Southern Democrats

Southern Democrats are members of the U.S. Democratic Party who reside in the Southern United States.^[1]

Before the American Civil War, Southern Democrats were mostly white men living in the South who believed in Jacksonian democracy. In the 19th century, they defended slavery in the United States and promoted its expansion into the Western United States against the Free Soil opposition in the Northern United States. The United States presidential election of 1860 formalized the split in the Democratic Party and brought about the American Civil War.^[2] After the Reconstruction Era ended in the late 1870s, so-called redeemers were Southern Democrats who controlled all the southern states and disenfranchised African-Americans.

The monopoly that the Democratic Party held over most of the South showed signs of breaking apart in 1948, when many white Southern Democrats—upset by the policies of desegregation enacted during the administration of Democratic President Harry Truman—created the States Rights Democratic Party. This new party, commonly referred to as the "Dixiecrats", nominated South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond for president. The new party collapsed after Truman won the 1948 election.

Despite being a Southern Democrat himself, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.^[3] These actions led to heavy opposition from Southern Democrats.^[4][5] Following the passage of civil rights legislation, many white southerners switched to the Republican Party at the national level. Many scholars have stated that southern whites shifted to the Republican Party due to racial backlash and social conservatism.^[6][7][8]

Republicans first dominated presidential elections in the South, then won a majority of Southern gubernatorial and congressional elections after the 1994 Republican Revolution.^[9][10] By the 21st century, and especially after the 2010 midterm elections, the GOP had gained a solid advantage over the Democratic Party in most southern states.^[11] Southern Democrats of the 21st century tend to be more progressive than their predecessors.^[12]