:en:Republican Party (United States)

{{Main|History of the Republican Party (United States)}}

In 1854, the Republican Party emerged to combat the expansion of slavery into western territories after the passing of the Kansas–Nebraska Act. The early Republican Party consisted of northern Protestants, factory workers, professionals, businessmen, prosperous farmers, and after the Civil War also of black former slaves. The party had very little support from white Southerners at the time, who predominantly backed the Democratic Party in the Solid South, and from Irish and German Catholics, who made up a major Democratic voting block. While both parties adopted pro-business policies in the 19th century, the early GOP was distinguished by its support for the national banking system, the gold standard, railroads, and high tariffs. The party opposed the expansion of slavery before 1861 and led the fight to destroy the Confederate States of America (1861–1865). While the Republican Party had almost no presence in the Southern United States at its inception, it was very successful in the Northern United States, where by 1858 it had enlisted former Whigs and former Free Soil Democrats to form majorities in nearly every Northern state.

With the election of its first president, Abraham Lincoln, in 1860, the party's success in guiding the Union to victory in the Civil War, and the party's role in the abolition of slavery, the Republican Party largely dominated the national political scene until 1932. In 1912, former Republican president Theodore Roosevelt formed the Progressive Party after being rejected by the GOP and ran unsuccessfully as a third-party presidential candidate calling for social reforms. The GOP lost its congressional majorities during the Great Depression (1929–1940); under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Democrats formed a winning New Deal coalition that was dominant from 1932 through 1964.

After the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Southern strategy, the party's core base shifted with the Southern states becoming more reliably Republican in presidential politics and the Northeastern states becoming more reliably Democratic. White voters increasingly identified with the Republican Party after the 1960s.{{Cite journal|last=Zingher|first=Joshua N.|date=2018 |title=Polarization, Demographic Change, and White Flight from the Democratic Party|journal=The Journal of Politics|language=en |volume=80 |issue=3|pages=860–872|doi=10.1086/696994|s2cid=158351108|issn=0022-3816}} Following the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, the Republican Party opposed abortion in its party platform and grew its support among evangelicals.{{Cite book |url=https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-great-divide/9780231120593|title=The Great Divide: Religious and Cultural Conflict in American Party Politics|last=Layman |first=Geoffrey|date=2001|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0231120586|pages=115, 119–120}} The Republican Party won five of the six presidential elections from 1968 to 1988. Two-term President Ronald Reagan, who held office from 1981 to 1989, was a transformative party leader. His conservative policies called for reduced social government spending and regulation, increased military spending, lower taxes, and a strong anti-Soviet Union foreign policy. Reagan's influence upon the party persisted into the 21st century.

Since the 1990s, the party's support has chiefly come from the South, the Great Plains, the Mountain States, and rural areas in the North.{{cite web |url=http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/14/1598918/-Republicans-now-dominate-state-government-with-32-legislatures-and-33-governors |title=Republicans Now Dominate State Government|publisher=Daily Kos}}{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/president |title=Presidential Election Results: Donald J. Trump Wins |work=The New York Times |date=August 9, 2017 }} It supports free market economics, cultural conservatism, and originalism in constitutional jurisprudence.{{Cite web|date=July 18, 2016|title=2016 Republican Party Platform|url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/2016-republican-party-platform|access-date=January 25, 2022|website=University of California, Santa Barbara}} There have been 19 Republican presidents, the most from any one political party.

{{Main|First presidency of Donald Trump|Second presidency of Donald Trump|Trumpism}}

File:TrumpPortrait.jpg, the 45th and 47th president (2017–2021; since 2025)]]

In the 2016 presidential election, Republican nominee Donald Trump defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. The result was unexpected; polls leading up to the election showed Clinton leading the race.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/12-days-stunned-nation-how-hillary-clinton-lost-n794131|title=12 days that stunned a nation: How Hillary Clinton lost|website=NBC News|date=August 23, 2017|access-date=December 8, 2019|archive-date=January 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128124221/https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/12-days-stunned-nation-how-hillary-clinton-lost-n794131|url-status=live}} Trump's victory was fueled by narrow victories in three states—Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—that had been part of the Democratic blue wall for decades.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/donald-trump-republican-party/presidency|title=How Trump won and proved everyone wrong with his populist message|website=NBC News Specials|date=December 14, 2016|access-date=December 8, 2019|archive-date=November 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108102242/https://www.nbcnews.com/specials/donald-trump-republican-party/presidency/|url-status=live}} It was attributed to strong support amongst working-class white voters, who felt dismissed and disrespected by the political establishment.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/upshot/why-trump-won-working-class-whites.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161109094913/http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/upshot/why-trump-won-working-class-whites.html |archive-date=November 9, 2016 |url-access=limited|url-status=live|title=Why Trump Won: Working-Class Whites|first=Nate|last=Cohn|work=The New York Times|date=November 9, 2016|access-date=February 15, 2021}} Trump became popular with them by abandoning Republican establishment orthodoxy in favor of a broader nationalist message. His election accelerated the Republican Party's shift towards right-wing populism and resulted in decreasing influence among its conservative factions.{{refn|name="RWP"}}

After the 2016 elections, Republicans maintained their majority in the Senate, the House, and governorships, and wielded newly acquired executive power with Trump's election. The Republican Party controlled 69 of 99 state legislative chambers in 2017, the most it had held in history.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/12/us/republicans-expand-control-in-a-deeply-divided-nation.html?_r=0|title=Republicans Expand Control in a Deeply Divided Nation|work=The New York Times|date=November 11, 2016 |access-date=February 18, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161119193906/http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/12/us/republicans-expand-control-in-a-deeply-divided-nation.html?_r=0|archive-date=November 19, 2016|url-status=live|last1=Bosman |first1=Julie |last2=Davey |first2=Monica }} The Party also held 33 governorships,{{Cite web|url=https://www.governing.com/archive/gov-2017-2018-governors-races-predictions.html|title=2017–2018 Governors' Races: Where Power Is Most and Least Likely to Flip|date=January 3, 2017|website=Governing|access-date=January 28, 2024|archive-date=January 28, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240128024618/https://www.governing.com/archive/gov-2017-2018-governors-races-predictions.html|url-status=live}} the most it had held since 1922.{{cite web|url=https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2016-11-09/republicans-expand-control-of-governorships-legislatures|title=Republicans Governorships Rise to Highest Mark Since 1922|work=U.S. News & World Report|access-date=September 10, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170915132840/https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2016-11-09/republicans-expand-control-of-governorships-legislatures|archive-date=September 15, 2017|url-status=live}} The party had total control of government in 25 states,{{cite news|title=Republican governorships rise to highest mark since 1922|url=https://www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2016-11-09/republicans-expand-control-of-governorships-legislature|work=U.S. News & World Report|date=November 6, 2016|first=David A.|last=Lieb|agency=Associated Press}}{{cite news|last=Phillips|first=Amber|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/12/these-3-maps-show-just-how-dominant-republicans-are-in-america-after-tuesday/|title=These 3 maps show just how dominant Republicans are in America after Tuesday|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=November 12, 2016|access-date=November 14, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161113061740/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/12/these-3-maps-show-just-how-dominant-republicans-are-in-america-after-tuesday/|archive-date=November 13, 2016|url-status=live}} the most since 1952.{{cite news|last1=Lieb|first1=David A.|title=GOP-Controlled States Aim to Reshape Laws|url=https://www.pressreader.com/usa/chicago-tribune/20161229/281822873464433|date=December 29, 2016|agency=Associated Press|access-date=December 30, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161231075054/https://www.pressreader.com/usa/chicago-tribune/20161229/281822873464433|archive-date=December 31, 2016|url-status=live}} The opposing Democratic Party held full control of only five states in 2017.{{cite web|last1=Greenblatt|first1=Alan|title=Republicans Add to Their Dominance of State Legislatures|url=http://www.governing.com/topics/elections/gov-republicans-add-dominance-state-legislatures.html|date=November 9, 2016|work=Governing|access-date=November 17, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116125852/http://www.governing.com/topics/elections/gov-republicans-add-dominance-state-legislatures.html|archive-date=November 16, 2016|url-status=live}} In the 2018 elections, Republicans lost control of the House, but strengthened their hold on the Senate.{{cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/11/2018-election-results-democrats-regain-control-house/575122/|title=The Democrats Are Back, and Ready to Take On Trump|first=David A.|last=Graham|work=The Atlantic|date=November 7, 2018|access-date=November 17, 2020|archive-date=December 9, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191209204842/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/11/2018-election-results-democrats-regain-control-house/575122/|url-status=live}}

Over the course of his presidency, Trump appointed three justices to the Supreme Court: Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.{{cite news |last=Kumar |first=Anita |date=September 26, 2020 |title=Trump's legacy is now the Supreme Court |work=Politico |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/26/trump-legacy-supreme-court-422058 |access-date=November 17, 2020 |archive-date=February 16, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210216160832/https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/26/trump-legacy-supreme-court-422058 |url-status=live }} He was impeached by the House of Representatives in 2019 on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress but was acquitted by the Senate in 2020.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/05/trump-acquitted-in-impeachment-trial.html|title=Trump acquitted of both charges in Senate impeachment trial|last1=Wilkie|first1=Christina|last2=Breuninger|first2=Kevin|date=February 5, 2020|website=CNBC|access-date=February 26, 2020|archive-date=December 30, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201230033735/https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/05/trump-acquitted-in-impeachment-trial.html|url-status=live}} Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden but refused to concede the race, claiming widespread electoral fraud and attempting to overturn the results. On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol was attacked by Trump supporters following a rally at which Trump spoke. After the attack, the House impeached Trump for a second time on the charge of incitement of insurrection, making him the only federal officeholder to be impeached twice.{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/trump-impeachment-effort-live-updates/2021/01/13/956449072/house-impeaches-trump-a-2nd-time-citing-insurrection-at-u-s-capitol|title=House Impeaches Trump A 2nd Time, Citing Insurrection At U.S. Capitol|first=Bill|last=Chappell|work=NPR|date=January 13, 2021|access-date=February 14, 2021|archive-date=February 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210220221620/https://www.npr.org/sections/trump-impeachment-effort-live-updates/2021/01/13/956449072/house-impeaches-trump-a-2nd-time-citing-insurrection-at-u-s-capitol|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/us/politics/trump-impeached.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211228/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/us/politics/trump-impeached.html |archive-date=December 28, 2021 |url-access=limited|title=Trump Impeached for Inciting Insurrection|first=Nicholas|last=Fandos|work=The New York Times|date=January 13, 2021|access-date=February 14, 2021}}{{cbignore}} The Senate acquitted him in February 2021, after he had already left office.{{cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-acquitted-impeachment-trial-7-gop-senators-vote-democrats-convict-n1257876|title=Trump acquitted in impeachment trial; 7 GOP Senators vote with Democrats to convict|first=Dareh|last=Gregorian|work=NBC News|date=February 13, 2021|access-date=February 14, 2021|archive-date=February 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213205205/https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-acquitted-impeachment-trial-7-gop-senators-vote-democrats-convict-n1257876|url-status=live}} Following the 2020 election, election denial became increasingly mainstream in the party,{{cite web |last1=Riccardi |first1=Nicholas |last2=Mascaro |first2=Lisa |date=2024-05-21 |title=Election deniers moving closer to GOP mainstream, report shows, as Trump allies fill Congress |url=https://apnews.com/article/congress-election-lies-2024-certification-president-460cde281d48e62e09e24c7573d6a9ff |access-date=2024-08-15 |website=AP |archive-date=May 21, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521145524/https://apnews.com/article/congress-election-lies-2024-certification-president-460cde281d48e62e09e24c7573d6a9ff |url-status=live }} with the majority of Republican candidates in 2022 being election deniers.{{cite news |last1=Blanco |first1=Adrián |last2=Wolfe |first2=Daniel |last3=Gardner |first3=Amy |date=2022-11-07 |title=Tracking which 2020 election deniers are winning, losing in the midterms |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2022/election-deniers-midterms/ |access-date=2024-08-15 |newspaper=Washington Post |archive-date=January 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111222807/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2022/election-deniers-midterms/ |url-status=live }} The party also made efforts to restrict voting based on false claims of fraud.{{Cite web|last1=Izaguirre|first1=Anthony|last2=Coronado|first2=Acacia|date=January 31, 2021|title=GOP lawmakers seek tougher voting rules after record turnout|url=https://apnews.com/article/bills-voting-rights-elections-coronavirus-pandemic-voter-registration-0e94844d72d2a2bf8b51b1c950bd64fc |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210131151357/https://apnews.com/article/bills-voting-rights-elections-coronavirus-pandemic-voter-registration-0e94844d72d2a2bf8b51b1c950bd64fc |access-date=January 17, 2023 |archive-date=January 31, 2021 |url-status=live|website=Associated Press}}{{Cite web|last=McCaskill|first=Nolan D.|date=March 15, 2021|title=After Trump's loss and false fraud claims, GOP eyes voter restrictions across nation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210315142648/https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/15/voting-restrictions-states-475732 |archive-date=March 15, 2021 |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/15/voting-restrictions-states-475732 |access-date=January 17, 2023 |url-status=live|website=Politico}} By 2020, the Republican Party had greatly shifted towards illiberalism following the election of Trump,{{refn|name="Illiberalism"|

