Republican Party (United States): Difference between revisions

This article is about the modern United States Republican Party. For the older Republican Party, which is now known as the Democratic-Republican Party, see Democratic-Republican Party (United States).

Republican Party
Chairman	Ken Mehlman
Founded	February 28, 1854
Headquarters	310 First Street SE Washington, D.C. 20003
Ideology	Conservatism
International affiliation	International Democrat Union
Colours	Red
Website
http://www.gop.com

The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for Grand Old Party, although one early citation described it as the Gallant Old Party) [1], is one of the two major political parties in the United States. The current President of the United States, George W. Bush, is a member of the party – and its de facto leader – and it currently has majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as in governorships. In the modern political era, the GOP is the more conservative of the two major parties.

Organized in Ripon, Wisconsin on February 28, 1854, as a party opposed to the expansion of slavery into new territories, it is not to be confused with the Democratic-Republican party of Thomas Jefferson or the National Republican Party of Henry Clay. The ideology of the reborn Republican party, however, did follow that of the early Democratic-Republicans. During Jefferson's presidency, he was called a "Republican", but the reference was to the party now known as the Democratic-Republican Party. That party later split into the Democratic Party and the Whig Party. The latter was formed in the winter of 1833-1834 but was defunct by the time of the American Civil War.

The first convention of the U.S. Republican Party was held on July 6, 1854, in Jackson, Michigan. Many of its initial policies were inspired by the Whig Party, which by then was in decline. Many of the early members of the Republican Party came from the Whigs, the Free Soil Party, and American Party. Since its inception, its chief opposition has been the Democratic Party.

The Republican 2004 political platform A Safer World and a More Hopeful America expresses commitment to:

• Winning the War on Terror
• Ushering in an Ownership Era
• Building an Innovative Economy to Compete in the World
• Strengthening Our Communities
• Protecting Our Families

Major policies that the party has supported recently include tax cuts, changes to Social Security, and the 2003 War in Iraq; obviously, these positions all drew limited amounts of controversy within the party as well. The party tends to hold traditional (and socially conservative) stances on such issues as abortion and gay rights. This does not hold true for some party members with minority views, including prominent pro-choice Republicans such as Colin Powell, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Olympia Snowe, and the gay and lesbian Republican group the Log Cabin Republicans or openly gay Republicans such as Mary Cheney, Michael E. Guest and Paul Koering. However, during the administration of President Bush, there has been an increasing emphasis on cultivating deeper loyalty among core social conservatives rather than accommodate certain moderate positions, whose adherents are sometimes criticized as Republican in Name Only "RINOs".

The official symbol of the Republican Party is the elephant. Although the elephant had occasionally been associated with the party earlier, a political cartoon by Thomas Nast, published in Harper's Weekly on November 7, 1874, is considered the first important use of the symbol [2]. In the early 20th century, the traditional symbol of the Republican Party in Midwestern states such as Indiana and Ohio was the eagle, as opposed to the Democratic rooster. This symbol still appears on Indiana ballots.

Organization

For more information on how American political parties are organized, see Politics of the United States.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) of the United States is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as for coordinating fundraising and election strategy. There are similar committees in every U.S. state and most U.S. counties (though in some states, party organization lower than state-level is arranged by legislative districts). It is the counterpart of the Democratic National Committee. The chairman of the RNC, since January of 2005, is Ken Mehlman.

The Republican Party also has fundraising and strategy committees for House races (National Republican Congressional Committee), Senate races (National Republican Senatorial Committee), and gubernatorial races (Republican Governors Association).

