Republican Party (United States)

Republican Party
Abbreviation	GOP
Chairperson	Michael Whatley
Governing body	Republican National Committee
Speaker of the House	Mike Johnson
Senate Minority Leader	Mitch McConnell
House Majority Leader	Steve Scalise
Founders	Alvan E. Bovay[1] Henry J. Raymond[2] ... and others Horace Greeley John C. Frémont Francis P. Blair Edwin D. Morgan Amos Tuck Salmon P. Chase
Founded	March 20, 1854; 170 years ago (1854-03-20) Ripon, Wisconsin, U.S.
Merger of	Whig Party[3][4][5][6] Free Soil Party[7] Anti-Nebraska movement[8]
Headquarters	310 First Street SE, Washington, D.C., U.S.
Student wing	College Republicans High School Republican National Federation
Youth wing	Young Republicans Teen Age Republicans
Women's wing	National Federation of Republican Women
Overseas wing	Republicans Overseas
Ideology	Majority: Conservatism[9] Factions: Centrism[10] Neoconservatism[11][disputed – discuss] Libertarianism[12][better source needed] Right-wing populism[13]
International affiliation	International Democracy Union[14] Asia Pacific Democracy Union European Conservatives and Reformists Party
Colors	Red
Senate	49 / 100
House of Representatives	218 / 435
State Governors	27 / 50
State upper chambers	1,110 / 1,973
State lower chambers	2,948 / 5,413
Territorial Governors	0 / 5
Territorial upper chambers	12 / 97
Territorial lower chambers	9 / 91
Election symbol
Website
gop.com
Politics of United States Political parties Elections

The Republican Party, also known as the GOP (Grand Old Party), is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. It emerged as the main political rival of the then-dominant Democratic Party in the mid-1850s, and the two parties have dominated American politics ever since.

The party was founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists who opposed the Kansas–Nebraska Act, an act which allowed for the potential expansion of chattel slavery into the western territories of Kansas and Nebraska.^[15] It supported classical liberalism and economic reform^[16] while opposing the expansion of slavery into the free territories. The party initially had a very limited presence in the South, but was successful in the North. By 1858, it had enlisted most former Whigs and former Free Soilers to form majorities in nearly every northern state. White Southerners became alarmed at the threat to the slave trade. With the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, the deep Southern states seceded from the United States.

Under the leadership of Lincoln and a Republican Congress, the Republican Party led the fight to defeat the Confederate States in the American Civil War, preserving the Union and abolishing slavery. Afterward, the party largely dominated the national political scene until the Great Depression in the 1930s, when it lost its congressional majorities and the Democrats' New Deal programs proved popular. Dwight D. Eisenhower's election was a rare break in between Democratic presidents and he presided over a period of increased economic prosperity after World War II. His former vice president Richard Nixon carried 49 states in 1972 with what he touted as his silent majority. The 1980 election of Ronald Reagan realigned national politics, bringing together advocates of free-market economics, social conservatives, and Cold War foreign policy hawks under the Republican banner.^[17] Since 2008, Republicans have faced significant factionalism within the party's ranks.^[18][19]

In the 21st century, the party receives its strongest support from rural voters, evangelical Christians, men, senior citizens, and white voters without college degrees. On economic issues, the party has maintained a pro-business attitude since its inception. It has a neoliberal outlook, supporting low taxes and deregulation while opposing socialism, labor unions and single-payer healthcare. A populist faction supports economic protectionism. On social issues, it advocates for restricting the legality of abortion, discouraging and often prohibiting recreational drug use, promoting gun ownership and easing gun restrictions, overturning the legality of same-sex marriage and opposing the transgender rights movement. In foreign policy, the party establishment supports neoconservatism and interventionism, while the populist faction promotes isolationism and non-interventionism.