• {{Cite news |date=October 31, 2020 |title=The Republican Party has lurched towards populism and illiberalism |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/10/31/the-republican-party-has-lurched-towards-populism-and-illiberalism |access-date=November 9, 2024 |archive-date=June 2, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240602072716/https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/10/31/the-republican-party-has-lurched-towards-populism-and-illiberalism |url-status=live |issn=0013-0613|quote=In the late 20th century the Republican Party already looked a bit less liberal and more populist than most mainstream European parties. But according to the V-Dem Institute's analysis, it only really started to deviate to "illiberalism" when it embraced religious values under Mr Bush after his election in 2000. The party then veered into populism in 2010 with the rise of the Tea Party movement, which vowed to curb what it saw as the unjustifiable expansion of the federal government under Barack Obama. However, the greatest shift, especially towards illiberalism, came with the election of Mr Trump.}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Encarnación |first=Omar G. |date=June 12, 2023 |title=Democratic Backsliding: Comparative Reflections on the American Experience |url=https://academic.oup.com/psq/article-abstract/138/3/407/7194282 |journal=Political Science Quarterly |volume=138 |issue=3 |access-date=November 12, 2024 |pages=407–424 |issn=0032-3195 |doi=10.1093/psquar/qqad036 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241112000309/https://academic.oup.com/psq/article-abstract/138/3/407/7194282 |archive-date=November 12, 2024 |quote=Despite the appearance of being consolidated, the American political system is institutionally vulnerable to backsliding—from an electoral system fraught with so many deficiencies that election experts deem it archaic and undemocratic; to an imperial presidency that sits at the center of federal power and towers over the legislature and the judiciary; to the recent transformation of the Republican Party into an illiberal force more interested in acquiring power than in governing. ... The Republican Party's pivotal role in enabling backsliding in the Trump era mirrors the post-Communist experience. In recent years, the Republican party has fashioned itself after the Fidesz Party in Hungary (Europe's most sobering example of backsliding), from embracing the ideology of Christian Nationalism to using the state to fight culture wars to cynically rejecting the idea of democracy. In connection to the last point, a popular argument among Republican election deniers is that the United States is not a democracy but a republic. As noted by the New York Times, "There is more at stake than the health of the Republican Party when its core activists, as well as a growing number of officials and those campaigning for governmental positions, openly espouse hostility not just to democratic principles, but, increasingly, to the word 'democracy' itself." Indeed, this illiberal behavior puts American democracy in peril. |quote-pages=410{{ndash}}423}}
• {{cite book |last=Main |first=Thomas J. |date=January 4, 2022 |title=The Rise of Illiberalism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mPL2DwAAQBAJ |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=Brookings Institution Press |page=188 |isbn=9780815738503 |quote=A sharp repudiation at the polls would have checked the vogue for illiberal and identitarian ideologies and driven the Republican party back within the bounds of the liberal democratic political spectrum. |archive-date=January 28, 2025 |access-date=November 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250128234748/https://books.google.com/books?id=mPL2DwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}
• {{Cite journal |last1=Laruelle |first1=Marlene |date=March 1, 2022 |title=Illiberalism: a conceptual introduction |journal=East European Politics |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=303–327 |issn=2159-9165 |doi=10.1080/21599165.2022.2037079 |quote=Classical conservatives—such as the Christian Democrats in Europe or the Republican Party in the US before Donald Trump—are/were fervent supporters of political rights and constitutionalism, while illiberalism challenges them ... The struggle of the European People's Party to win concessions from Orbán's Fidesz or the Polish PiS, as well as the subjugation of the Republican Party by Donald Trump, have revealed how attractive illiberal leaders may be to the more mainstream right. As Marc Plattner has stated, the future of liberal democracy will largely depend on how successful or unsuccessful the classical conservative right is at resisting illiberalism. |quote-pages=315{{ndash}}316|doi-access=free }}
• {{cite magazine |last1=Cooley |first1=Alexander |last2=Nexon |first2=Daniel H. |date=January–February 2022 |title=The Real Crisis of Global Order: Illiberalism on the Rise |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2021-12-14/illiberalism-real-crisis-global-order |magazine=Foreign Affairs |volume=101 |issue=1 |location=New York City, New York |publisher=Council on Foreign Relations |access-date=November 12, 2024 |issn=0015-7120 |quote=The election of Donald Trump in 2016 sparked a major debate over the nature and fate of the liberal international order, suddenly caught, it seemed, between the Charybdis of illiberal great-power challengers and the Scylla of a hostile U.S. president. Trump may have lost the presidency in 2020, but the liberal order remains under threat. ... In the United States, one of the two major political parties remains beholden to an authoritarian demagogue. Motivated by the "Big Lie" (the objectively false claim that Democrats stole the election from Trump through systematic voter fraud), the Republican Party is purging officials who stood in the way of efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Republican voter-suppression efforts are accelerating.}}
• {{Cite journal |last1=Dunwoody |first1=Phillip T. |last2=Gershtenson |first2=Joseph |last3=Plane |first3=Dennis L. |last4=Upchurch-Poole |first4=Territa |date=August 9, 2022 |title=The fascist authoritarian model of illiberal democracy |journal=Frontiers in Political Science |volume=4 |issue= |issn=2673-3145 |doi=10.3389/fpos.2022.907681 |doi-access=free |quote=All the components of the fascist authoritarian model of illiberal democracy were evidenced in the recent 2020 U.S. presidential election. … In classic authoritarian fashion, Trump sought to remain in power by asserting his preferred fiction over more objective realities promoted by those in traditional, truth-based professions. Trump engaged in threat othering to work up his base so that they would support the use of force to "save" their country. The result of these combined mechanisms was the support of blatantly illiberal antidemocratic behavior at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. |quote-page=12}}
• {{cite book |last1=Hopkin |first1=Jonathan |author1-link=Jonathan Hopkin |last2=Blyth |first2=Mark |author2-link=Mark Blyth |editor1-last=Vormann |editor1-first=Boris |editor2-last=Weinman |editor2-first=Michael D. |title=The Emergence of Illiberalism |date=2020 |publisher=Routledge |chapter=Global Trumpism: Understanding Anti-System Politics in Western Democracies |isbn=978-0367366247 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C_3vDwAAQBAJ&q=global+trumpism&pg=PT107 |access-date=October 11, 2020 |archive-date=February 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210215222839/https://books.google.com/books?id=C_3vDwAAQBAJ&q=global+trumpism&pg=PT107 |url-status=live }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Norris |first1=Pippa |date=2017 |title=Online Exchange on "Democratic Deconsolidation |url=https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Journal-of-Democracy-Web-Exchange-Norris_0.pdf |journal=Journal of Democracy |volume=12 |access-date=9 November 2024 |quote=The rise of populist authoritarianism in the United States, especially by the risks that President Trump poses to core democratic values, practices and institutions, pose major threats to liberal democracy. ... When the populist style of governance is coupled with authoritarian values, however, this potent combination presents most dangerous risk to the principles and practices at the heart of liberal democracy. Trump falls into this category. ... populist-authoritarian forces threatening to dismantle core values in liberal democracy pose the gravest risk, especially in America, given the vast powers of the U.S. presidency and its hegemonic role in the world. The mainstream news media, the courts, and a reenergized civil society are actively pushing back to resist the threats to democracy arising from the Trump administration. In Congress and State Houses, however, the Democrats are decimated, and the Republican party and conservative activists seem willing to be seduced by dreams of power.|quote-pages=14{{ndash}}15{{ndash}}18}}}} and research conducted by the V-Dem Institute concluded that the party was more similar to Europe's most right-wing parties such as Law and Justice in Poland or Fidesz in Hungary.{{Cite news |date=October 31, 2020 |title=The Republican Party has lurched towards populism and illiberalism |newspaper=The Economist |url=https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/10/31/the-republican-party-has-lurched-towards-populism-and-illiberalism |access-date=November 9, 2024 |archive-date=June 2, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240602072716/https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/10/31/the-republican-party-has-lurched-towards-populism-and-illiberalism |url-status=live |issn=0013-0613|quote=In the late 20th century the Republican Party already looked a bit less liberal and more populist than most mainstream European parties. But according to the V-Dem Institute's analysis, it only really started to deviate to "illiberalism" when it embraced religious values under Mr Bush after his election in 2000. The party then veered into populism in 2010 with the rise of the Tea Party movement, which vowed to curb what it saw as the unjustifiable expansion of the federal government under Barack Obama. However, the greatest shift, especially towards illiberalism, came with the election of Mr Trump.}}{{Cite web |last1=Lührmann |first1=Anna |last2=Medzihorsky |first2=Juraj |last3=Hindle |first3=Garry |last4=Lindberg |first4=Staffan I. |date=October 2020 |title=New Global Data on Political Parties: V-Party |url=https://www.v-dem.net/documents/8/vparty_briefing.pdf |series=Briefing Paper #9 |publisher=V-Dem Institute |access-date=November 13, 2024 |archive-date=November 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241114171742/https://www.v-dem.net/documents/8/vparty_briefing.pdf |url-status=live }}

The party went into the 2022 elections confident and with analysts predicting a red wave, but it underperformed expectations, with voters in swing states and competitive districts joining Democrats in rejecting candidates who had been endorsed by Trump or who had denied the results of the 2020 election.{{cite web|date=November 8, 2022|title=How Election Week 2022 Went Down|url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/live-blog/2022-midterm-election/|access-date=November 17, 2022|website=FiveThirtyEight|archive-date=November 16, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221116174931/https://fivethirtyeight.com/live-blog/2022-midterm-election/|url-status=live}}{{cite news |last=Hounshell |first=Blake |date=November 9, 2022 |title=Five Takeaways From a Red Wave That Didn't Reach the Shore |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/us/politics/midterm-elections-takeaways.html |access-date=November 9, 2022 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=November 18, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221118043809/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/us/politics/midterm-elections-takeaways.html |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last=Tumulty |first=Karen |date=November 9, 2022 |title=The expected red wave looks more like a puddle |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/09/no-red-wave-midterm-outcome-analysis/ |access-date=November 10, 2022 |issn=0190-8286 |archive-date=November 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221112060937/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/09/no-red-wave-midterm-outcome-analysis/ |url-status=live }} The party won control of the House with a narrow majority,{{cite news |last=Cowan |first=Richard |date=November 17, 2022 |title=Republicans win U.S. House majority, setting stage for divided government |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republicans-one-seat-away-winning-house-us-midterm-vote-2022-11-16/ |access-date=November 17, 2022 |archive-date=November 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221125100214/https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republicans-one-seat-away-winning-house-us-midterm-vote-2022-11-16/ |url-status=live }} but lost the Senate and several state legislative majorities and governorships.[https://www.ncsl.org/about-state-legislatures/state-partisan-composition "State Partisan Composition"], May 23, 2023, National Conference of State Legislatures, retrieved July 4, 2023. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230704082911/https://www.ncsl.org/about-state-legislatures/state-partisan-composition |date=July 4, 2023 }}.Cronin, Tom and Bob Loevy: [https://gazette.com/news/american-federalism-states-veer-far-left-or-far-right-cronin-and-loevy/article_47b241d8-1604-11ee-a860-3383285a990d.html "American federalism: States veer far left or far right"], {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230704082911/https://gazette.com/news/american-federalism-states-veer-far-left-or-far-right-cronin-and-loevy/article_47b241d8-1604-11ee-a860-3383285a990d.html |date=July 4, 2023 }}, July 1, 2023, updated July 2, 2023, Colorado Springs Gazette, retrieved July 4, 2023[https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/11/us/politics/state-legislatures-democrats-trifectas.html "In the States, Democrats All but Ran the Table"], {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230704082911/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/11/us/politics/state-legislatures-democrats-trifectas.html |date=July 4, 2023 }} November 11, 2022, The New York Times, retrieved July 4, 2023 The results led to a number of Republicans and conservative thought leaders questioning whether Trump should continue as the party's main figurehead and leader.{{Cite news |last1=Bender |first1=Michael C. |last2=Haberman |first2=Maggie |date=November 10, 2022 |title=Trump Under Fire From Within G.O.P. After Midterms |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/us/politics/trump-republicans-midterms.html |access-date=November 23, 2022 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=November 22, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221122225849/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/09/us/politics/trump-republicans-midterms.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Gomez |first=Henry |title=Battleground Republicans unload on Trump ahead of expected 2024 announcement |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/battleground-republicans-unload-trump-ahead-expected-2024-announcement-rcna57153 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221123151640/https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/battleground-republicans-unload-trump-ahead-expected-2024-announcement-rcna57153 |archive-date=November 23, 2022 |access-date=November 23, 2022 |website=NBC News |date=November 15, 2022 |language=en}}

Despite those disappointments, Trump easily won the nomination to be the party's candidate again in 2024, marking the third straight election of him being the GOP nominee.{{Cite news |last=Pfannenstiel |first=Brianne |date=July 15, 2024 |title="Make America great again!": Iowa Republican chair gives fiery Trump nominating speech at RNC |url=https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/07/15/rnc-2024-iowa-gop-chair-jeff-kaufmann-trump-nominating-speech-republican-national-convention/74411262007/ |access-date=July 18, 2024 |work=The Des Moines Register |archive-date=July 22, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240722151222/https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/07/15/rnc-2024-iowa-gop-chair-jeff-kaufmann-trump-nominating-speech-republican-national-convention/74411262007/ |url-status=live }} Trump – who survived two assassination attempts during the campaign – achieved victory against Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced President Biden on the Democratic ticket after his withdrawal in July. He won both the electoral college and popular vote, becoming the first Republican to do so since George W. Bush in 2004, and improving his vote share among working class voters, particularly among young men, those without college degrees, and Hispanic voters.{{cite web|last1=Lange|first1=Jason|last2=Erickson|first2=Bo|last3=Heath|first3=Brad|date=November 6, 2024|title=Trump's return to power fueled by Hispanic, working-class voter support|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-return-power-fueled-by-hispanic-working-class-voter-support-2024-11-06/|website=Reuters|access-date=November 11, 2024|archive-date=December 21, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241221233938/https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-return-power-fueled-by-hispanic-working-class-voter-support-2024-11-06/|url-status=live}} The Republicans also held a slim majority in the House and retook control of the Senate, securing the party's first trifecta since 2017.

As of {{CURRENTYEAR}}, the GOP holds the presidency, and majorities in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, giving them a federal government trifecta. It also holds 27 state governorships, 28 state legislatures, and 23 state government trifectas. Six of the nine current U.S. Supreme Court justices were appointed by Republican presidents, three of them were appointed by Trump. There have been 19 Republicans who have served as president, the most from any one political party, the most recent being current president Donald Trump, who became the 47th president on January 20, 2025. Trump also served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021.{{cite web | agency=Associated Press | title=Trump clinches 2024 Republican nomination | website=PBS NewsHour | date=2024-03-12 | url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-clinches-2024-republican-nomination | access-date=2024-06-11 | archive-date=April 29, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240429091649/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-clinches-2024-republican-nomination | url-status=live }}

The Republican Party's founding members chose its name as homage to the values of republicanism promoted by Democratic-Republican Party, which its founder, Thomas Jefferson, called the "Republican Party".{{cite book|last=Rutland|first=RA|title=The Republicans: From Lincoln to Bush|year=1996|page=[https://archive.org/details/republicansfroml00rutl_0/page/2 2]|publisher=University of Missouri Press |isbn=0826210902|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/republicansfroml00rutl_0/page/2}} The idea for the name came from an editorial by the party's leading publicist, Horace Greeley, who called for "some simple name like 'Republican' [that] would more fitly designate those who had united to restore the Union to its true mission of champion and promulgator of Liberty rather than propagandist of slavery".{{cite web|url=http://www.ushistory.org/gop/origins.htm|title=The Origins of the Republican Party|publisher=UShistory.org|date=July 4, 1995|access-date=October 25, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120930194002/http://www.ushistory.org/gop/origins.htm|archive-date=September 30, 2012|url-status=live}} The name reflects the 1776 republican values of civic virtue and opposition to aristocracy and corruption.Gould, pp. 14–15 "Republican" has a variety of meanings around the world, and the Republican Party has evolved such that the meanings no longer always align.{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Republican-Party|title=Republican Party {{!}} political party, United States [1854–present]|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=May 9, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170505234240/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Republican-Party|archive-date=May 5, 2017|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/10/the-changing-definition-of-conservative/246652/?single_page=true|title=The Changing Definition of 'Conservative'|last=Joyner|first=James|work=The Atlantic|access-date=May 9, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525034711/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/10/the-changing-definition-of-conservative/246652/?single_page=true|archive-date=May 25, 2017|url-status=live}}

The term "Grand Old Party" is a traditional nickname for the Republican Party, and the abbreviation "GOP" is a commonly used designation. The term originated in 1875 in the Congressional Record, referring to the party associated with the successful military defense of the Union as "this gallant old party". The following year in an article in the Cincinnati Commercial, the term was modified to "grand old party". The first use of the abbreviation is dated 1884."Grand Old Party", Oxford English Dictionary.

The traditional mascot of the party is the elephant. A political cartoon by Thomas Nast, published in Harper's Weekly on November 7, 1874, is considered the first important use of the symbol.{{cite web|url=http://www.harpweek.com/09Cartoon/BrowseByDateCartoon.asp?Year=2003&Month=November&Date=7|title=Cartoon of the Day|website=HarpWeek.com|access-date=December 27, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110921045800/http://www.harpweek.com/09Cartoon/BrowseByDateCartoon.asp?Year=2003&Month=November&Date=7|archive-date=September 21, 2011|url-status=live}} The cartoon was published during the debate over a third term for President Ulysses S. Grant. It draws imagery and text from the Aesop fable "The Ass in the Lion's Skin", combined with rumors of animals escaping from the Central Park Zoo.

An alternate symbol of the Republican Party in states such as Indiana, New York and Ohio is the bald eagle as opposed to the Democratic rooster or the Democratic five-pointed star.{{cite web|url=http://www.unc.edu/~asreynol/ballot_pages/us_ballot_pages/indiana.html|title=Ballots of United States: Indiana|publisher=University of North Carolina|access-date=February 6, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525034148/http://www.unc.edu/~asreynol/ballot_pages/us_ballot_pages/indiana.html|archive-date=May 25, 2017|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Poor Ballot Design Hurts New York's Minor Parties ... Again|publisher=Brennan Center for Justice|first=Tomas|last=Lopez|date=October 23, 2014|url=https://www.brennancenter.org/blog/poor-ballot-design-hurts-new-yorks-minor-parties-again|access-date=February 6, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170207031521/https://www.brennancenter.org/blog/poor-ballot-design-hurts-new-yorks-minor-parties-again|archive-date=February 7, 2017|url-status=dead}} In Kentucky, the log cabin is a symbol of the Republican Party.{{cite web|url=http://westkentuckystar.com/News/Local-Regional/Western-Kentucky/See-Sample-Ballots-for-Today-s-Primary-Elections.aspx|title=See Sample Ballots for Today's Primary Elections|publisher=West Kentucky Star|date=May 19, 2015|access-date=February 6, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170207032021/http://westkentuckystar.com/News/Local-Regional/Western-Kentucky/See-Sample-Ballots-for-Today-s-Primary-Elections.aspx|archive-date=February 7, 2017|url-status=dead}}

Traditionally the party had no consistent color identity.{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/08/red-vs-blue-a-brief-history-of-how-we-use-political-colors/|title=Red vs. Blue: A history of how we use political colors|last=Bump|first=Philip|date=November 8, 2016|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=October 30, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107022519/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/08/red-vs-blue-a-brief-history-of-how-we-use-political-colors/|archive-date=November 7, 2017|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://washingtonmonthly.com/2004/11/13/red-state-blue-state-2/|title=Red State, Blue State|last=Drum|first=Kevin|date=November 13, 2004|website=Washington Monthly|access-date=October 30, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107013719/https://washingtonmonthly.com/2004/11/13/red-state-blue-state-2/|archive-date=November 7, 2017|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://washingtonmonthly.com/2004/11/14/red-states-and-blue-states-explained/|title=Red States and Blue States ... Explained!|last=Drum|first=Kevin|date=November 14, 2004|website=Washington Monthly|access-date=October 30, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107013032/https://washingtonmonthly.com/2004/11/14/red-states-and-blue-states-explained/|archive-date=November 7, 2017|url-status=live}} After the 2000 presidential election, the color red became associated with Republicans. During and after the election, the major broadcast networks used the same color scheme for the electoral map: states won by Republican nominee George W. Bush were colored red and states won by Democratic nominee Al Gore were colored blue. Due to the weeks-long dispute over the election results, these color associations became firmly ingrained, persisting in subsequent years. Although the assignment of colors to political parties is unofficial and informal, the media has come to represent the respective political parties using these colors. The party and its candidates have also come to embrace the color red.{{cite news |first1=Philip |last1=Bump |title=Red vs. Blue: A history of how we use political colors |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/08/red-vs-blue-a-brief-history-of-how-we-use-political-colors/?noredirect=on |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=November 8, 2018 |archive-date=February 22, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210222013526/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/08/red-vs-blue-a-brief-history-of-how-we-use-political-colors/?noredirect=on |url-status=live }}

File:NastRepublicanElephant.jpg|An 1874 cartoon by Thomas Nast, featuring the first notable appearance of the Republican elephant{{cite web|title=The Third-Term Panic|work=Cartoon of the Day|date=November 7, 2003|url=http://www.harpweek.com/09Cartoon/BrowseByDateCartoon.asp?Year=2003&Month=November&Date=7|access-date=September 5, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110921045800/http://www.harpweek.com/09Cartoon/BrowseByDateCartoon.asp?Year=2003&Month=November&Date=7|archive-date=September 21, 2011|url-status=live}}

File:Republicanlogo.svg|The red, white and blue elephant as seen on the GOP web site in 2011

File:GOP Logo1.svg|The GOP banner logo, {{circa|2013}}

File:GOP logo.svg|A GOP banner logo, {{circa|2017}}

{{main|Factions in the Republican Party (United States)}}

{{main|Radical Republicans}}

File:Thaddeus Stevens - Brady-Handy-crop.jpg, considered a leader of the Radical Republicans, was a fierce opponent of slavery and discrimination against African Americans.]]

