Republican Party (United States)

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 Democratic Party in the mid-1850s, and the two parties have dominated American politics since.

The Republican Party's ideological and historical predecessor is considered to be Northern members of the conservative Whig Party; Republican presidents Abraham Lincoln, Rutherford B. Hayes, Chester A. Arthur, and Benjamin Harrison were each Whigs prior to switching to the Republican Party, from which they were elected. The collapse of the Whigs, which had previously been one of the two major parties in the country, strengthened the party's electoral success. The GOP was founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists who opposed the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which allowed for the potential expansion of chattel slavery into the western territories. Upon its founding, it supported classical liberalism and economic reform while opposing the expansion of slavery. It initially had a very limited presence in the South, but was very successful in the North where, by 1858, it had enlisted former Whigs and former Free Soil Democrats to form majorities in nearly every state in New England. It did not openly oppose slavery in the Southern states prior to the American Civil War, stating that it opposed the spread of slavery into the Western territories or into the Northern states, but the party was widely seen as sympathetic to the abolitionist cause.

Seeing a future threat to the practice of slavery with the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, many states in the South seceded from the nation and joined the Confederacy. Under the leadership of Lincoln and a Republican Congress, the Republican Party led the fight to destroy the Confederacy during the American Civil War, preserving the Union and abolishing slavery. After the victory of the Union in the Civil War, the party largely dominated the national political scene until 1932. The GOP lost its congressional majorities during the Great Depression when the Democrats' New Deal programs proved popular. Dwight D. Eisenhower presided over a period of economic prosperity after World War II. Richard Nixon carried 49 states in 1972 with his silent majority, even as the Watergate scandal dogged his campaign, which ultimately led to his resignation on August 8, 1974. After Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon, Ford lost election to a full term in 1976 and Republicans did not gain power again until 1980 when Ronald Reagan and his campaign realigned national politics, bringing together advocates of free-market economics, social conservatives, and Cold War foreign policy hawks. George W. Bush oversaw the response to the September 11 attacks and the Iraq War. Since then, the party has faced intense factionalism between its conservative, libertarian, populist, and centrist factions, with the party lacking a sense of cohesive ideology and routinely purging its Speakers of the House.The Republican coalition compromises business interests, affluent voters, and religious traditionalists. While the party is a big tent, both Republican voters and politicians generally support laissez-faire capitalism, deregulation, lower taxes, gun rights, restrictions on labor unions, and increased military spending. The Republican Party is a member of the International Democrat Union, an international alliance of centre-right political parties. It has several prominent political wings, including a student wing, the College Republicans; a women's wing, the National Federation of Republican Women; and an LGBT wing, the Log Cabin Republicans.

As of 2023, the GOP holds a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, 26 state governorships, 28 state legislatures, and 22 state government trifectas. Six of the nine current U.S. Supreme Court justices were appointed by Republican presidents. Its most recent presidential nominee was Donald Trump, who was the 45th U.S. president from 2017 to 2021. There have been 19 Republican presidents, the most from any one political party. The Republican Party has won 24 presidential elections, one more than its main political rival, the Democratic Party.