their long histories, undergoing major realignments. Until the mid-20th century, the Democratic Party was strongest in the South, while the Republican Party was strongest in the Northeast and Midwest. Civil rights legislation in the 1960s, particularly the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, accelerated a major realignment in which the South gradually shifted from solid Democratic to solid Republican, while urban areas, the West Coast, and the Northeast moved toward the Democrats.

Today the two parties are organized around different coalitions and policy preferences. The Democratic Party generally supports active federal government roles in healthcare, education, environmental protection, and economic regulation; favors progressive taxation; and supports civil rights protections including for racial minorities and LGBT Americans. The Republican Party generally supports lower taxes, lighter regulation, traditional values on social issues, strong national defense, and limited federal government in many areas. These broad descriptions do not capture all the variation within each party, and individual politicians often differ from the party mainstream on particular issues.

Third parties and independents have occasionally affected outcomes. Notable third-party presidential runs include Ross Perot in 1992 (winning 19 percent of the popular vote), Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party in 1912, George Wallace's American Independent Party in 1968, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s independent and later Republican-affiliated run in 2024. Some independents currently serve in Congress, including Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who caucuses with Democrats.