The Radical Republicans were a major factor of the party from its inception in 1854 until the end of the Reconstruction Era in 1877. They strongly opposed slavery, were hard-line abolitionists, and later advocated equal rights for the freedmen and women. They were heavily influenced by religious ideals and evangelical Christianity.{{cite book |first=Victor B. |last=Howard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6bIfBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1 |title=Religion and the Radical Republican Movement, 1860–1870 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-8131-6144-0 |access-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-date=December 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231215023724/https://books.google.com/books?id=6bIfBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }} Radical Republicans pressed for abolition as a major war aim and they opposed the moderate Reconstruction plans of Abraham Lincoln as both too lenient on the Confederates and not going far enough to help former slaves. After the war's end and Lincoln's assassination, the Radicals clashed with Andrew Johnson over Reconstruction policy. Radicals led efforts to establish civil rights for former slaves and fully implement emancipation, pushing the Fourteenth Amendment for statutory protections through Congress. They opposed allowing ex-Confederate officers to retake political power in the Southern U.S., and emphasized liberty, equality, and the Fifteenth Amendment which provided voting rights for the freedmen. Many later became Stalwarts, who supported machine politics.

Moderate Republicans were known for their loyal support of President Abraham Lincoln's war policies and expressed antipathy towards the more militant stances advocated by the Radical Republicans. In contrast to Radicals, Moderate Republicans were less enthusiastic on the issue of Black suffrage even while embracing civil equality and the expansive federal authority observed throughout the American Civil War. They were also skeptical of the lenient, conciliatory Reconstruction policies of President Andrew Johnson. Members of the Moderate Republicans comprised in part of previous Radical Republicans who became disenchanted with the alleged corruption of the latter faction. They generally opposed efforts by Radical Republicans to rebuild the Southern U.S. under an economically mobile, free-market system.{{Cite book |last=Foner |first=Eric |title=Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 |year=1988 |edition=1st |pages=236–37 |author-link=Eric Foner}}

File:Goldwater-Reagan in 1964.jpg speaks in support of Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater during the 1964 presidential campaign]]

The 20th century saw the Republican party split into an Old Right and a moderate-liberal faction in the Northeast that eventually became known as Rockefeller Republicans. Opposition to Roosevelt's New Deal saw the formation of the conservative coalition.{{Cite web|url=https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469618968/the-roots-of-modern-conservatism|title=The Roots of Modern Conservatism {{!}} Michael Bowen|website=University of North Carolina Press|access-date=May 20, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170522220118/https://www.uncpress.org/book/9781469618968/the-roots-of-modern-conservatism/|archive-date=May 22, 2017|url-status=live}} The 1950s saw fusionism of traditionalist and social conservatism and right-libertarianism,{{cite journal |last1=Ashbee |first1=Edward |last2=Waddan |first2=Alex |title=US Republicans and the New Fusionism |journal=The Political Quarterly |date=December 13, 2023 |volume=95 |pages=148–156 |doi=10.1111/1467-923X.13341 |s2cid=266282896 |issn=1467-923X |language=en-us}} along with the rise of the First New Right to be followed in 1964 with a more populist Second New Right.{{cite book|last1=Gottfried|first1=Paul|last2=Fleming|first2=Thomas|author-link1=Paul Gottfried|author-link2=Thomas Fleming (political writer) |year=1988 |title=The Conservative Movement |location=Boston|publisher=Twayne Publishers|pages=77–95|isbn=0805797238}}

The rise of the Reagan coalition in the 1980s began what has been called the Reagan era. Reagan's rise displaced the liberal-moderate faction of the GOP and established Reagan-style conservatism as the prevailing ideological faction of the Party for the next thirty years, until the rise of the right-wing populist faction.{{Cite news |last=Ward |first=Ian |date=August 26, 2022|title=Trump Didn't Kill Reaganism. These Guys Did. |url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/08/26/reagan-conservatism-nicole-hemmer-q-and-a-00053858 |access-date=February 8, 2024 |work=Politico |language=en-US}} Reagan conservatives generally supported policies that favored limited government, individualism, traditionalism, republicanism, and limited federal governmental power in relation to the states.{{cite book |last=Adams |first=Ian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=apstK1qIvvMC&pg=PA32 |title=Political Ideology Today |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0719060205 |edition=reprinted, revised |location=Manchester |pages=32–33 |quote=Ideologically, all US parties are liberal and always have been. Essentially they espouse classical liberalism, that is a form of democratised Whig constitutionalism plus the free market. The point of difference comes with the influence of social liberalism" and the proper role of government... ...the American right has nothing to do with maintaining the traditional social order, as in Europe. What it believes in is... individualism... The American right has tended towards... classical liberalism... |access-date=February 2, 2023 |archive-date=January 20, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120193242/https://books.google.com/books?id=apstK1qIvvMC&pg=PA32 |url-status=live }}

{{conservatism US}}

{{see also|Neoconservatism|Tea Party movement|Right-wing populism|Trumpism}}

Republicans began the 21st century with the election of George W. Bush in the 2000 United States presidential election and saw the peak of a neoconservative faction that held significant influence over the initial American response to the September 11 attacks through the War on Terror.{{cite journal |last1=Rathburn |first1=Brian C. |title=Does One Right Make a Realist? Conservatism, Neoconservatism, and Isolationism in the Foreign Policy Ideology of American Elites |journal=Political Science Quarterly |volume=123 |issue=2 |date=Summer 2008 |pages=271–299 |doi=10.1002/j.1538-165X.2008.tb00625.x |issn=1538-165X |language=en-us}} The election of Barack Obama saw the formation of the Tea Party movement in 2009 that coincided with a global rise in right-wing populist movements from the 2010s to 2020s.{{cite journal |last1=Isaac |first1=Jeffrey |title=Making America Great Again? |journal=Perspectives on Politics |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=15 |issue=3 |date=November 2017 |pages=625–631 |doi=10.1017/S1537592717000871 |doi-access=free }} The global rise in right-wing populism has been attributed to factors including higher educational attainment, a decline in organized religion, backlash to globalization, and migrant crises.

Right-wing populism became an increasingly dominant ideological faction within the GOP throughout the 2010s and helped lead to the election of Donald Trump in 2016.{{Cite journal |last1=Campani |first1=Giovanna |last2=Fabelo Concepción |first2=Sunamis |last3=Rodriguez Soler |first3=Angel |last4=Sánchez Savín |first4=Claudia |date=December 2022 |title=The Rise of Donald Trump Right-Wing Populism in the United States: Middle American Radicalism and Anti-Immigration Discourse |journal=Societies |language=en |volume=12 |issue=6 |pages=154 |doi=10.3390/soc12060154 |issn=2075-4698 |doi-access=free }} Starting in the 1970s and accelerating in the 2000s, American right-wing interest groups invested heavily in external mobilization vehicles that led to the organizational weakening of the GOP establishment. The outsize role of conservative media, in particular Fox News, led to it being followed and trusted more by the Republican base over traditional party elites. The depletion of organizational capacity partly led to Trump's victory in the Republican primaries against the wishes of a very weak party establishment and traditional power brokers.{{Rp|27–28}} Trump's election exacerbated internal schisms within the GOP,{{Cite journal |last1=Gidron |first1=Noam |last2=Ziblatt |first2=Daniel |date=2019 |title=Center-Right Political Parties in Advanced Democracies |journal=Annual Review of Political Science | publisher=Annual Reviews |language=en |volume=12 |pages=17–35 |doi=10.1146/annurev-polisci-090717-092750 |issn=1094-2939 |doi-access=free }}{{Rp|18}} and saw the GOP move from a center coalition of moderates and conservatives to a solidly right-wing party hostile to liberal views and any deviations from the party line.{{Citation |last=McKay |first=David |title=Facilitating Donald Trump: Populism, the Republican Party and Media Manipulation |date=2020 |work=Authoritarian Populism and Liberal Democracy |pages=107–121 |editor-last=Crewe |editor-first=Ivor |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17997-7_7 |access-date=2024-06-13 |place=Cham |publisher=Springer International Publishing |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-17997-7_7 |isbn=978-3-030-17997-7 |quote="the Republicans changed from being a right of centre coalition of moderates and conservatives to an unambiguously right-wing party that was hostile not only to liberal views but also to any perspective that clashed with the core views of an ideologically cohesive conservative cadre of party faithfuls" |editor2-last=Sanders |editor2-first=David}}

The Party has since faced intense factionalism.{{Cite news |last=Broadwater |first=Luke |date=2023-10-23 |title='5 Families' and Factions Within Factions: Why the House G.O.P. Can't Unite |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/us/politics/house-republicans-divisions-speaker.html |access-date=2023-10-27 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=October 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231027050850/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/us/politics/house-republicans-divisions-speaker.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite web|url=https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/types-democrats-republicans-house-2024/|title=The 8 Types Of Democrats And Republicans In The House|website=FiveThirtyEight|date=May 4, 2024|access-date=May 4, 2024|archive-date=May 3, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240503180719/https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/types-democrats-republicans-house-2024/|url-status=dead}} These factions are particularly apparent in the U.S. House of Representatives, where three Republican House leaders (Eric Cantor, John Boehner, and Kevin McCarthy) have been ousted since 2009.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/10/05/mccarthy-trump-speaker-removed-tea-party/|title=McCarthy thought he could harness forces of disruption. Instead they devoured him.|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=October 5, 2023|first1=Paul|last1=Kane|quote=As far back as 2009, the future House speaker tried to channel the anti-politician, tea party wave building into a political force, but the movement crushed him.|archive-date=August 11, 2024|access-date=August 4, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240811014139/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/10/05/mccarthy-trump-speaker-removed-tea-party/|url-status=live}}{{Cite news |last=Martin |first=Jonathan |date=2014-06-10 |title=Eric Cantor Defeated by David Brat, Tea Party Challenger, in G.O.P. Primary Upset |website=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/us/politics/eric-cantor-loses-gop-primary.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=August 4, 2024 |archive-date=June 11, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140611015851/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/us/politics/eric-cantor-loses-gop-primary.html |url-status=live }}{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/12/14/a-house-divided|title=A House Divided: How a radical group of Republicans pushed Congress to the right|first=Ryan|last=Lizza|magazine=The New Yorker|date=December 14, 2015|access-date=January 8, 2016|archive-date=February 7, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210207063302/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/12/14/a-house-divided|url-status=live}}{{cite news |title=John Boehner Will Resign From Congress |first=Jennifer |last=Steinhauer |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/26/us/boehner-will-resign-from-congress.html |date=September 25, 2015 |access-date=October 8, 2015 |archive-date=March 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210327185152/https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/26/us/john-boehner-to-resign-from-congress.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |date=2023-01-07 |title=McCarthy elected House speaker in rowdy post-midnight vote |url=https://apnews.com/article/politics-united-states-house-of-representatives-kevin-mccarthy-us-republican-party-0938c7358f41c83759246f8949ac7c15 |access-date=2024-04-22 |website=AP News |language=en |archive-date=January 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230107135727/https://apnews.com/article/politics-united-states-house-of-representatives-kevin-mccarthy-us-republican-party-0938c7358f41c83759246f8949ac7c15 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |date=2023-10-03 |title=Speaker McCarthy ousted in historic House vote, as scramble begins for a Republican leader |url=https://apnews.com/article/mccarthy-gaetz-speaker-motion-to-vacate-congress-327e294a39f8de079ef5e4abfb1fa555 |access-date=2024-04-22 |website=AP News |language=en |archive-date=October 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231003173947/https://apnews.com/article/mccarthy-gaetz-speaker-motion-to-vacate-congress-327e294a39f8de079ef5e4abfb1fa555 |url-status=live }} All three of the top Republican elected officials during Trump's first term (Vice President, Speaker of the House, and Senate Republican leader) were ousted or stepped down by Trump's second term.

The party's establishment conservative faction has lost all of its influence.{{Cite journal |last1=Biebricher |first1=Thomas |date=October 25, 2023 |title=The Crisis of American Conservatism in Historical–Comparative Perspective |journal=Politische Vierteljahresschrift |volume=65 |issue=2 |pages=233–259 |language=en |doi=10.1007/s11615-023-00501-2 |issn=2075-4698 |doi-access=free }}{{Cite journal |last1=Arhin |first1=Kofi |last2=Stockemer |first2=Daniel |last3=Normandin |first3=Marie-Soleil |date=May 29, 2023 |title=THE REPUBLICAN TRUMP VOTER: A Populist Radical Right Voter Like Any Other? |journal=World Affairs |language=en |volume=186 |issue=3 |doi=10.1177/00438200231176818 |issn=1940-1582 |doi-access=free |quote= In this article, we first illustrate that the Republican Party, or at least the dominant wing, which supports or tolerates Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) agenda have become a proto-typical populist radical right-wing party (PRRP).}}{{Cite news |last1=Desiderio |first1=Andrew |last2=Sherman |first2=Jake |last3=Bresnahan |first3=John |date=February 7, 2024 |title=The end of the Old GOP |language=en-US |work=Punchbowl News |url=https://punchbowl.news/article/the-end-of-the-old-republican-party-senate-conference/ |access-date=February 8, 2024 |archive-date=February 7, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240207114758/https://punchbowl.news/article/the-end-of-the-old-republican-party-senate-conference/ |url-status=live |quote=The structures and standards that have come to define the GOP have been breaking down since the Tea Party movement began in 2009. They were further eroded when Trump won the White House in 2016. But in recent months, the last holdout of the old Republican Party — the Senate GOP Conference — has all but abandoned many of its generational positions on foreign policy and governance. ... McConnell, perhaps the embodiment of the Republican Party for the last 40 years, is increasingly looking like an anachronism — and not just on policy.}}{{cite book | last=Tackett | first=Michael | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VF0CEQAAQBAJ| title=The Price of Power: How Mitch McConnell Mastered the Senate, Changed America, and Lost His Party | publisher=Simon and Schuster | publication-place=New York | date=2024 | isbn=978-1-6680-0584-2|quote=The Trump years brought with them the rise of an almost unrecognizable Republican party, suffused with a reactive populism that even McConnell himself would struggle to control.}} Many conservatives critical of the Trumpist faction have also lost influence within the party, with no former Republican presidential or vice presidential nominees attending the 2024 Republican National Convention.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/16/us/politics/rnc-bush-quayle-pence-cheney-romney.html|title=Guess Who's Not Coming to Milwaukee? Bush, Quayle, Pence, Cheney or Romney|date=July 16, 2024|website=The New York Times|first1=Adam|last1=Nagourney|access-date=September 17, 2024|archive-date=September 16, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240916130252/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/16/us/politics/rnc-bush-quayle-pence-cheney-romney.html|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|title=Trump's overhaul of GOP shows his sway but leaves some on sidelines|date=Jul 19, 2024|newspaper=The Washington Post|first1=Josh|last1=Dawsey|first2=Isaac|last2=Arnsdorf|first3=Laura|last3=Vozzella|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/19/trump-republican-party-traditional-conservatives-milwaukee/|access-date=August 4, 2024|archive-date=July 21, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240721115428/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/19/trump-republican-party-traditional-conservatives-milwaukee/|url-status=live}}