History: Third Party System 1854-1896

The Schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin where the Republican Party was organized

The party emerged in 1854-56 out of a political frenzy, in all northern states, revolving around the Slave Power issue. The new party was so named because "republicanism" was the core value of American politics, and it seemed to be mortally threatened by the expanding "slave power." The enemy was not so much the institution of slavery itself, nor the mistreatment of the slaves. Rather it was the political-economic system that controlled the South, exerted disproportionate control over the national government, and threatened to seize power in the new territories. The fight was over allowing the new settlers of Kansas Territory to decide for themselves whether to adopt slavery, or whether to continue the Compromise of 1820 which explicitly forbad slavery there. The new party lost on this issue but in addition to most northern Whigs, it gained support from "Free Soil" northern Democrats who opposed slavery expansion. Only a handful of abolitionists joined. The Republicans adopted most of the modernization programs of the Whigs, favoring banks, tariffs and internal improvements, adding as well a demand for a homestead law that would provide free farms to western settlers. In state after state the Republicans outmaneuvered rival parties (the old Whigs, the prohibitionists, and the Know Nothings), absorbing most of their supporters without accepting their doctrines. The 1856 campaign, with strong pietistic Protestant overtones, was a crusade for "Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men, and Fremont!" Fremont was defeated by a sharp countercrusade, warning against fanaticism and the imminent risk of civil war. By the late 1850s the new party dominated every northern state. It controlled enough electoral votes to win, despite its almost complete lack of support below the Mason Dixon line. Leaders like William Seward of New York and Salmon Chase of Ohio were passed over in 1860 because they were a bit too radical in their rhetoric, and their states were safe enough. Abraham Lincoln was more moderate, and had more of an appeal in the closely divided western states of Illinois and Indiana.

John C. Frémont ran as the first Republican nominee for President in 1856, using the political slogan: "Free soil, free labor, free speech, free men, Frémont." Although Frémont's bid was unsuccessful, the party grew especially rapidly in Midwestern states, where slavery had long been prohibited, and in the Northeast, culminating in a sweep of victories in the Northern states. The ensuing election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 ended the domination of the fragile coalition of pro-slavery southern Democrats and conciliatory northern Democrats which had existed since the days of Andrew Jackson. Instead, a new era of Republican dominance based in the industrial north ensued.

    The Republicans had not expected secession, and were

baffled when seven cotton states broke away and formed their own country. The Lincoln administration, stiffened by the unionist pleas of conservative northern Democrats, rejected both the suggestion of abolitionists that the slaveholders be allowed to depart in peace, and the insistence of Confederates that they had a right to revolution and self governance.

Lincoln proved was brilliantly successful in uniting all the factions of his party to fight for the Union. Most Democrats were likewise supportive until the fall of 1862, when Lincoln added the abolition of slavery as a war goal. All the state Republican parties accepted the antislavery goal except Kentucky. In Congress the party passed major legislation to promote rapid modernization, including a national banking system, high tariffs, a huge national debt, homestead laws, and aid to education and agriculture. How to deal with the ex-Confederates was a major issue; by 1864 "radical" Republicans controlled Congress and demanded more aggressive action against slavery, and more vengeance toward the Confederates. Lincoln held them off just barely. With the end of the Civil War came the upheavals of Reconstruction under Democratic President Andrew Johnson (who had bitter disputes with the Republicans in Congress, who eventually impeached him) and Ulysses S. Grant, a Republican. For a brief period, Republicans assumed control of Southern politics (due especially to the former slaves receiving the vote while it was denied to many whites who had participated in the Confederacy), forcing drastic reforms and frequently giving former slaves positions in government. Reconstruction came to an end with the election of Rutherford B. Hayes through the Compromise of 1877.

Andrew Johnson, proved too eager to reunite the nation, allowing the radicals to seize control of Congress, the party and the Army, and nearly convict Johnson on a close impeachment vote. Grant supported radical reconstruction programs in the South, the 14th Amendment, equal civil and voting rights for the freedmen; most of all he was the hero of the war veterans, who marched to his tune. The party had become so large that factionalism was inevitable; it was hastened by Grant's tolerance of high levels of corruption. The "Liberal Republicans," split off in 1872 on the grounds that it was time to declare the war finished and bring the troops home. The depression of 1873 energized the Democrats. They won control of the House, and formed "Redeemer" coalitions which recaptured control of each southern state, in some cases using threats and violence. The Compromise of 1877 resolved the disputed election of 1876 by giving the White House to the Republicans, and all the southern states to the Democrats. The GOP, as it was now nicknamed, contained into "Stalwart" and "Half-Breed" factions, but policy differences were slight; in 1884, "Mugwunp" reformers split off and helped elect Democrat Grover Cleveland.

