Republican Party (US)

One of the two major US parties, founded in 1854 from the anti-slavery movement.

Overview

The Republican Party emerged in 1854 from Northern opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the spread of slavery, nominating Abraham Lincoln in 1860 and winning the Civil War era. Its postwar strength lay in the North, business, and Reconstruction. The twentieth century brought the GOP the reputation of the business party: McKinley, Taft, and Eisenhower anchored it, while Reagan in 1980 fused free market economics, social conservatism, and national strength into the modern coalition. Party strength shifted toward the South and interior after 1968. Republicans have held the presidency under Lincoln through to Trump, and the party symbol, the elephant, dates from an 1874 cartoon by Thomas Nast.