The victory of Trump in the 2024 presidential election saw the party increasingly shift towards Trumpism,{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/25/upshot/trump-era-republicans-democrats.html|title=Trump's Re-election Defines a New Era of American Politics|date=December 25, 2024|access-date=December 25, 2024|website=The New York Times|first1=Nate|last1=Cohn|quote=Instead, it's the three Trump elections — in 2016, 2020 and 2024 — that look as if they have the makings of a new era of politics, one defined by Donald J. Trump's brand of conservative populism. ... Much of the Republican Party’s old establishment — like the Cheneys, the Romneys, Paul Ryan — is now without a home.|archive-date=December 25, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225055712/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/25/upshot/trump-era-republicans-democrats.html|url-status=live}} and party criticism of Trump was described as being muted to non-existent. The New York Times described it as a "hostile takeover",{{Cite news |last1=Swan |first1=Jonathan |last2=Haberman |first2=Maggie |date=December 12, 2024 |title=The Stock Market and TV: Trump's Most Durable Guardrails |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/us/politics/trump-tv-stock-market.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=January 20, 2025 |issn=0362-4331 |quote=Mr. Trump is likely to receive only the meekest resistance from his own party, which will control both the House and Senate and whose members fear Trump-backed primary challengers. He has completed his hostile takeover of the Republican Party and the dissenters have been driven into retirement, defeated in primaries or cowed into silence. |archive-date=January 28, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250128231646/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/12/us/politics/trump-tv-stock-market.html |url-status=live }} and a victory of right-wing populism over the old conservative establishment. Polling found that 53% of Republican voters saw loyalty to Trump as central to their political identity and what it means to be a Republican.{{Cite news |last=Edwards-Levy |first=Ariel |date=January 19, 2025 |title=CNN Poll: Most Democrats think their party needs major change, while the GOP coalesces around Trump |work=CNN |url=https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/19/politics/democrats-party-change-cnn-poll/index.html |access-date=January 20, 2025 }}

During Trump's second presidency, Republican members of Congress were described by The New Republic magazine as submissive to Trump, letting him dictate policies without pushback.{{Cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/post/191772/republican-lawmakers-trumpism-power-media|title=The Incredible Disappearing Republican Lawmaker|quote=The GOP's total withdrawal from governing is nearly complete, and they’re increasingly determined to push the entire legislative branch into functional irrelevance.|first1=Jason|last1=Linkins|magazine=The New Republic|date=February 23, 2025|access-date=February 23, 2025}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/us/politics/trump-power-courts-crisis.html|title=How Trump Is Trying to Consolidate Power Over Courts, Congress and More|quote=President Trump’s expansive interpretation of presidential power has become the defining characteristic of his second term.|first1=Erica L.|last1=Green|first2=Zolan|last2=Kanno-Youngs|first3=Maggie|last3=Haberman|website=The New York Times|date=March 20, 2025|access-date=March 20, 2025}}

{{main|Right-wing populism|Trumpism}}

{{see also|Radical right (United States)|National conservatism|Freedom Caucus}}

File:JD Vance Inaugural Portrait (cropped).png, Donald Trump's vice president during Trump's second term. Initially critical of Trump, he became a staunch advocate of Trumpism later into Trump's first term and has been described as a right-wing populist.{{Cite news |last=Orr |first=James |author-link=James Orr (theologian) |date=2024-07-16 |title=JD Vance's nomination proves Trumpism is here to stay |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/16/vance-nomination-proves-trumpism-is-here-to-stay/ |access-date=2024-07-17 |work=The Daily Telegraph |issn=0307-1235 |archive-date=July 18, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240718054932/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/16/vance-nomination-proves-trumpism-is-here-to-stay/ |url-status=live }}]]

Right-wing populism is the dominant political faction of the GOP.{{refn|name="Dominant"|

• {{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/upshot/democrats-trump-working-class.html|title=How Democrats Lost Their Base and their Message|quote=Donald Trump's populist pitch bumped Democrats off their traditional place in American politics.|website=The New York Times|first1=Nate|last1=Cohn|date=November 25, 2024|access-date=November 25, 2024|archive-date=November 25, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241125104053/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/upshot/democrats-trump-working-class.html|url-status=live}}
• {{Cite web|first1=John|last1=Burn-Murdoch|website=Financial Times|date=March 6, 2025|quote=US decisions can no longer be analyzed using assumptions shared across the democratic west|title=Why the Maga mindset is different|access-date=March 18, 2025|url=https://www.ft.com/content/3046013f-da85-4987-92a5-4a9e3008a9e1}}
• {{Cite journal |last1=Arhin |first1=Kofi |last2=Stockemer |first2=Daniel |last3=Normandin |first3=Marie-Soleil |date=May 29, 2023 |title=THE REPUBLICAN TRUMP VOTER: A Populist Radical Right Voter Like Any Other? |journal=World Affairs |language=en |volume=186 |issue=3 |doi=10.1177/00438200231176818 |issn=1940-1582 |doi-access=free |quote= In this article, we first illustrate that the Republican Party, or at least the dominant wing, which supports or tolerates Donald Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) agenda have become a proto-typical populist radical right-wing party (PRRP).}}
• {{Cite web |last=Beauchamp |first=Zack |date=2024-07-19 |title=It's Trump's party now. Mostly. |url=https://www.vox.com/politics/361684/trump-speech-rnc-gop-republicans-project-2025 |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=Vox |language=en-US |archive-date=January 18, 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250118030630/https://www.vox.com/politics/361684/trump-speech-rnc-gop-republicans-project-2025 |url-status=live }}
• {{Cite web |last=Page |first=Susan |title=Trump's takeover: In a redefined GOP, populism and a new coalition. Goodbye, old guard |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/07/16/donald-trump-takeover-populism-and-a-new-coalition-reign-in-new-gop/74367458007/ |access-date=2025-01-28 |website=USA TODAY |language=en-US |archive-date=September 2, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240902212758/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/07/16/donald-trump-takeover-populism-and-a-new-coalition-reign-in-new-gop/74367458007/ |url-status=live }}
• {{cite news |last1=Aratani |first1=Lauren |title=Republicans unveil two minimum wage bills in response to Democrats' push |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/26/republicans-minimum-wage-bills-senate |access-date=7 September 2021 |work=The Guardian |date=26 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814230535/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/26/republicans-minimum-wage-bills-senate |archive-date=14 August 2021 |quote=In keeping with the party's deep division between its dominant Trumpist faction and its more traditionalist party elites, the twin responses seem aimed at appealing on one hand to its corporate-friendly allies and on the other hand to its populist rightwing base. Both have an anti-immigrant element.}}

}} Sometimes referred to as the MAGA or "America First" movement,{{cite web | title=Panel Study of the MAGA Movement | website=University of Washington | date=January 6, 2021 | url=https://sites.uw.edu/magastudy/ | access-date=March 24, 2024 | archive-date=March 24, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240324054136/https://sites.uw.edu/magastudy/ | url-status=live }}{{cite web | last1=Gabbatt | first1=Adam | last2=Smith | first2=David | title='America First 2.0': Vivek Ramaswamy pitches to be Republicans' next Trump | website=the Guardian | date=August 19, 2023 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/19/vivek-ramaswamy-republican-presidential-nomination-candidate | access-date=March 24, 2024}} Republican populists have been described as consisting of a range of right-wing ideologies including but not limited to right-wing populism,{{Cite journal |last=Norris |first=Pippa |date=November 2020 |title=Measuring populism worldwide |journal=Party Politics |language=en |volume=26 |issue=6 |pages=697–717 |doi=10.1177/1354068820927686 |s2cid=216298689 |issn=1354-0688|doi-access=free }}{{cite magazine |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/donald-trump-is-transforming-the-g-o-p-into-a-populist-nativist-party |title=Donald Trump is Transforming the G.O.P. Into a Populist, Nativist Party |last=Cassidy |first=John |magazine=The New Yorker |date=February 29, 2016 |access-date=July 22, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304225035/http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/donald-trump-is-transforming-the-g-o-p-into-a-populist-nativist-party |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |url-status=live}} national conservatism,{{cite news |date=February 15, 2024 |title="National conservatives" are forging a global front against liberalism |url=https://www.economist.com/briefing/2024/02/15/national-conservatives-are-forging-a-global-front-against-liberalism |url-status=live |newspaper=The Economist |location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240220205122/https://www.economist.com/briefing/2024/02/15/national-conservatives-are-forging-a-global-front-against-liberalism |archive-date=February 20, 2024 |url-access=subscription}} neo-nationalism,{{cite journal |last1=Zhou |first1=Shaoqing |title=The origins, characteristics and trends of neo-nationalism in the 21st century |journal=International Journal of Anthropology and Ethnology |volume=6 |issue=1 |date=December 8, 2022 |page=18 |doi=10.1186/s41257-022-00079-4 |doi-access=free |pmid=36532330 |quote=On a practical level, the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union and Trump's election as the United States president are regarded as typical events of neo-nationalism.|pmc=9735003 }}{{Cite web|first1=John|last1=Burn-Murdoch|website=Financial Times|date=March 6, 2025|title=Why the Maga mindset is different|access-date=March 18, 2025|url=https://www.ft.com/content/3046013f-da85-4987-92a5-4a9e3008a9e1|quote=US decisions can no longer be analyzed using assumptions shared across the democratic west ... But the series of shock decisions ... are less brain-bendingly inexplicable once you realise this: their version of America is operating on an entirely different set of values from the rest of the western world. ... A government seemingly driven by zero-sum ideology and a commitment to reducing international co-operation is one whose threats of a trade war you should probably take seriously despite possible economic self-harm. Likewise, a leadership team that believes geopolitics is a game of cards played by strong men and great powers is one whose support and co- operation other countries should quickly build independence from.}} mercantilism, and Trumpism.{{cite news |last1=Ball |first1=Molly |title=The GOP Wants Pure, Uncut Trumpism |url=https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/gop-new-hampshire-trump-haley-403080ca |access-date=February 22, 2024 |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=January 23, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240124014202/https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/gop-new-hampshire-trump-haley-403080ca |archive-date=January 24, 2024 |url-status=live}}{{cite news |last1=Katzenstein |first1=Peter J. |author-link=Peter J. Katzenstein |title=Trumpism is US |url=https://www.wzb.eu/en/news/trumpism-is-us |access-date=11 September 2021 |work=WZB {{!}} Berlin Social Science Center |date=20 March 2019 |archive-date=February 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210215222927/https://www.wzb.eu/en/news/trumpism-is-us |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last=Martin |first=Jonathan |date=2021-03-01 |title=Trumpism Grips a Post-Policy G.O.P. as Traditional Conservatism Fades |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/01/us/politics/trump-republicans-policy.html |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=The New York Times |archive-date=May 23, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240523144800/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/01/us/politics/trump-republicans-policy.html |url-status=live }}{{cite web |author=The Christian Science Monitor |date=2020-11-05 |title=Why Trumpism is here to stay |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2020/1105/Why-Trumpism-is-here-to-stay |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240612135009/https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2020/1105/Why-Trumpism-is-here-to-stay |archive-date=2024-06-12 |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=The Christian Science Monitor}}{{cite web |last=Peoples |first=Steve |date=2021-02-14 |title=Trump remains dominant force in GOP following acquittal |url=https://apnews.com/trump-remains-dominant-force-in-gop-following-acquittal-54a562159db21bd2c806c0c3c366be62 |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=AP News |archive-date=June 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240612135007/https://apnews.com/trump-remains-dominant-force-in-gop-following-acquittal-54a562159db21bd2c806c0c3c366be62 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |last1=Klein |first1=Rick |last2=Parks |first2=Mary Alice |date=2018-06-13 |title=The Note: Trumpism again dominates Republican Party |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/note-trumpism-dominates-republican-party/story?id=55849587 |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=ABC News |archive-date=June 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240612135011/https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/note-trumpism-dominates-republican-party/story?id=55849587 |url-status=live }} Trump has been described as one of many nationalist leaders, including Vladimir Putin of Russia, Xi Jinping of China, Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Narendra Modi of India, Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, Viktor Orbán of Hungary and Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.{{Cite web|url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/world-trump-wants-michael-kimmage|title=The World Trump Wants: American Power in the New Age of Nationalism|date=February 25, 2025|access-date=March 18, 2025|website=Foreign Affairs|first1=Michael|last1=Kimmage|quote=In the two decades that followed the Cold War’s end, globalism gained ground over nationalism. Simultaneously, the rise of increasingly complex systems and networks—institutional, financial, and technological—overshadowed the role of the individual in politics. But in the early 2010s, a profound shift began. By learning to harness the tools of this century, a cadre of charismatic figures revived the archetypes of the previous one: the strong leader, the great nation, the proud civilization. ... They are self-styled strongmen who place little stock in rules-based systems, alliances, or multinational forums. They embrace the once and future glory of the countries they govern, asserting an almost mystical mandate for their rule. Although their programs can involve radical change, their political strategies rely on strains of conservatism, appealing over the heads of liberal, urban, cosmopolitan elites to constituencies animated by a hunger for tradition and a desire for belonging.}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/us/politics/trump-netanyahu-israel-political-strategy.html|title=For Trump and Netanyahu, Similar Strategies With Similar Goals|quote=The American and Israeli leaders have been mirroring each other as they go to war with their own governments|date=March 21, 2025|first1=Mark|last1=Mazzetti|first2=Patrick|last2=Kingsley|website=The New York Times|access-date=March 22, 2025}}{{cite news|work=New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/08/world/europe/trump-populist-far-right-leaders.html|title=With Trump's Victory, Europe's Populist Right Sees Return of a Fellow Believer|date=November 8, 2024}}{{cite news|work=Newsweek|title=Saudi Arabia Has Its Own 'Deal of the Century' for Trump|date=24 November 2024|url=https://www.newsweek.com/saudi-arabia-has-its-own-deal-century-trump-1989311|quote=The president-elect's "America First" platform resounds heavily with the transformative, increasingly nationalist path on which Riyadh's monarch-in-waiting has embarked.}}

The Republican Party's right-wing populist movements emerged in concurrence with a global increase in populist movements in the 2010s and 2020s,{{cite news |last=Maxwell |first=Rahsaan |date=5 March 2019 |title=Analysis {{!}} Why are urban and rural areas so politically divided? |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/03/05/why-are-urban-rural-areas-so-politically-divided/ |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030180433/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/03/05/why-are-urban-rural-areas-so-politically-divided/ |archive-date=30 October 2020 |access-date=6 May 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post |issn=0190-8286|quote=In general, the core supporters of right-wing populist political parties across Europe are in more rural areas, where they feel left behind by the globalized economy and alienated from the multiculturalism of European capitals.}} coupled with entrenchment and increased partisanship within the party since 2010.{{cite news | last=Lowndes | first=Joseph | title=Far-right extremism dominates the GOP. It didn't start — and won't end — with Trump | newspaper=Washington Post | date=2021-11-08 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/11/08/far-right-extremism-dominates-gop-it-didnt-start-wont-end-with-trump/ | access-date=2023-12-31 | archive-date=November 23, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123072545/https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/11/08/far-right-extremism-dominates-gop-it-didnt-start-wont-end-with-trump/ | url-status=live }} This included the rise of the Tea Party movement, which has also been described as far-right.{{cite journal | last1=Blum | first1=Rachel M. | last2=Cowburn | first2=Mike | title=How Local Factions Pressure Parties: Activist Groups and Primary Contests in the Tea Party Era | journal=British Journal of Political Science | date=2024 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | volume=54 | issue=1 | pages=88–109 | doi=10.1017/S0007123423000224 | url=https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/bjposi/v54y2024i1p88-109_5.html | access-date=2023-12-31 | archive-date=September 11, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240911120615/https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/bjposi/v54y2024i1p88-109_5.html | url-status=live }} This faction gained further dominance in the GOP during Joe Biden's presidency (2021-2025), including in the aftermath of the 2021-2023 inflation surge and Russian invasion of Ukraine.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/18/business/economy/global-economy-us-china.html|title=Why It Seems Everything We Knew About the Global Economy Is No Longer True|first1=Patricia|last1=Cohen|website=The New York Times|quote=A lot has happened between then and now: A global pandemic hit; war erupted in Europe; tensions between the United States and China boiled. And inflation, thought to be safely stored away with disco album collections, returned with a vengeance. ... The economic conventions that policymakers had relied on since the Berlin Wall fell more than 30 years ago — the unfailing superiority of open markets, liberalized trade and maximum efficiency — look to be running off the rails. ... The idea that trade and shared economic interests would prevent military conflicts was trampled [in 2022] under the boots of Russian soldiers in Ukraine.|date=June 18, 2023|access-date=March 22, 2025}}