In the north the Republican party proved most attractive to men with an ambitious vision of a more richer, more modern, more complex society and economy. The leading modernizers were well-educated men from business, finance, and the professions. Commercial farmers, skilled mechanics, and office clerks largely supported the GOP, while unskilled workers and traditional farmers were solidly Democratic. The moral dimension of the party attracted pietistic Protestants, especially Methodists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Scandinavian Lutherans and Quakers. By contrast the high church or "liturgical" denominations (Roman Catholics, Mormons, German Lutherans, and Episcopalians) were offended by Republican crusaders who wanted to impose their own moral standards especially through prohibition and control over public schools. Millions of immigrants entered the political system after 1850, and usually started voting within about five years of arrival. The Catholics (Irish, German and Dutch) became Democrats, but the Republicans won majorities among the Protestant British, German, Dutch and Scandinavian newcomers, and among German Jews. After 1890 new, much poorer ethnic groups arrived in large numbers -- especially Italians, Poles, and Yiddish-speaking Jews. For the most part they did not become politically active until the 1920s. After 1876 Southern voting was sui generis, with very few white Republicans, apart from pockets of GOP strength in the Appalachian and Ozark mountain districts. The party remained popular among African Americans, even as segregation minimized their political role. (They were allowed to select delegates to the Republican national convention.)

In 1888 for the first time since 1872, the Republicans controlled the White House and both branches of Congress. New rules of procedure in the House gave the Republican leaders (especially Speaker Thomas Reed) the ability to pass major legislation. New spending bills, such as generous pensions to Civil War veterans, coupled with the new McKinley tariff made the GOP the target of charges of "paternalism." Democrats ridiculed the "Billion Dollar Congress;" Reed shot back, "It's a billion dollar country!" At the grass roots militant pietists overcame the advice of more tolerant professionals to endorse statewide prohibition. In the Midwest reformers declared war on the large German community, trying to shut down their parochial schools as well as their saloons. The Republicans, relying too much on the old-stock pietistic coalition that had always dominated the party's voting base, was badly defeated in the 1890 off-year election, as well as the 1892 presidential contest. Alarmed professionals thereupon reasserted control over the local organizations, leading to a sort of bossism that (after 1900) fueled the outrage of progressives. Meanwhile a severe economic depression struck both rural and urban America in 1893--on Cleveland's watch. Combined with with violent nationwide coal and railway strikes, and the snarling factionalism inside the Democratic party, the upshot was a sweeping victory for the GOP in 1894. The party seemed invincible in 1896, until the Democrats unexpectedly selected William Jennings Bryan. Bryan's hugely popular crusade against the gold, the financiers, the railroads, the industrialists--indeed, against the cities--created a crisis for McKinley and his campaign manager Mark Hanna. Because of civil service reforms, parties could no longer finance themselves internally. Hanna solved that problem by directly obtaining $3.5 million from large corporations threatened by Bryan. For the next century campaign finance would be hotly debated. McKinley promised prosperity for everyone and every group, with no governmental attacks on property or ethnic groups. The business community, factory workers, white collar workers, and commercial farmers responded enthusiastically, and became a major component of the new Republican majority. As turnout soared to the 95 percent level throughout much of the north, Germans and other ethnic groups alarmed by Bryan's pietistic moralism, voted Republican.

Fourth Party System: Progressive Era 1896-1932

Rejuvenated by their triumphs in 1894 and 1896, and by the glamor of a highly popular short war in 1898, the GOP rolled to victory after victory. The party had again grown too large, and factionalism increasingly tore it apart. The break came in 1912 over the issue of progressivism. President William Howard Taft favor conservative reform controlled by the courts; former president Theodore Roosevelt went to the grass roots, attacking Taft, bosses, courts, big business, and the "malefactors of great wealth." Defeated at the convention, Roosevelt bolted, and formed a third party. The vast majority of progressive politicians refused to follow Roosevelt's rash action, for it allowed the conservatives to seize control of the GOP; they kept it for the next 30 years. Roosevelt's quixotic crusade also allowed Democrat Woodrow Wilson to gain the White House with only 40% of the vote. After Wilson's fragile coalition collapsed in 1920, the GOP won three consecutive presidential contests by landslides. Herbert Hoover represented the quintessence of the modernizing engineer, bringing efficiency to government and economy. His poor skills at negotiating with politicians hardly seemed to matter when the economy boomed and Democrats were in disarray. When the Depression hit, his political ineptitude compounded the party's weaknesses. For four decades, whenever Democrats were at a loss for words, they could always ridicule Hoover.

