What is the Republican Party?

The Republican Party is one of the two major political parties in the United States, founded in 1854 in opposition to the expansion of slavery into new territories. The party emerged from a meeting in Ripon, Wisconsin, where former Whigs, Free Soilers, antislavery Democrats, and others gathered to form a new political party. Within a few years the Republicans had become a major force, particularly in the North and West.

Abraham Lincoln became the first Republican president in 1861, leading the country through the Civil War, ending slavery through the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment, and preserving the Union. The Republican Party dominated American politics from the Civil War through the Great Depression. The party was associated with Northern industry, the protection of African American civil rights during Reconstruction, the gold standard, high tariffs, and limited federal government in most areas. Republican presidents during this era included Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Calvin Coolidge.

The Great Depression and Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal reshaped American politics in ways that pushed the Republican Party into minority status for most of the next four decades. Republicans regained the presidency under Dwight Eisenhower in 1953, and the party's modern conservative orientation took shape in the 1960s and 1970s under figures such as Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and others. The civil rights legislation of the 1960s, the Vietnam War, and shifts in social attitudes drove a major realignment, with white Southern voters and many working-class voters in other regions moving from Democratic to Republican.

The Republican Party today generally supports lower taxes, limited federal regulation of business, strong national defense, traditional values on social issues such as abortion (favoring restrictions), opposition to many gun control measures, restrictive immigration policies, and federalism that gives more authority to states. Recent Republican presidents include Richard Nixon (1969 to 1974), Gerald Ford (1974 to 1977), Ronald Reagan (1981 to 1989), George H.W. Bush (1989 to 1993), George W. Bush (2001 to 2009), and Donald Trump (2017 to 2021 and again from 2025).

Donald Trump's election and reelection have reshaped the Republican coalition, with strong support among working-class white voters, growing support among working-class voters of color, and a more populist and nationalist orientation than the party held in the late 20th century. The party is led at the national level by the Republican National Committee, with state party committees in each state.