Businessman Elon Musk, the wealthiest individual in the world, is a notable proponent of right-wing populism.{{Cite news |date=July 29, 2024 |title=How Elon Musk came to endorse Donald Trump |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/07/29/musk-trump-endorsement-immigration/ |access-date=November 9, 2024 |newspaper=Washington Post |archive-date=September 19, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240919110730/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/07/29/musk-trump-endorsement-immigration/ |url-status=live }} Since acquiring Twitter in 2022, Musk has shared far-right misinformation{{Cite web |date=August 8, 2024 |title=Elon Musk's misleading election claims have accrued 1.2 billion views on X, new analysis says |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/misinformation/elon-musk-misleading-election-claims-x-views-report-rcna165599 |access-date=August 12, 2024 |publisher=NBC News |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Tharoor |first=Ishaan |date=August 9, 2024 |title=Column {{!}} Britain's riots put spotlight on far-right misinformation |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/08/09/britain-riots-misinformation-elon-musk/ |access-date=August 12, 2024 |newspaper=Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}{{Cite web |date=August 8, 2024 |title=Musk's false X posts on US election viewed 1.2 billion times, says watchdog |url=https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240808-musk-s-misleading-election-posts-viewed-1-2-billion-times-study |access-date=August 12, 2024 |website=France 24 |language=en |archive-date=August 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240812003828/https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240808-musk-s-misleading-election-posts-viewed-1-2-billion-times-study |url-status=live }} and numerous conspiracy theories,{{Cite web |last=Duffy |first=Clare |date=November 21, 2023 |title=Elon Musk is now boosting the 'Pizzagate' conspiracy theory {{!}} CNN Business |url=https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/20/tech/elon-musk-boosting-pizzagate-conspiracy-theory/index.html |access-date=August 12, 2024 |publisher=CNN |language=en |archive-date=August 12, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240812153200/https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/20/tech/elon-musk-boosting-pizzagate-conspiracy-theory/index.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |title=Elon Musk: A timeline of his most recent controversial moments |url=https://news.sky.com/story/elon-musk-what-are-his-most-recent-controversial-moments-13019651 |access-date=August 12, 2024 |website=Sky News |language=en}}{{Cite web |last1=Lahut |first1=Jake |last2=Goodwin |first2=Grace Eliza |last3=Edmonds |first3=Lauren |title=Timeline of Elon Musk's political stances before GOP embrace |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-political-beliefs-public-stances-timeline-republican-desantis-2022-6 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240901233902/https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-political-beliefs-public-stances-timeline-republican-desantis-2022-6 |archive-date=September 1, 2024 |access-date=July 31, 2024 |website=Business Insider |language=en-US}} and his views are described as right-wing to far-right.{{Cite news |date=July 17, 2024 |title=Elon Musk's 'Final Straw' Moment Marks Political Transformation |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-17/elon-musk-s-final-straw-moment-marks-political-transformation |access-date=July 31, 2024 |work=Bloomberg.com |language=en |archive-date=July 17, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240717200027/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-07-17/elon-musk-s-final-straw-moment-marks-political-transformation |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Dorn |first=Sara |title=Elon Musk's Political Shift: How The Billionaire Moved From Backing Obama To Endorsing DeSantis |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2022/11/27/elon-musks-political-shift-how-the-billionaire-moved-from-backing-obama-to-endorsing-desantis/ |access-date=July 31, 2024 |website=Forbes |language=en |archive-date=August 6, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240806051359/https://www.forbes.com/sites/saradorn/2022/11/27/elon-musks-political-shift-how-the-billionaire-moved-from-backing-obama-to-endorsing-desantis/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Warzel |first=Charlie |date=December 11, 2022 |title=Elon Musk Is a Far-Right Activist |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/12/elon-musk-twitter-far-right-activist/672436/ |access-date=July 31, 2024 |website=The Atlantic |language=en |archive-date=December 12, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221212052001/https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/12/elon-musk-twitter-far-right-activist/672436/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |title=Led by Elon Musk, Silicon Valley inches to the right |website=The Economic Times |date=March 10, 2024 |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/led-by-elon-musk-silicon-valley-inches-to-the-right/articleshow/108361364.cms?from=mdr |access-date=July 31, 2024 |archive-date=July 31, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240731003556/https://m.economictimes.com/tech/technology/led-by-elon-musk-silicon-valley-inches-to-the-right/amp_articleshow/108361364.cms |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |last1=Siddiqui |first1=Faiz |last2=Merrill |first2=Jeremy B. |date=August 12, 2024 |title=Elon Musk's X feed becomes megaphone for his far-right politics |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/08/11/musk-x-feed-politics-trump/ |access-date=August 12, 2024 |newspaper=Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286 |archive-date=August 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240814155420/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/08/11/musk-x-feed-politics-trump/ |url-status=live }} However, Musk has also been described as in conflict with the populist wing of the party on some issues, particularly legal immigration, free trade and relations with China.{{cite news|work=NBC News|title=Trump's populist platform gives way to billionaires' agenda|date=March 8, 2025|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-populist-platform-gives-way-billionaires-agenda-rcna194639}}{{cite news|work=New York Times|title=The Populist vs. the Billionaire: Bannon, Musk and the Battle Within MAGA|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/09/us/politics/stephen-bannon-elon-musk-maga.html|date=March 9, 2025}}{{cite news|work=Politico|date=January 3, 2025|title='He owes them': MAGA activists worry about Musk's influence over Trump in legal migration spat|url=https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/03/maga-h1b-visa-immigration-elon-musk-00196440}}{{cite news|work=Wall Street Journal|title=MAGA vs. Musk: Immigration Fight Cracks Populist-Tech Bro Alliance|date=December 27, 2024|url=https://www.wsj.com/tech/maga-vs-musk-immigration-fight-cracks-populist-tech-bro-alliance-ae93cb03}}{{cite news|work=Axios|url=https://www.axios.com/2025/04/05/musk-trump-tariffs-navarro-tesla|title=Musk slams key Trump adviser Navarro, calls for more free trade|date=5 April 2025}}

According to political scientists Matt Grossmann and David A. Hopkins, the Republican Party's gains among white voters without college degrees and corresponding losses among white voters with college degrees contributed to the rise of right-wing populism.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/politics-international-relations/american-government-politics-and-policy/polarized-degrees-how-diploma-divide-and-culture-war-transformed-american-politics#contentsTabAnchor|title=Polarized by Degrees: How the Diploma Divide and the Culture War Transformed American Politics|first1=Matt|last1=Grossmann|first2=David A.|last2=Hopkins|website=Cambridge University Press|access-date=May 23, 2024|quote=Democrats have become the home of highly-educated citizens with progressive social views who prefer credentialed experts to make policy decisions, while Republicans have become the populist champions of white voters without college degrees who increasingly distrust teachers, scientists, journalists, universities, non-profit organizations, and even corporations.|archive-date=February 27, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240227220952/https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/politics-international-relations/american-government-politics-and-policy/polarized-degrees-how-diploma-divide-and-culture-war-transformed-american-politics#contentsTabAnchor|url-status=live}} Until 2016, white voters with college degrees were a Republican-leaning group, but have since become a Democratic-leaning group.{{cite web|url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/even-among-the-wealthy-education-predicts-trump-support/|title=Even Among The Wealthy, Education Predicts Trump Support|date=November 29, 2016|first1=Harry|last1=Enten|website=FiveThirtyEight|quote=First, it's clear from the exit polls that for white voters, every bit of extra education meant less support for Trump. ... Second, education matters a lot even when separating out income levels. ... Third, Trump saw little difference in his support between income levels within each education group.}} In the 2020 presidential election, Joe Biden became the first Democratic president to win a majority of white voters with college degrees (51–48%) since 1964, while Trump won white voters without college degrees 67–32%.{{Cite news|title=National Results 2020 President exit polls.|url=https://www.cnn.com/election/2020/exit-polls/president/national-results|access-date=2020-12-04|work=CNN|language=en|archive-date=May 31, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220531093340/https://www.cnn.com/election/2020/exit-polls/president/national-results|url-status=live}}{{cite news |title=Election Polls – Vote by Groups, 1960–1964 |url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/9454/Election-Polls-Vote-Groups-19601964.aspx |website=Gallup |access-date=June 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726155334/http://www.gallup.com/poll/9454/Election-Polls-Vote-Groups-19601964.aspx |archive-date=July 26, 2011}}

Right-wing populism has broad appeal across income and wealth, and is extremely polarized with respect to educational attainment among White voters.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/18/us/politics/democrats-white-working-class-harris.html|title=Is This the End of the White Working-Class Democrat?|quote=Democrats hoped to lose by less in blue-collar areas that had drifted toward Donald Trump. In many places, they may have lost by more.|first1=Katie|last1=Glueck|website=The New York Times|date=November 18, 2024|access-date=January 13, 2025}} According to a 2017 study, agreement with Trump on social issues, rather than economic pressure, increased support for Trump among White voters without college degrees. White voters without college degrees who were economically struggling were more likely to vote for Democrats and support the Democratic party's economic agenda.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/05/white-working-class-trump-cultural-anxiety/525771/|title=It Was Cultural Anxiety That Drove White, Working-Class Voters to Trump|date=May 9, 2017|first1=Emma|last1=Green|quote=A new study finds that fear of societal change, not economic pressure, motivated votes for the president among non-salaried workers without college degrees.|access-date=May 23, 2024}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/01/biden-economic-populism-failure/681289/|title=Maybe It Was Never About the Factory Jobs|date=January 13, 2025|website=The Atlantic|quote=The theory that populist economic policies can win back the working class for Democrats has been tried, and it has failed.|first1=Jonathan|last1=Chait|access-date=January 13, 2025}} Right-wing populism has appeal to Hispanic and Asian voters,{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/12/democrats-latino-vote-immigration/680945/|title=Why Democrats Got the Politics of Immigration So Wrong for So Long|date=December 10, 2024|website=The Atlantic|first1=Rogé|last1=Karma|access-date=December 10, 2024|quote=The election of Donald Trump this year shattered a long-standing piece of conventional wisdom in American politics: that Latinos will vote overwhelmingly for whichever party has the more liberal approach to immigration, making them a reliable Democratic constituency. ... If that analysis were true, then the nomination of the most virulently anti-immigration presidential candidate in modern history for three straight elections should have devastated the GOP’s Latino support. Instead, the opposite happened. Latinos, who make up about a quarter of the electorate, still lean Democratic, but they appear to have shifted toward Republicans by up to 20 points since 2012. ... And polling suggests that Trump’s restrictionist views on immigration may have actually helped him win some Latino voters, who, like the electorate overall, gave the Biden administration low marks for its handling of the issue.}}{{Cite web|title=Asian Americans favored Harris but shifted right by 5 points|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/asian-americans-exit-poll-harris-trump-rcna179005|date=November 6, 2024|first1=Kimmy|last1=Yam|quote=Fifty-four percent of Asian American voters chose Harris, while 39% voted for Trump, NBC exit polls showed. Experts point to the economy as a main factor.|access-date=December 10, 2024|website=NBC News}} but has little appeal to African American voters.{{Cite journal |last=Berman |first=Sheri |date=May 2021 |title=The Causes of Populism in the West |journal=Annual Review of Political Science |volume=24 |issue= |pages=71–88 |issn=1094-2939 |doi=10.1146/annurev-polisci-041719-102503 |doi-access=free|quote-page=76|quote=In the United States, scholars consistently find that "racial animus," or attitudes regarding "blacks, immigrants, Muslims" are the best predictors of support for President Trump}}

According to historian Gary Gerstle, Trumpism gained support in opposition to neoliberalism, including opposition to free trade, immigration, globalization, and internationalism. Trump won the 2016 and 2024 presidential elections by winning states in the Rust Belt that had suffered from population decline and deindustrialization.{{cite journal|title=The revolt of the Rust Belt: place and politics in the age of anger|journal=The British Journal of Sociology|volume=68|issue=S1|pages=S120–S152|first=Michael|last=McQuarrie|date=November 8, 2017|doi=10.1111/1468-4446.12328|pmid=29114874|s2cid=26010609 |doi-access=free}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/26/upshot/census-relative-income.html|title=They Used to Be Ahead in the American Economy. Now They've Fallen Behind.|date=October 26, 2024|first1=Emily|last1=Badger|first2=Robert|last2=Gebeloff|first3=Aatish|last3=Bhatia|website=The New York Times|access-date=October 26, 2024|archive-date=October 27, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241027193004/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/26/upshot/census-relative-income.html|url-status=live}} Compared to other Republicans, the populist faction is more likely to oppose legal immigration,{{cite book |last1=Baker |first1=Paula |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=547UDwAAQBAJ |title=The Oxford Handbook of American Political History |last2=Critchlow |first2=Donald T. |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-0190628697 |page=387 |quote="Contemporary debate is fueled on one side by immigration restrictionists, led by President Donald Trump and other elected republicans, whose rhetorical and policy assaults on undocumented Latin American immigrants, Muslim refugees, and family-based immigration energized their conservative base." |via=Google Books |access-date=April 23, 2021 |archive-date=December 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231215023724/https://books.google.com/books?id=547UDwAAQBAJ |url-status=live }} free trade,{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Kent |title=Populism and Trade: The Challenge to the Global Trading System |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2021 |isbn=978-0190086350 |chapter=Populism, Trade, and Trump's Path to Victory}} neoconservatism,{{Cite magazine |last1=Smith |first1=Jordan Michael |last2=Logis |first2=Rich |last3=Logis |first3=Rich |last4=Shephard |first4=Alex |last5=Shephard |first5=Alex |last6=Kipnis |first6=Laura |last7=Kipnis |first7=Laura |last8=Haas |first8=Lidija |last9=Haas |first9=Lidija |date=October 17, 2022 |title=The Neocons Are Losing. Why Aren't We Happy? |magazine=The New Republic |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/168045/neoconservative-isolationism-republican-party |access-date=May 5, 2023 |issn=0028-6583 |archive-date=May 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230505163722/https://newrepublic.com/article/168045/neoconservative-isolationism-republican-party |url-status=live }} and environmental protection laws.{{Cite journal |last=Arias-Maldonado |first=Manuel |date=January 2020 |title=Sustainability in the Anthropocene: Between Extinction and Populism |journal=Sustainability |language=en |volume=12 |issue=6 |pages=2538 |doi=10.3390/su12062538 |issn=2071-1050 |doi-access=free|bibcode=2020Sust...12.2538A }} It has been described as featuring anti-intellectualism and overtly racial appeals.{{Cite journal |last=Winberg |first=Oscar |date=2017 |title=Insult Politics: Donald Trump, Right-Wing Populism, and Incendiary Language |url=https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/12132 |journal=European Journal of American Studies |volume=12 |issue=2 |access-date=February 2, 2025 |pages=1–16 |issn=1991-9336 |doi=10.4000/ejas.12132 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241231182356/https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/12132 |archive-date=December 31, 2024 |quote-pages=5-6|quote=With the presidency of George W. Bush, coinciding with the ascendance of the conservative media establishment and ending with the mass protests of the Tea Party, the long tradition of right-wing populism was a firmly institutionalized part of the conservative movement and, by extension, the Republican Party. Trump's rise should be understood as part of the long tradition of right-wing populism and the ultimate triumph of the Tea Party movement; a right-wing populist eruption within the Republican Party fueled by both a conservative media establishment and anti-intellectual and, at times, overtly racial appeals.}}