Roosevelt did not seek another term in 1908, instead endorsing Secretary of War William Howard Taft as his successor, but the widening division between progressive and conservative forces in the party resulted in a third-party candidacy for Roosevelt on the Progressive, or "Bull Moose" ticket in the election of 1912. He finished ahead of Taft, but the split in the Republican vote resulted in a decisive victory for Democrat Woodrow Wilson, temporarily interrupting the Republican era.

The party controlled the presidency throughout the 1920s, running on a platform of isolationism and "laissez-faire" economics, although economic isolationism (tariffs, etc.) and laissez-faire economics are mutually exclusive. (Many believe that true laissez-faire economic policy ended with the 1896 Democratic Candidacy of William Jennings Bryan) Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover were resoundingly elected in 1920, 1924, and 1928 respectively, but the Great Depression cost Hoover the presidency with the landslide election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932.

Fifth Party System: New Deal, 1932-1980

The Great Depression sidelined the GOP for decades. The main causes were a sense of defeatism--the old conservative formulas for prosperity had lost their magic--and the success of the Democrats in building up liberal majorities that depended on labor unions, big city machines, federal relief funds, and the mobilization of Catholics, Jews and African Americans. On the other hand, middle class hostility to new taxes, and fears about a repeat of the First World War, led to a Republican rebound. Franklin Roosevelt's immense popularity gave him four consecutive victories, but by 1938 the GOP was doing quite well in off-year elections when FDR's magic was not at work. In 1948, taxes were high, federal relief had ended and big city machines were collapsing, but the unions were peaking in strength and they helped Harry Truman reassemble FDR's coalition for one last hurrah. 1948 proved to be the high water mark of class polarization in American politics; afterwards the differences narrowed between the middle class and the working class. In 1952 attack issues of Korea, Communism and Corruption gave war hero Dwight Eisenhower a landslide, along with a narrow control of Congress. However the GOP remained a minority party, and was factionalized, with a northeastern liberal element basically favorable to the New Deal welfare state and the policy of containing Communist expansion, versus Midwestern conservatives who bitterly opposed New Deal taxes, regulation, labor unions, and internationalism. Both factions used the issue of anti-communism, and attacked the Democrats for harboring spies and allowing Communist gains in China and Korea. New York governors Tom Dewey and Nelson Rockefeller led the liberal wing, while senators Robert Taft of Ohio and Barry Goldwater of Arizona spoke for the conservatives. Eisenhower represented internationalism in foreign policy, sidetracking the isolationism represented by Taft and Hoover. Richard Nixon was aligned with the eastern liberal GOP; he lost in 1960 because the Democrats had a larger base of loyal supporters, especially Catholics who turned out to support their coreligionist John Kennedy. The defeat of yet another candidate sponsored by the eastern "establishment" opened the way for Goldwater's 1964 crusade against the New Deal and Great Society. Goldwater permanently knocked out the eastern liberals, but in turn his crushing defeat retired many old-line conservatives. Goldwater in 1964 and independent George Wallace in 1968 ripped southern whites and many northern Catholics away from their Democratic roots, at the same time the Democratic commitment to civil rights won over nine-tenths of all African American voters. Lyndon Johnson's Great Society collapsed in the mid 1960s in a frenzy of violence and protest over racial hatreds, Vietnam, generational revolt, crime in the streets, burning inner cities, and runaway government. Nixon seized the moment. As president he largely ignored his party--his 1972 reelection campaign was practically nonpartisan. Even so his self-destruction wreaked havoc in the 1974 election, setting the stage for the Carter interregnum.