In international relations, populists support U.S. aid to Israel but not to Ukraine.{{cite web | last=Falk | first=Thomas O | title=Why are US Republicans pushing for aid to Israel but not Ukraine? | website=Al Jazeera | date=2023-11-08 | url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/8/why-are-us-republicans-pushing-for-aid-to-israel-but-not-ukraine | access-date=2023-12-31 | archive-date=December 31, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231231160206/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/8/why-are-us-republicans-pushing-for-aid-to-israel-but-not-ukraine | url-status=live }}{{Cite news |last=Riccardi |first=Nicholas |date=February 19, 2024 |title=Stalled US aid for Ukraine underscores GOP's shift away from confronting Russia |url=https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4492514-gop-strained-by-trump-influenced-shift-from-reagan-on-russia/ |access-date=February 28, 2024 |agency=Associated Press |archive-date=February 28, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240228121816/https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4492514-gop-strained-by-trump-influenced-shift-from-reagan-on-russia/ |url-status=live }} They are generally supportive of improving relations with Russia,{{Cite news |last=Lillis |first=Mike |date=February 28, 2024 |title=GOP strained by Trump-influenced shift from Reagan on Russia |url=https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4492514-gop-strained-by-trump-influenced-shift-from-reagan-on-russia/ |access-date=February 28, 2024 |work=The Hill |quote=Experts say a variety of factors have led to the GOP's more lenient approach to Moscow, some of which preceded Trump's arrival on the political scene ... Trump's popularity has only encouraged other Republicans to adopt a soft-gloves approach to Russia. |archive-date=February 28, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240228121816/https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4492514-gop-strained-by-trump-influenced-shift-from-reagan-on-russia/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |last=Ball |first=Molly |date=February 23, 2024 |title=How Trump Turned Conservatives Against Helping Ukraine |url=https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/how-trump-turned-conservatives-against-helping-ukraine-d9f75b3b |access-date=February 28, 2024 |work=The Wall Street Journal}}{{Cite web |last=Jonathan |first=Chait |date=February 23, 2024 |title=Russian Dolls Trump has finally remade Republicans into Putin's playthings. |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/donald-trump-republicans-vladimir-putin-puppets.html |access-date=February 28, 2024 |work=Intelligencer |quote=But during his time in office and after, Trump managed to create, from the grassroots up, a Republican constituency for Russia-friendly policy ... Conservatives vying to be the Trumpiest of them all have realized that supporting Russia translates in the Republican mind as a proxy for supporting Trump. Hence the politicians most willing to defend his offenses against democratic norms — Marjorie Taylor Greene, Jim Jordan, Tommy Tuberville, Mike Lee, J. D. Vance — hold the most anti-Ukraine or pro-Russia views. Conversely, the least-Trumpy Republicans, such as Mitch McConnell and Mitt Romney, have the most hawkish views on Russia. The rapid growth of Trump's once-unique pro-Russia stance is a gravitational function of his personality cult. |archive-date=February 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240229043453/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/donald-trump-republicans-vladimir-putin-puppets.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/us/politics/trump-ukraine-russia-republicans.html|title=As Trump Turns Toward Russia and Against Ukraine, Republicans Are Mum|date=February 19, 2025|website=The New York Times|quote=Congressional Republicans have mostly tempered their criticism or deferred to the president as he topples what were once their party’s core foreign policy principles.|first1=Robert|last1=Jimison}} and favor an isolationist "America First" foreign policy agenda. This faction has been described as closer to that of Vladimir Putin’s Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Turkey than Western Europe and the Anglosphere in terms of positions on international cooperation, support for an autocratic leadership style, and trust in institutions. This faction takes nationalist and irredentist views towards other countries in North America, advocating for U.S. territorial expansion to include Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal, the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, and potential military action on Mexican soil.{{cite news|work=CNN|title=Trump is teasing US expansion into Panama, Greenland and Canada|date=December 23, 2024|quote=His pitch to seize the Panama Canal – which he described as a “vital national asset” though it’s been decades since America controlled it – reflected a similarly nationalist agenda that Trump often describes as “America First.”|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/23/politics/trump-us-expansion-panama-canada-greenland/index.html}}{{Cite news|work=The Hill|title=Lawmaker lauds Trump's expansion plan: Panama, Greenland, Canada 'should be honored'|date=January 8, 2025|url=https://thehill.com/policy/international/5075347-lawmaker-lauds-trumps-expansion-plan-panama-greenland-canada-should-be-honored/}}{{cite news|work=AP|date=January 8, 2025|title=Trump refuses to rule out use of military force to take control of Greenland and the Panama Canal|url=https://apnews.com/article/trump-biden-offshore-drilling-gulf-of-america-fa66f8d072eb39c00a8128a8941ede75}}{{cite news|work=The Intercept|title=AS REPUBLICANS THIRST FOR WAR WITH MEXICO, DEMOCRATS PUSH TO MAKE THEM VOTE ON IT|date=August 31, 2023|url=https://theintercept.com/2023/08/31/republicans-mexico-war/|quote=The response to the war powers resolution from the office of Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. — who has led recent efforts to reduce the U.S. military’s foreign entanglements — highlights populist Republicans’ growing pains in their emerging anti-war coalition with progressive Democrats.}}

The party's far-right faction includes members of the Freedom Caucus.{{cite web | last=Chatelain | first=Ryan | title=Freedom Caucus issues demands for raising debt limit | website=Spectrum News NY1 | date=2023-03-10 | url=https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/politics/2023/03/10/freedom-caucus-issues-demands-for-raising-debt-limit | access-date=2023-12-31}}{{cite web | title=Far-right Republicans drafted a short-term funding bill with GOP centrists. It's now at risk of collapse. | website=NBC4 Washington | date=2023-09-19 | url=https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/politics/far-right-republicans-drafted-a-short-term-funding-bill-with-gop-centrists-its-now-at-risk-of-collapse/3426059/ | access-date=2023-12-31}}{{cite web | last=Hulse | first=Carl | title=In Mike Johnson, Far-Right Republicans Find a Speaker They Can Embrace | website=The New York Times | date=2023-10-25 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/25/us/politics/mike-johnson-republican-house-speaker.html | access-date=2023-12-31}}{{cite web | last1=Mascaro | first1=Lisa | last2=Freking | first2=Kevin | last3=Amiri | first3=Farnoush | title=Republicans pick Jim Jordan as nominee for House speaker, putting job within the Trump ally's reach | website=AP News | date=2023-10-13 | url=https://apnews.com/article/house-republicans-scalise-jordan-mccarthy-trump-ced017e71de967a7e327cba7e502926a | access-date=2023-12-31}} They generally reject compromise within the party and with the Democrats,{{cite web | last=Collinson | first=Stephen | title=McCarthy became the latest victim of Trump's extreme GOP revolution | website=CNN | date=2023-10-04 | url=https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/04/politics/mccarthy-victim-trump-gop-revolution/index.html | access-date=2023-12-31 | archive-date=December 31, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231231160206/https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/04/politics/mccarthy-victim-trump-gop-revolution/index.html | url-status=live }}{{cite web | last=Rocha | first=Alander | title=Mike Rogers says of 'far-right wing' of GOP: 'You can't get rid of them' | website=AL | date=2023-09-07 | url=https://www.al.com/news/2023/09/mike-rogers-says-far-right-wing-of-gop-act-like-my-kids-you-cant-get-rid-of-them.html | access-date=2023-12-31}} and are willing to oust fellow Republican office holders they deem to be too moderate.{{cite web | last=Macpherson | first=James | title=Far right tugs at North Dakota Republican Party | website=AP News | date=2021-07-24 | url=https://apnews.com/article/government-and-politics-north-dakota-8fce64375abe042324cf26b4c82d57bf | access-date=2023-12-31}}{{cite web | title=Fringe activists threaten Georgia GOP's political future | website=The Times Herald | date=2023-05-15 | url=https://www.times-herald.com/opinion/fringe-activists-threaten-georgia-gop-s-political-future/article_b3fd5a4a-f33f-11ed-901d-7fbbbf28e09e.html | access-date=2023-12-31}} According to sociologist Joe Feagin, political polarization by racially extremist Republicans as well as their increased attention from conservative media has perpetuated the near extinction of moderate Republicans and created legislative paralysis at numerous government levels in the last few decades.{{Cite book |last=Feagin |first=Joe R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tPGyEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT5 |title=White Minority Nation: Past, Present and Future |date=2023-04-25 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-000-86223-2 |language=en}}{{Cite news |date=2022-03-17 |title=Where Does American Democracy Go From Here? - The New York Times |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/17/magazine/democracy.html |access-date=2024-11-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220317090219/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/17/magazine/democracy.html |archive-date=March 17, 2022 |last1=Homans |first1=Charles }}

Julia Azari, an associate professor of political science at Marquette University, noted that not all populist Republicans are public supporters of Donald Trump, and that some Republicans such as Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin endorse Trump policies while distancing themselves from Trump as a person.{{cite web |last=Azari |first=Julia |date=2022-03-15 |title=How Republicans Are Thinking About Trumpism Without Trump |url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-republicans-are-thinking-about-trumpism-without-trump/ |access-date=2024-09-04 |website=FiveThirtyEight}}{{Cite news |title=The two sides of Youngkin: Virginia's new governor calls for unity but keeps stoking volatile issues |language=en-US |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/02/13/virginia-governor-youngkin-seeks-unity-stokes-division/ |access-date=2022-03-26 |issn=0190-8286 |archive-date=February 26, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220226201944/https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/02/13/virginia-governor-youngkin-seeks-unity-stokes-division/ |url-status=live }} The continued dominance of Trump within the GOP has limited the success of this strategy.{{cite magazine |last=Shephard |first=Alex |date=2023-08-01 |title=The End of "Trumpism Without Trump" |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/174746/trump-desantis-polling-gop-primary |access-date=2024-09-04 |magazine=The New Republic|quote=The former president's primary rivals thought that they could pass themselves off as a better version of the real thing. They thought wrong.}}{{Cite web |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/17/trump-indictment-election-2024-polling-00102522 |title=Trump cruises, DeSantis flatlines in polling even after bombshell indictment |date=June 17, 2023 |last=Shepard |first=Steven |work=Politico |access-date=June 17, 2023 |archive-date=June 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230617115011/https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/17/trump-indictment-election-2024-polling-00102522 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |date=2024-08-09 |title=Why JD Vance Is Unpopular and Project 2025 Has Gone Underground |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-vance-project-2025-unpopular/ |access-date=2024-09-04 |website=The Nation}} In 2024, Trump led a takeover of the Republican National Committee.{{cite news|work=The Guardian|title=RNC: Trump coup complete with loyalist as chair and daughter-in-law as co-chair|date=8 March 2024|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/08/trump-rnc-takeover}}

A FiveThirtyEight analysis found that of the 293 Republican members of Congress on January 20, 2017, just 121 (41%) were left on January 20, 2025. There were many reasons for the turnover, including retirements and deaths, losing general and primary elections, seeking other office, etc., but the extent of the change is still stark. There were 273 Republican members of Congress on January 20, 2025. Trump also changed his vice president and both houses of Congress had changed their top leadership.{{Cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/538/gop-trumps-party-now/story?id=118574467|title=The GOP is Trump's party now|date=February 10, 2025|access-date=February 10, 2025|first1=Nathaniel|last1=Rakich|first2=Katie|last2=Marriner|website=FiveThirtyEight|quote=Most Republicans in Congress were elected in the Trump era.}}

{{Main|Conservatism in the United States}}

{{see also|Cultural conservatism|Fiscal conservatism|Movement conservatism|Neoconservatism|Social conservatism}}

File:Conservative Gallup 8-10.svg by state as of 2018, according to a Gallup poll:{{Cite web|last=Jones|first=Jeffrey M.|date=2019-02-22|title=Conservatives Greatly Outnumber Liberals in 19 U.S. States|url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/247016/conservatives-greatly-outnumber-liberals-states.aspx|url-status=live|access-date=2021-12-27|website=Gallup|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222171445/https://news.gallup.com/poll/247016/conservatives-greatly-outnumber-liberals-states.aspx |archive-date=February 22, 2019 }}

{{legend|#b70000;|45% and above}}

{{legend|#e02727;|40–44%}}

{{legend|#ed6262;|35–39%}}

{{legend|#ed9191;|30–34%}}

{{legend|#ffb8b8;|25–29%}}

{{legend|#ffe3e3;|24% and under}}

]]

Ronald Reagan's presidential election in 1980 established Reagan-style American conservatism as the dominant ideological faction of the Republican Party until the election of Donald Trump in 2016.{{refn|name="Establishment"|Attributed to multiple sources.{{Cite news |last=Kight |first=Stef W. |date=February 13, 2023 |title=GOP's old guard on verge of extinction as Trump allies circle Senate |url=https://www.axios.com/2024/02/14/mcconnell-trump-republican-party-2024-election |access-date=February 14, 2024 |work=Axios |language=en-US |archive-date=February 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240215041255/https://www.axios.com/2024/02/14/mcconnell-trump-republican-party-2024-election |url-status=live }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-hasnt-changed-but-the-gop-has-14ba7c49?mod=mhp|date=July 19, 2024|first1=Molly|last1=Ball|title=Trump Hasn't Changed, but the GOP Has|website=The Wall Street Journal|access-date=July 20, 2024|archive-date=August 11, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240811135451/https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/trump-hasnt-changed-but-the-gop-has-14ba7c49?mod=mhp|url-status=live}}}} Trump's 2016 election split both the GOP and larger conservative movement into Trumpist and anti-Trump factions, with the Trumpist faction winning.{{Cite journal|last1=Johnson|first1=Lauren R.|last2=McCray|first2=Deon|last3=Ragusa|first3=Jordan M.|date=January 11, 2018|title=#NeverTrump: Why Republican members of Congress refused to support their party's nominee in the 2016 presidential election|journal=Research & Politics|language=en|volume=5|issue=1|doi=10.1177/2053168017749383|doi-access=free}}{{Cite journal |last1=Swartz |first1=David L. |date=27 May 2022 |title=Trump divide among American conservative professors |journal=Theory & Society |language=en |volume=52 |issue=5 |pages=739–769 |doi=10.1007/s11186-023-09517-4 |issn=1573-7853 |doi-access=free |pmid=37362148 |pmc=10224651 }} According to Nate Silver, in all three of Trump's runs for president income had no significant correlation with support for the Republican Party, that is voters across all incomes were closely divided between the two parties.{{Cite web |title=How culture trumps economic class as the new political fault line|date=March 28, 2024|website=Silver Bulletin|access-date=January 13, 2025|first1=Nate|last1=Silver|url=https://www.natesilver.net/p/how-culture-trumps-economic-class}}

Demographically, the party has lost majority support from white voters with college degrees, while continuing to gain among voters without college degrees.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/upshot/democrats-trump-working-class.html|title=How Democrats Lost Their Base and their Message|quote=Donald Trump's populist pitch bumped Democrats off their traditional place in American politics.|website=The New York Times|first1=Nate|last1=Cohn|date=November 25, 2024|access-date=November 25, 2024|archive-date=November 25, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241125104053/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/25/upshot/democrats-trump-working-class.html|url-status=live}} Higher educational attainment is strongly correlated with higher income, as well as decreased support for Trump and social conservatism. In the 2024 presidential election, Democrat Kamala Harris won a majority of voters with annual incomes over $100,000 (51-47%) and $200,000 (52-46%). Harris was also very competitive among White voters making over $100,000 (49-50%) and $200,000 a year (48-51%).

A core economic belief of Reagan-style American conservatism that has been opposed by the right-wing populist faction is support for neoliberalism, including support for multilateralism and free trade while opposing tariffs. The right-wing populist faction has gained preeminence by appealing to White voters without college degrees who oppose globalization and free trade and instead support enacting tariffs, particularly in the Rust Belt states that were crucial to Donald Trump winning the presidency twice. Donald Trump and his base have supported enacting mercantilist economic policies intended to bring back the economic model that dominated the world from roughly the 16th to 19th centuries.

Conventional conservatism has been in decline across the Western world, not just the United States.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2023/02/strange-death-centre-right-moderate-conservatism|title=The strange death of the centre right|quote=In Western democracies conventional conservatism is foundering. How did this once-dominant political force become so diminished? ... The picture today is drastically different. In every one of those countries the moderate conservative tendency represented by those leaders has been sidelined in one way or another. It has either been displaced by more hard-line elements within the same party, or by another party farther to the right; or it has started cooperating with the hard-line right; or has been partly or wholly marginalised within the political system. In one notable case (Orbán) it has self-radicalised. In several countries more than one of these things has occurred. ... The traditional centre right of the postwar decades could do so by “bundling” moderate social conservatism (moderate by the standards of its day, at least) with the pro-business economic conservatism favoured by higher earners. But today those two elements are coming apart: richer folk are more likely to have gone to university and be socially liberal, while social conservatism is more associated with poorer groups. That puts centre-right politics in zugzwang: forced to move, but with no good options. It can emphasize its social conservatism and lose pro-business graduates to the centre, or play it down, shore up its support among those voters and lose social conservatives to the radical right.|first1=Jeremy|last1=Cliffe|date=February 15, 2023|access-date=February 5, 2025|website=The New Statesman|archive-date=February 11, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250211103019/https://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2023/02/strange-death-centre-right-moderate-conservatism|url-status=live}} In the European Union's multi-party system, right-wing populist parties and European conservative parties both received support from about a quarter of voters in the early 2020s, the highest share for right-wing populist parties since the end of World War II.{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2025/02/28/hard-right-parties-are-now-europes-most-popular|title=Hard-right parties are now Europe's most popular|newspaper=The Economist|quote=But over the past 15 years hard-right parties have made substantial gains across the region. Drawing on the work of political scientists, our analysis shows that they now make up Europe’s most popular family of political parties by vote share, beating out the conservative and social-democratic blocs for the first time in modern European history.|date=February 28, 2025|access-date=March 21, 2025}}

Trump's first vice president Mike Pence has since distanced himself from Trump and did not endorse him in the 2024 presidential election.{{cite web |date=June 7, 2023 |title=Mike Pence Tears into Donald Trump at 2024 Campaign Launch |language=en-GB |publisher=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65839793 |access-date=June 13, 2023 |quote=[Pence] added that Mr. Trump's actions on 6 January should disqualify him from returning to power. 'I believe that anyone who puts themselves over the constitution should never be president of the United States,' he said. 'And anyone who asked someone else to put them over the constitution should never be president of the United States again.'}}{{cite web |date=March 15, 2024 |title=Pence says he won't endorse Trump in 2024 race |language=en-US |work=The Hill |url=https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4535253-pence-says-he-wont-endorse-trump-in-2024-race/ |access-date=March 15, 2024 |quote='In each of these cases Donald Trump is pursuing and articulating an agenda that is at odds with the conservative agenda that we governed on during our four years,' Pence said. 'And that's why I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump in this campaign.' |archive-date=March 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240315202654/https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4535253-pence-says-he-wont-endorse-trump-in-2024-race/ |url-status=live }} Likewise, Trump decided not to have Pence as his vice president again, instead choosing JD Vance.{{Cite news |last=Bender |first=Michael C. |date=2022-12-07 |title=The key statistics about Trump's endorsement track record this year. |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/06/us/politics/trump-candidate-endorsement-georgia.html |access-date=2022-12-07 |issn=0362-4331}} Mitch McConnell, who previously served as Senate Republican leader for 18 years (2007–2025), stepped down as leader in 2025 and will retire in 2026 due to declining health and age, as well as disagreements with Trump. McConnell was described as the last powerful member of the Republican establishment, with his retirement marking its end.{{Cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/20/mitch-mcconnell-end-of-an-era-00205294|title=Out goes Mitch McConnell — and an era of GOP politics|first1=Jordain|last1=Carney|website=Politico |date=February 20, 2025|access-date=February 20, 2025}}

The Roberts Court (2005–present), three of whose members were appointed by Trump as of 2024, has been described as the most conservative Supreme Court since the Vinson Court (1946-1953). It represents the last of the Republican establishment, with Chief Justice John Roberts the only Republican leader before Trump to have maintained office during Trump's second term.{{Cite book|title=Nine Black Robes: Inside the Supreme Court's Drive to the Right and Its Historic Consequences|date=April 4, 2023|quote=Today’s bench—with its conservative majority—is desperately ideological. The Court has been headed rightward and ensnared by its own intrigues for years, but the Trump appointments hastened the modern transformation.|first1=Joan|last1=Biskupic|isbn=978-0063052789 }}

The party still maintains long-time ideologically conservative positions on many issues.{{cite news |last1=Aratani |first1=Lauren |title=Republicans unveil two minimum wage bills in response to Democrats' push |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/26/republicans-minimum-wage-bills-senate |access-date=8 February 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=26 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210814230535/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/26/republicans-minimum-wage-bills-senate |archive-date=14 August 2021 |quote=In keeping with the party's deep division between its dominant Trumpist faction and its more traditionalist party elites, the twin responses seem aimed at appealing on one hand to its corporate-friendly allies and on the other hand to its populist rightwing base. Both have an anti-immigrant element.}} Traditional modern conservatives combine support for free-market economic policies with social conservatism and a hawkish approach to foreign policy.{{#invoke:cite|web|last=Devine |first=Donald |date=April 4, 2014 |title=Reagan's Philosophical Fusionism |url=https://www.theamericanconservative.com/reagans-philosophical-fusionism/ |access-date=January 18, 2023 |website=The American Conservative |language=en-US |archive-date=April 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404162912/https://www.theamericanconservative.com/reagans-philosophical-fusionism/ |url-status=live }} Other parts of the conservative movement are composed of fiscal conservatives and deficit hawks.{{cite book|last=Coates|first=David|year=2012|title=The Oxford Companion to American Politics|volume=2|page=393|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-976431-0}}

In foreign policy, neoconservatives are a small faction of the GOP that support an interventionist foreign policy and increased military spending. They previously held significant influence in the early 2000s in planning the initial response to the 9/11 attacks through the War on Terror. Since the election of Trump in 2016, neoconservatism has declined and non-interventionism and isolationism has grown among elected federal Republican officeholders.{{cite news |last1=Rucker |first1=Philip |author1-link=Philip Rucker |last2=Costa |first2=Robert |author2-link=Robert Costa (journalist) |date=March 21, 2016 |title=Trump questions need for NATO, outlines noninterventionist foreign policy |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/03/21/donald-trump-reveals-foreign-policy-team-in-meeting-with-the-washington-post/ |access-date=February 23, 2024 |archive-date=May 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200514130954/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/03/21/donald-trump-reveals-foreign-policy-team-in-meeting-with-the-washington-post/ |url-status=live }}{{cite journal |last1=Dodson |first1=Kyle |last2=Brooks |first2=Clem |title=All by Himself? Trump, Isolationism, and the American Electorate |journal=The Sociological Quarterly |date=20 September 2021 |volume=63 |issue=4 |pages=780–803 |doi=10.1080/00380253.2021.1966348 |s2cid=240577549 |issn=0038-0253|doi-access=free }}

Long-term shifts in conservative thinking following the elections of Trump have been described as a "new fusionism" of traditional conservative ideology and right-wing populist themes. These have resulted in shifts towards greater support for national conservatism,{{cite news |title=The growing peril of national conservatism |url=https://www.economist.com/leaders/2024/02/15/the-growing-peril-of-national-conservatism |newspaper=The Economist |date=February 15, 2024 |access-date=February 15, 2024 |archive-date=February 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240215195332/https://www.economist.com/leaders/2024/02/15/the-growing-peril-of-national-conservatism |url-status=live |url-access=subscription}} protectionism,{{cite news |title=The Republican Party no longer believes America is the essential nation |url=https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/10/26/the-republican-party-no-longer-believes-america-is-the-essential-nation |newspaper=The Economist |date=October 26, 2023 |access-date=February 14, 2024 |archive-date=February 13, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240213131705/https://www.economist.com/united-states/2023/10/26/the-republican-party-no-longer-believes-america-is-the-essential-nation |url-status=live |url-access=subscription}} cultural conservatism, a more realist foreign policy, a conspiracist sub-culture, a repudiation of neoconservatism, reduced efforts to roll back entitlement programs, and a disdain for traditional checks and balances.{{Cite journal |last1=Ashbee |first1=Edward |last2=Waddan|first2=Alex|date=13 December 2023 |title=US Republicans and the New Fusionism |journal=The Political Quarterly |volume=95 |pages=148–156 |language=en |doi=10.1111/1467-923X.13341 |s2cid=266282896 |issn=1467-923X }}{{cite news |last1=Mullins |first1=Luke |title=FreedomWorks Is Closing — And Blaming Trump |url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/05/08/freedomworks-is-closing-and-blaming-trump-00156784 |access-date=8 May 2024 |work=Politico |date=May 8, 2024}} There are significant divisions within the party on the issues of abortion and LGBT rights.{{Cite news |last=Cohn |first=Nate |date=August 17, 2023 |title=The 6 Kinds of Republican Voters |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/08/17/upshot/six-kinds-of-republican-voters.html |access-date=October 9, 2023 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=October 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231012095530/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/08/17/upshot/six-kinds-of-republican-voters.html |url-status=live }}

Conservative caucuses include the Republican Study Committee and Freedom Caucus.{{cite web|title=About|date=December 19, 2013 |url=https://rsc-hern.house.gov/about|publisher=Republican Study Committee|access-date=February 14, 2024|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111231548/https://rsc-hern.house.gov/about|archive-date=January 11, 2024}}{{Cite web|last=Desilver|first=Drew|date=January 23, 2023|title=Freedom Caucus likely to play a bigger role in new GOP-led House. So who are they?|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/01/23/freedom-caucus-likely-to-play-a-bigger-role-in-new-gop-led-house-so-who-are-they/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108045953/https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/01/23/freedom-caucus-likely-to-play-a-bigger-role-in-new-gop-led-house-so-who-are-they/|archive-date=January 8, 2024|access-date=February 14, 2024|website=Pew Research Center|language=en-US}}

{{Main|Christian right|Social conservatism in the United States}}

{{see also|Christian nationalism#United States|Bible Belt|United States anti-abortion movement|2020s anti-LGBT movement in the United States}}

File:Speaker Mike Johnson Official Portrait.jpg (2023–present)]]

Since the rise of the Christian right in the 1970s, the Republican Party has drawn significant support from evangelicals, Mormons,{{Cite web|date=April 27, 2015|title=Five things you should know about Mormon politics|url=https://religionnews.com/2015/04/27/five-things-know-mormon-politics/|access-date=July 16, 2020|website=Religion News Service|language=en-US|archive-date=July 16, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200716204657/https://religionnews.com/2015/04/27/five-things-know-mormon-politics/|url-status=live}} and traditionalist Catholics, partly due to opposition to abortion after Roe v. Wade.{{Cite web |last=Williams |first=Daniel K. |date=May 9, 2022 |title=This Really Is a Different Pro-Life Movement |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/south-abortion-pro-life-protestants-catholics/629779/ |access-date=February 2, 2023 |website=The Atlantic |language=en |quote=This was not merely a geographic shift, trading one region for another, but a more fundamental transformation of the anti-abortion movement's political ideology. In 1973 many of the most vocal opponents of abortion were northern Democrats who believed in an expanded social-welfare state and who wanted to reduce abortion rates through prenatal insurance and federally funded day care. In 2022, most anti-abortion politicians are conservative Republicans who are skeptical of such measures. What happened was a seismic religious and political shift in opposition to abortion that has not occurred in any other Western country. |archive-date=May 10, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220510043840/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/south-abortion-pro-life-protestants-catholics/629779/ |url-status=live }} The Christian right faction is characterized by strong support of socially conservative and Christian nationalist policies.{{refn|

• {{cite book |author-last1=McDaniel|author-first1=Eric L.|author-last2=Nooruddin|author-first2=Irfan|author-last3=Shortle|author-first3=Allyson|date=2022 |title=The Everyday Crusade: Christian Nationalism in American Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lodoEAAAQBAJ |location=Cambridge, United Kingdom |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781316516263|doi=10.1017/9781009029445|quote=White Christian Nationalists are today the base of the Republican Party and those who attacked the U.S. Capitol are drawn from their ranks.}}
• {{Cite web |date=February 7, 2024 |title=First of Its Kind Survey Maps Support for Christian Nationalism Across All 50 States |url=https://www.prri.org/press-release/first-of-its-kind-survey-maps-support-for-christian-nationalism-across-all-50-states/ |access-date=June 15, 2024 |publisher=Public Religion Research Institute |language=en |archive-date=June 16, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240616030445/https://www.prri.org/press-release/first-of-its-kind-survey-maps-support-for-christian-nationalism-across-all-50-states/ |url-status=live |quote=At the national level, Christian nationalism is strongly linked to Republican Party affiliation, white evangelical Protestant affiliation, and higher church attendance.}}
• {{cite book |author-last1=Whitehead|author-first1=Andrew L.|author-last2=Perry|author-first2=Samuel L.|date=2020 |title=Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CDLNDwAAQBAJ |location=New York, New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780190057909 }}
• {{Cite web |date=February 8, 2023 |title=A Christian Nation? Understanding the Threat of Christian Nationalism to American Democracy and Culture |url=https://www.prri.org/research/a-christian-nation-understanding-the-threat-of-christian-nationalism-to-american-democracy-and-culture/ |access-date=June 16, 2024 |publisher=Public Religion Research Institute |language=en |archive-date=June 15, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240615070952/https://www.prri.org/research/a-christian-nation-understanding-the-threat-of-christian-nationalism-to-american-democracy-and-culture/ |url-status=live |quote=Partisanship is closely linked to Christian nationalist views. Most Republicans qualify as either Christian nationalism sympathizers (33%) or adherents (21%), while at least three-quarters of both independents (46% skeptics and 29% rejecters) and Democrats (36% skeptics and 47% rejecters) lean toward rejecting Christian nationalism. Republicans (21%) are about four times as likely as Democrats (5%) or independents (6%) to be adherents of Christian nationalism.}}
• {{cite journal |last1=Baker |first1=Joseph O. |last2=Perry |first2=Samuel L. |last3=Whitehead |first3=Andrew L. |date=August 6, 2020 |title=Crusading for Moral Authority: Christian Nationalism and Opposition to Science |journal=Sociological Forum |volume=35 |issue=3 |pages=587–607 |doi=10.1111/socf.12619 |quote=Christian nationalism has become a powerful predictor of supporting conservative policies and political candidates. This is in large part due to the Republican Party platform becoming synonymous with "restoring" the sacred values, moral superiority, unity, pride, and prosperity of America's mythic past.|hdl=1805/26816 |hdl-access=free }}
• {{cite journal |last1=Whitehead |first1=Andrew L. |last2=Perry |first2=Samuel L. |last3=Baker |first3=Joseph O. |date=25 January 2018 |title=Make America Christian Again: Christian Nationalism and Voting for Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election |journal=Sociology of Religion |volume=79 |issue=2 |pages=147–171 |doi=10.1093/socrel/srx070 |quote=The current study establishes that, independent of these influences, voting for Trump was, at least for many Americans, a symbolic defense of the United States' perceived Christian heritage. Data from a national probability sample of Americans surveyed soon after the 2016 election shows that greater adherence to Christian nationalist ideology was a robust predictor of voting for Trump...}}
• {{cite news |last=Lauter |first=David |date=February 17, 2024 |title=Will Republicans become a Christian nationalist party? Can they win if they do? |url=https://www.latimes.com/politics/newsletter/2023-02-17/will-republicans-become-a-christian-nationalist-party-essential-politics |url-status=live |work=Los Angeles Times |location=Los Angeles, California |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240405092338/https://www.latimes.com/politics/newsletter/2023-02-17/will-republicans-become-a-christian-nationalist-party-essential-politics |archive-date=April 5, 2024 |access-date=June 16, 2024|issn=0458-3035 |quote=The strength of Christian nationalist sentiment can be clearly seen in a wide range of issues that Republican elected officials have stressed, including efforts to curtail the rights and visibility of transgender people, but also some less obvious topics, such as immigration.}}
• {{cite news |last1=Whitehead |first1=Andrew L. |last2=Perry |first2=Samuel L. |date=February 17, 2024 |title=Is Christian nationalism growing or declining? Both. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/25/republicans-christian-nationalism-midterms/ |url-status=live |newspaper=The Washington Post |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240616182922/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/25/republicans-christian-nationalism-midterms/ |archive-date=June 16, 2024 |access-date=June 16, 2024|issn=0190-8286 |quote=According to political scientists Stella Rouse and Shibley Telhami, most Republicans support declaring the United States a Christian nation. And Christian nationalists are running for office at all levels of government, from local school boards to presumptive presidential candidates. Though the numbers of those who claim Christian nationalist beliefs may decline, Christian nationalism's influence in public life only continues to grow.}}
• {{cite web |last=Perry |first=Samuel |date=August 5, 2022 |title=After Trump, Christian nationalist ideas are going mainstream – despite a history of violence |url=https://theconversation.com/after-trump-christian-nationalist-ideas-are-going-mainstream-despite-a-history-of-violence-188055 |url-status=live |work=The Conversation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240601132553/https://theconversation.com/after-trump-christian-nationalist-ideas-are-going-mainstream-despite-a-history-of-violence-188055 |archive-date=June 1, 2024 |access-date=June 16, 2024 |issn=2201-5639 |quote=The presence of Christian nationalist ideas in recent political campaigns is concerning, given its ties to violence and white supremacy. Trump and his advisers helped to mainstream such rhetoric with events like his photo op with a Bible in Lafayette Square in Washington following the violent dispersal of protesters, and making a show of pastors laying hands on him. But that legacy continues beyond his administration.}}
• {{cite news |last=Cummings |first=Mike |date=March 15, 2022 |title=Yale sociologist Phil Gorski on the threat of white Christian nationalism |url=https://news.yale.edu/2022/03/15/yale-sociologist-phil-gorski-threat-white-christian-nationalism |url-status=live |work=Yale News |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240612195953/https://news.yale.edu/2022/03/15/yale-sociologist-phil-gorski-threat-white-christian-nationalism |archive-date=June 12, 2024 |access-date=June 16, 2024 |quote=White Christian nationalism is a dangerous threat because it's incredibly well-organized and powerful. There's absolutely nothing like it on the left.}}
• {{cite news |last=Smith |first=Peter |date=February 17, 2024 |title=Many believe the founders wanted a Christian America. Some want the government to declare one now |url=https://apnews.com/article/american-founders-christian-nation-conservative-beliefs-4ea388e8d80c54016a6a4460cbef9b82 |url-status=live |work=The Associated Press |location=New York |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240219033711/https://apnews.com/article/american-founders-christian-nation-conservative-beliefs-4ea388e8d80c54016a6a4460cbef9b82 |archive-date=February 19, 2024 |access-date=February 22, 2024}}
• {{cite web |last1=Rouse |first1=Stella |last2=Telhami |first2=Shibley |title=Most Republicans Support Declaring the United States a Christian Nation |url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/09/21/most-republicans-support-declaring-the-united-states-a-christian-nation-00057736 |website=Politico |access-date=February 22, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220927001816/https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/09/21/most-republicans-support-declaring-the-united-states-a-christian-nation-00057736 |archive-date=September 27, 2022 |date=September 21, 2022 |url-status=live|quote=Christian nationalism, a belief that the United States was founded as a white, Christian nation and that there is no separation between church and state, is gaining steam on the right. Prominent Republican politicians have made the themes critical to their message to voters in the run up to the 2022 midterm elections.}}}} Christian conservatives seek to use the teachings of Christianity to influence law and public policy.{{cite book |last1=Anderson |first1=Margaret L. |last2=Taylor|first2=Howard Francis |date=2006 |title=Sociology: Understanding a Diverse Society |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LP9bIrZ9xacC&pg=PA469 |location=Belmont, CA |publisher=Thomson Wadsworth |page= |isbn=978-0-534-61716-5}} Compared to other Republicans, the socially conservative Christian right faction of the party is more likely to oppose LGBT rights, marijuana legalization, and support significantly restricting the legality of abortion.{{cite book |author-first=Robert B. |author-last=Smith |title=Mediations of Social Life in the 21st Century |chapter=Social Conservatism, Distractors, and Authoritarianism: Axiological versus instrumental rationality |editor-first=Harry F. |editor-last=Dahms |date=2014|publisher=Emerald Group Publishing|isbn=9781784412227|page=101|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C5V1BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA101|language=en}}