Roosevelt's New Deal coalition controlled American politics for the next three decades, excepting the two-term presidency of World War II General Dwight Eisenhower.

The post-war emergence of the United States as one of two superpowers and rapid social change caused the Republican Party to divide into a conservative faction (dominant in the West and Southeast) and a liberal faction (dominant in New England) – combined with a residual base of inherited progressive Midwestern Republicanism active throughout the century. A Republican like U.S. Sen Robert Taft of Ohio represented the Midwestern wing of the party that continued to oppose New Deal reforms and continued to champion isolationism. Thomas Dewey represented the Northeastern wing of the party that was closer to Democratic liberalism and internationalism. In the end, the isolationists were marginalized by those who supported a strong U.S. role in opposing the Soviet Union throughout the world, as embodied by President Eisenhower. However, this development did not represent the end of the story. The seeds of conservative dominance in the Republican party were planted in the nomination of conservative Barry Goldwater over liberal Nelson Rockefeller as the Republican candidate for the 1964 presidential election.

One element of the New Deal coalition was the "Solid South", a term describing the Southern states' reliable support for Democratic presidential candidates. Goldwater's electoral success in the South, and Nixon's successful Southern strategy four years later, represented a significant political change, as Southern white protestants began moving into the party, largely in reaction to national Democratic Party's support for the Civil Rights Movement. The remaining pockets of liberal Republicanism in the northeast began to die out as the region turned solidly Democratic. In The Emerging Republican Majority, Kevin Phillips, then a Nixon strategist, argued (based on the 1968 election results) that support from Southern whites and growth in the Sun Belt, among other factors, was driving an enduring Republican electoral realignment.

Any enduring Republican majority, however, was put on hold when the Watergate Scandal forced Nixon to resign under threat of impeachment. Gerald Ford succeeded Nixon under the 25th Amendment and struggled to forge a political identity separate from his predecessor. The taint of Watergate and the nation's economic difficulties contributed to the election of Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1976, a Washington outsider.

Sixth Party System: Age of Reagan, 1980-Present

Jimmy Carter's presidency crashed in 1980. Foreign affairs were unusually salient, as public opinion saw failure in policy toward the Soviet Union, Iran, and Mideast hostages. Stagflation in the economy meant a combination of high unemployment and high inflation. Most of all there was a sense of drift or, worse, of malaise. The country craved leadership. Ronald Reagan led a political revolution, capitalizing on grievances and mobilizing an entirely new voting bloc in 1980, the religious right. Southern Baptists and other fundamentalists and evangelicals had been voting Democratic since the New Deal, because of their low educational and economic status, and their southern roots. Suddenly they began to react strongly against a perceived national tolerance of immorality (especially abortion and homosexuality), rising crime, and America's apparent rejection of traditional family values. Reagan had vision and leadership qualities that workaholic policy gurus could never understand. Under Reagan history happened--including a massive military buildup, the defeat of the anti-nuclear peace movement, and massive tax cuts. By 1984 inflation had faded away, unemployment eased, profits and fortunes were soaring Social Security had been reformed, and Reagan carried 49 states in winning reelection. Most astonishing of all was Reagan's revival of the Cold War, followed closely by the total collapse of the Soviet Empire. The best issue for the Democrats was the soaring national deficit--long a conservative theme--though their attacks doomed any hopes that they could ever return to the liberal tax and spend policies of yore. For the first time since 1932, the GOP pulled abreast of the Democrats in terms of party identification on the part of voters. Higher income people were more Republican, and still voted, while the lower income groups that had always been the mainstay of the Democratic party increasingly lost interest and simply did not bother to vote. By the 1980s a gender gap was apparent, with men and married women more Republican and single, divorced and professional women more Democratic. Thanks to the religious right, the GOP gained the votes of less-educated moralistic voters. Those gains were largely offset by a tendency toward Democratic positions regarding multiculturalism and tolerance of homosexuality and abortion among holders of college and postgraduate degrees.

    George Bush rode to the White House on Reagan's

popularity, and could himself claim smashing victories in the Cold War and the Gulf War. The public was baffled that Bush--so knowledgeable and decisive regarding Kuwait and East Berlin--seemed unconcerned about taxes, deficits and other domestic issues that bothered Americans far more. When independent Ross Perot polled an amazing 19% of the vote in 1992 by crusading against the deficit, Bush was doomed. However the GOP roared back in 1994, gaining control of Congress for the first time since 1952, as well as control of governors' mansions in nearly all of the major states. The rancorous leadership of Speaker Newt Gingrich soured politics in Washington; he was unable to deliver on most of his "Contract with America." Meanwhile, as a party the GOP for the first time had built a national infrastructure, based on its ability to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from political action committees and individual donors. While ideological Republicans in Congress failed in their efforts to remove President Bill Clinton by impeachment, the party did cooperate with the president to sharply reduce welfare spending and end the federal budget deficit. The nomination of George W. Bush in 2000 signalled a turn to the states for leadership, as he became the first incumbent governor to win the GOP nomination since Tom Dewey in 1944 and 1948.

The trends Phillips described could be seen in the 1980 and 1984 elections of Ronald Reagan - the latter being a landslide in which Reagan won nearly 59% of the popular vote and carried 49 of the 50 states - as well as the Newt Gingrich-led "Republican Revolution" of 1994 and its Contract With America. The latter was the first time in 40 years that the Republicans secured control of both houses of U.S. Congress, which, with the exception of the Senate during 2001-2002, has been retained through the present time.

That year, the GOP campaigned on a platform of major reforms of government with measures, such as a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and welfare reform. These measures and others formed the famous Contract with America, which were subsequently considered by the Congress, although not all items passed. Democratic President Bill Clinton opposed many of the social agenda initiatives, with welfare reform and a balanced federal budget notable exceptions. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives also failed to muster the two-thirds majority required to pass one of the most popular proposals – a Constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress. In 1995, a budget battle with Clinton led to the brief shutdown of the federal government, an event which contributed to Clinton's victory in the 1996 election.

With the victory of George W. Bush in the closely contested 2000 election, the Republican party gained control of the presidency and both houses of Congress for the first time since 1952. When Vermont Republican Senator James Jeffords switched parties, Republicans temporarily lost control of the Senate until 2002. In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, however, Bush's popularity rose as he pursued a "War on Terrorism" that included the invasion of Afghanistan and the USA Patriot Act.

The Republican Party fared well in the 2002 midterm elections, solidifying its hold on the House and regaining control of the Senate, in the run-up to the war in Iraq. This marked just the third time since the Civil War that the party in control of the White House gained seats in both houses of Congress in a midterm election (others were 1902 and 1934). On November 2, 2004, Bush was re-elected to a second term. Bush received 51% of the popular vote, becoming the first presidential candidate to win a majority of the popular vote since 1988. Republicans gained additional seats in both houses of Congress, leaving Democrats again in the minority.

Future

Thus, by 2006, Republicans will have controlled the White House for 26 of the previous 38 years, and the Congress since 1994 (with the brief interruption in the Senate). Conservative commentators speculate, and Republicans hope, that this may constitute a permanent realignment. Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political advisor, has been reported to be a keen student of the presidential election of 1896, in which Mark Hanna helped William McKinley construct a Republican majority that lasted for the next 36 years.

Some left-leaning commentators, such as Ruy Teixeira and John Judis (in The Emerging Democratic Majority, 2002), see such prospects as unlikely, given that Republican voters are overwhelmingly white and often rural, two groups shrinking in relative demographic terms, while Democrats tend to win healthy majorities among Hispanics, African Americans, and city dwellers. Their conservative counterparts, however, point to Bush's relative success among Hispanic voters, winning 35% of their vote in 2000 and 44% in 2004. (Among African American voters, Bush - like all recent Republican presidential candidates - lost overwhelmingly both times, though he did manage to increase his support from 9% in 2000 to 11% in 2004.) They also point to Republican strength in quickly growing exurbs and in the booming metropolitan areas of the South; indeed, in 2004, Bush won more than ninety of the hundred fastest growing counties in the country.

Factions of the Republican Party

It should be noted defining the views of any "faction" of any political party is difficult at best, and that any attempt to apply labels within a single political party is no more effective than the application of broad labels to political parties as a whole. Keeping that in mind, there are several ideological groups recognized by some in the modern-day GOP, including the religious right, paleoconservatives, neoconservatives, moderates, fiscal conservatives, and libertarians.

For more information on the factions in the Republican Party, see Factions in the Republican Party (United States).

Presidential tickets

Refer also to: List of Presidents of the United States

Other noted Republicans

Present-day

• Howard Baker, Ambassador to Japan
• Michael Bloomberg, Businessman and Mayor of New York City
• Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida
• Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Senator from Colorado until 2005
• Saxby Chambliss, Senator from Georgia
• Dick Cheney, Vice President
• Tom DeLay, House Majority Leader, from Texas
• Bob Dole, 1996 Party Candidate for President and former U.S. Senator.
• Elizabeth Dole, Senator from North Carolina, former Labor Secretary and Transportation Secretary, and former presidential candidate
• John Engler, former Governor of Michigan
• Bill Frist, Senate Majority Leader, from Tennessee
• Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, from Georgia
• Phil Gramm, former Senator from Texas
• Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York
• Alexander Haig, former Secretary of State
• Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the House, from Illinois
• Jesse Helms, former Senator from North Carolina
• Thomas Kean, former Governor from New Jersey
• Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State
• Trent Lott, former Senate Majority Leader, from Mississippi
• John McCain, Senator from Arizona and former presidential candidate
• George Pataki, Governor of New York
• Tim Pawlenty, Governor of Minnesota
• Colin Powell, former Secretary of State
• Dan Quayle, former Vice President
• Tom Ridge, former Homeland Security Secretary
• Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State
• Dana Rohrabacher, Representative from California
• Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense
• Rick Santorum, Senator from Pennsylvania and chairman of the Senate Republican Conference
• George P. Shultz, former Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury
• Arlen Specter, Senator from Pennsylvania
• Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California
• Caspar Weinberger. former Secretary of Defense
• Christine Todd Whitman, former Governor of New Jersey and former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency
• Pete Wilson, former Governor of California

Historical

• James G. Blaine (1830 - 1893), former Senator from Maine and Presidential candidate
• John Connally (1917 - 1993), a Governor of Texas
• Joseph Gurney Cannon (1836 - 1926), Speaker of the House
• Charles Curtis (1860 - 1936), Vice President
• Charles G. Dawes (1865 - 1951), Vice President
• George Frisbie Hoar (1826 - 1904), Senator from Massachusetts
• Robert G. Ingersoll (1833 - 1899), political activist
• Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924) Senator from Massachusetts
• Joseph McCarthy (1908 - 1957), Senator from Wisconsin and noted anti-communist
• Thomas Brackett Reed (1839 - 1902), Speaker of the House
• Nelson Rockefeller (1908 - 1979), Vice President, Governor of New York, and repeated presidential candidate
• Leland Stanford (1824 - 1893), Governor of California, Senator, and founder of Stanford University
• Robert Alphonso Taft (1889 - 1953), Senator and former presidential candidate
• Strom Thurmond (1902 - 2003), the oldest serving Senator in history (from South Carolina)
• Arthur H. Vandenberg (1884 - 1951), Senator from Michigan
• Earl Warren (1891 - 1974), Governor of California and Chief Justice of the United States

Lists

• List of state Republican Parties in the U.S.
• List of Republican National Conventions
• List of liberal U.S. Republicans
• List of Republican celebrities

See also

• Republican National Convention
• List of Republican Party Presidential nominees
• Republican Liberty Caucus
• Log Cabin Republicans
• Ripon Society
• South Park Republicans
• Rockefeller Republican
• Radical Republican
• International Democrat Union, of which the Republican Party is a member

External links

• Republican National Committee
  • 2004 Platform (PDF format)
• College Republican National Committee
• SavetheGOP.com
• Grand Order of Pachyderm Clubs
• National Federation of Republican Assemblies
• Republican Main Street Partnership
• Republican Liberty Caucus
• Republican Issues Campaign
• Americans for a Republican Majority
• Republican Leadership Coalition
• GOPinion