The Christian right is strongest in the Bible Belt, which covers most of the Southern United States.Brunn, Stanley D., Gerald R. Webster, and J. Clark Archer. "The Bible Belt in a changing south: Shrinking, relocating, and multiple buckles." Southeastern Geographer 51.4 (2011): 513–549. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/26228980 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230129031122/https://www.jstor.org/stable/26228980 |date=January 29, 2023 }} Mike Pence, Donald Trump's vice president from 2017 to 2021, was a member of the Christian right.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/21/us/politics/mike-pence-religion.html|title=Mike Pence's Journey: Catholic Democrat to Evangelical Republican|last1=Mahler|first1=Jonathan|date=July 20, 2016|work=The New York Times|access-date=March 22, 2017|last2=Johnson|first2=Dirk|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=November 14, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161114134505/http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/21/us/politics/mike-pence-religion.html|url-status=live}} In October 2023, a member of the Christian right faction, Louisiana representative Mike Johnson, was elected the 56th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.{{Cite news |last1=Karni |first1=Annie |last2=Graham |first2=Ruth |last3=Eder |first3=Steve |title=For Mike Johnson, Religion Is at the Forefront of Politics and Policy |work=The New York Times |date=October 28, 2023 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/27/us/politics/mike-johnson-speaker-religion.html }}{{Cite web |date=2023-10-27 |title=Christian conservatives cheer one of their own as Mike Johnson assumes Congress' most powerful seat |url=https://apnews.com/article/house-speaker-mike-johnson-christian-right-louisiana-9407f1e4b4c588f27f9510dd47c94fe8 |access-date=2024-02-08 |website=AP News |language=en |archive-date=February 24, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240224023531/https://apnews.com/article/house-speaker-mike-johnson-christian-right-louisiana-9407f1e4b4c588f27f9510dd47c94fe8 |url-status=live }}

{{main|Libertarian Republican|Right-libertarianism}}

{{See also|Libertarian conservatism|Libertarianism in the United States|Republican Liberty Caucus|Tea Party movement}}

The Republican Party has a libertarian faction. This faction of the party is most popular in the Midwestern and Western United States. Libertarianism emerged from fusionism in the 1950s and 60s.{{Cite book |last=Dionne Jr. |first=E.J. |title=Why Americans Hate Politics |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=1991 |location=New York |page=161}} Barry Goldwater had a substantial impact on the conservative-libertarian movement of the 1960s.{{Citation |last=Poole |first=Robert |title=In memoriam: Barry Goldwater |date=August–September 1998 |newspaper=Reason |type=Obituary |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1568/is_n4_v30/ai_20954419 |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20090628123204/http%3A//findarticles%2Ecom/p/articles/mi_m1568/is_n4_v30/ai_20954419/ |archive-date=June 28, 2009}} Compared to other Republicans, they are more likely to favor the legalization of marijuana, LGBT rights such as same-sex marriage, gun rights, oppose mass surveillance, and support reforms to current laws surrounding civil asset forfeiture. Right-wing libertarians are strongly divided on the subject of abortion.{{cite web |first=Doris |last=Gordon |title=Abortion and Rights: Applying Libertarian Principles Correctly |url=http://www.l4l.org/library/abor-rts.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160526031557/http://l4l.org/library/abor-rts.html |archive-date=May 26, 2016 |access-date=March 8, 2023 |publisher=Libertarians for Life}} Also see: {{cite book |last1=McElroy |first1=Wendy |author-link1=Wendy McElroy |title=Liberty for Women |date=2002 |publisher=Ivan R. Dee |isbn=978-1566634359 |location=Chicago |page=156 |oclc=260069067 |quote=Libertarians for Life declare that abortion is not a right but a 'wrong under justice.'}} Prominent libertarian conservatives within the Republican Party include Rand Paul,{{Cite web |title=Who are Mike Lee and Rand Paul, the senators slamming the White House's Iran briefing? |url=https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2020/01/09/who-mike-lee-and-rand-paul-senators-slamming-white-houses-iran-briefing/4420109002/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231215023724/https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2020/01/09/who-mike-lee-and-rand-paul-senators-slamming-white-houses-iran-briefing/4420109002/ |archive-date=December 15, 2023 |access-date=May 26, 2023 |website=The Courier-Journal |language=en-US}}{{cite news |date=March 18, 2013 |title=Sen. Rand Paul talks CPAC straw poll victory, looks ahead to 2016 |url=http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/2013/03/19/sen-rand-paul-talks-cpac-straw-poll-victory-looks-ahead-2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130401150703/http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/2013/03/19/sen-rand-paul-talks-cpac-straw-poll-victory-looks-ahead-2016 |archive-date=April 1, 2013 |publisher=Hannity with Sean Hannity (Fox News Network)}} Thomas Massie,{{cite news |last1=Miller |first1=Joshua |date=December 22, 2012 |title=Scientist, Farmer Brings Tea Party Sensibility to House |url=https://www.rollcall.com/2012/12/22/scientist-farmer-brings-tea-party-sensibility-to-house/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200901054304/https://www.rollcall.com/2012/12/22/scientist-farmer-brings-tea-party-sensibility-to-house/ |archive-date=September 1, 2020 |access-date=September 1, 2020 |work=Roll Call}} and Mike Lee.{{Cite web |last=Glueck |first=Katie |date=July 31, 2013 |title=Paul, Cruz and Lee in rare form |url=https://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/rand-paul-ted-cruz-mike-lee-095033 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230526180557/https://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/rand-paul-ted-cruz-mike-lee-095033 |archive-date=May 26, 2023 |access-date=May 26, 2023 |website=Politico |language=en}}

During the 2024 United States elections, the Republican Party adopted pro-cryptocurrency policies, which were originally advocated by the libertarian wing of the party.{{Cite news|work=Marketplace|title=Republicans are embracing crypto|date=17 July 2024|url=https://www.marketplace.org/2024/07/17/republicans-crypto-bitcoin-donald-trump/}} As the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump addressed the 2024 Libertarian National Convention, pledging support for cryptocurrency, opposing central bank digital currency and expressing support for the commutation of Ross Ulbricht.{{cite web |last1=Schaeffer |first1=Peder |title=Trump pledges to commute sentence of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht if elected |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/25/trump-commute-ross-ulbricht-sentence-libertarian-convention-00160025 |website=Politico |access-date=8 February 2025 |date=25 May 2024}} Trump's 2024 campaign featured greater influence from technolibertarian elements, particularly Elon Musk, who was subsequently nominated to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).{{cite news|work=Vox|url=https://www.vox.com/technology/383859/musk-trump-vance-silicon-valley|date=November 11, 2024|title=Trump's techno-libertarian dream team goes to Washington}}{{cite news|work=Politico|title=Elon Musk's Twist On Tech Libertarianism Is Blowing Up On Twitter|date=November 23, 2024|url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/11/23/elon-musks-new-school-tech-libertarianism-00070733}}{{cite news|work=Euronews|title='Techno libertarians': Why Elon Musk is supporting Donald Trump in the US election|date=October 30, 2024|url=https://www.euronews.com/next/2024/10/30/techno-libertarians-why-elon-musk-is-supporting-donald-trump-in-the-us-election}}

{{Main|Centrism|Center-right politics}}

{{see also|Republican Governance Group|Moderate conservatism|Problem Solvers Caucus}}

Moderates in the Republican Party are an ideologically centrist group that predominantly come from the Northeastern United States,{{Cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/19/moderate-republican-governor-trump-00107248|title=Sununu's exit spells the end of a whole breed of Republican governor|date=July 19, 2023|website=POLITICO|last=Kashinsky|first=Lisa|access-date=November 8, 2023|archive-date=November 8, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231108131447/https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/19/moderate-republican-governor-trump-00107248|url-status=live}} and are typically located in swing states or blue states. Moderate Republican voters are typically highly educated, affluent, fiscally conservative, socially moderate or liberal and often "Never Trump". While they sometimes share the economic views of other Republicans (i.e. lower taxes, deregulation, and welfare reform), moderate Republicans differ in that some are for affirmative action,{{cite news|newspaper=The Washington Post|title=Losing Its Preference: Affirmative Action Fades as Issue|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/affirm/stories/aa091896.htm|year=1996|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223165410/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/affirm/stories/aa091896.htm|archive-date=February 23, 2017}} LGBT rights and same-sex marriage, legal access to and even public funding for abortion, gun control laws, more environmental regulation and action on climate change, fewer restrictions on immigration and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/06/liberal.republicans/|title=Analysis: An autopsy of liberal Republicans|first=Alan|last=Silverleib|website=cnn.com|language=en|date=May 6, 2009|access-date=October 14, 2018|archive-date=June 25, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180625021607/http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/06/liberal.republicans/|url-status=live}} In the 21st century, some former Republican moderates have switched to the Democratic Party,{{cite web |last1=Tatum |first1=Sophie |title=3 Kansas legislators switch from Republican to Democrat |url=https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/19/politics/kansas-legislature-republican-democrat/index.html |website=CNN |date=December 20, 2018 |access-date=January 8, 2021 |archive-date=October 30, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030091356/https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/19/politics/kansas-legislature-republican-democrat/index.html |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last1=Weiner |first1=Rachel |title=Charlie Crist defends party switch |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2012/12/10/charlie-crist-defends-party-switch/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=January 8, 2021 |archive-date=February 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225143218/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2012/12/10/charlie-crist-defends-party-switch/ |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last1=Davis |first1=Susan |title=Meltdown On Main Street: Inside The Breakdown Of The GOP's Moderate Wing |url=https://www.npr.org/2019/08/23/753404051/meltdown-on-main-street-inside-the-breakdown-of-the-gops-moderate-wing |access-date=June 17, 2022 |work=NPR |date=August 23, 2019 |language=en |archive-date=June 17, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220617124126/https://www.npr.org/2019/08/23/753404051/meltdown-on-main-street-inside-the-breakdown-of-the-gops-moderate-wing |url-status=live }} and the faction is in decline.{{cite news |date=2006-12-07 |title=The Decline of GOP Moderates |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2006/12/07/the-decline-of-gop-moderates/f38f0257850acbf1271c31bd9f5a656d/ |access-date=2025-02-03 |newspaper=Washington Post}}{{cite web |last=Harris |first=Paul |date=2008-10-25 |title=Republicans fear long exile in the wilderness |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/oct/26/uselections2008-republicans |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=The Guardian}}{{cite news |last=Horowitz |first=Jason |date=2012-01-18 |title=Mitt Romney and the fall of Republican moderates |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/mitt-romney-and-the-fall-of-republican-moderates/2012/01/18/gIQAQ2BC9P_story.html |access-date=2025-02-03 |newspaper=Washington Post}}{{cite web |last=Drutman |first=Lee |date=2020-08-24 |title=Why There Are So Few Moderate Republicans Left |url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-there-are-so-few-moderate-republicans-left/ |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=FiveThirtyEight}}{{cite web |last=Berman |first=Russell |date=2023-01-27 |title='We Used to Be Called Moderate. We Are Not Moderate.' |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2023/01/moderate-centrist-republicans-pragmatic-conservatives/672856/ |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=The Atlantic}}{{cite web |last=Skolnik |first=Jon |date=2021-12-03 |title=Moderate Republicans are quitting as the GOP's big tent narrows |url=https://www.salon.com/2021/12/03/moderate-are-quitting-as-the-gops-big-tent-narrows/ |access-date=2025-02-03 |website=Salon}}

Notable moderate Republicans include Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine,{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/10/collins-murkowski-key-votes-kavanaugh-confirmation/572407/|title=Two Moderate Senators, Two Very Different Paths|first=Elaina|last=Plott|date=October 6, 2018|website=The Atlantic|access-date=February 23, 2019}}{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/opinion/collins-murkowski-change-parties.html|title=Opinion – Senators Collins and Murkowski, It's Time to Leave the G.O.P.|first=Susan|last=Faludi|work=The New York Times|date=July 5, 2018|access-date=February 23, 2019|via=NYTimes.com|archive-date=February 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190221112139/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/opinion/collins-murkowski-change-parties.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/408193-kavanaughs-fate-rests-with-sen-collins/|title=Kavanaugh's fate rests with Sen. Collins|first=Linda|last=Petre|date=September 25, 2018|website=TheHill|access-date=February 23, 2019|archive-date=February 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190221112348/https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/408193-kavanaughs-fate-rests-with-sen-collins|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/sen-lisa-murkowski-face-reprisal-alaska-gop|title=Sen. Lisa Murkowski Could Face Reprisal from Alaska GOP|first1=Griffin|last1=Connolly|date=October 9, 2018|access-date=February 23, 2019|website=rollcall.com|archive-date=October 11, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181011013657/https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/sen-lisa-murkowski-face-reprisal-alaska-gop|url-status=dead}} Nevada governor Joe Lombardo, Vermont governor Phil Scott,{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/11/republican-governors-new-england-defy-blue-wave/574726/|title=The Last Liberal Republicans Hang On|first=Parker|last=Richards|date=November 3, 2018|website=The Atlantic|access-date=February 23, 2019|archive-date=November 9, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181109112034/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/11/republican-governors-new-england-defy-blue-wave/574726/|url-status=live}} New Hampshire governor Kelly Ayotte, and former Maryland governor Larry Hogan.{{Cite web|url=https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/29/larry-hogan-trump-maryland-00181572|title=Larry Hogan confirms he won't vote for Trump, despite the former president's endorsement|date=September 29, 2024|website=Politico|first1=Greta|last1=Reich|access-date=September 29, 2024}}{{cite web|url=https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/gov-larry-hogan-positions-himself-as-moderate-on-the-national-stage-at-second-inauguration/65-ccd71689-8f8a-4663-af27-07014cb3c929|title=Gov. Larry Hogan positions himself as moderate on the national stage at second inauguration|website=WUSA|date=January 16, 2019|access-date=February 23, 2019|archive-date=February 21, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190221112322/https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/gov-larry-hogan-positions-himself-as-moderate-on-the-national-stage-at-second-inauguration/65-ccd71689-8f8a-4663-af27-07014cb3c929|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Political positions of the Republican Party}}

Enacting high tariffs on foreign imports is a core component of Donald Trump's fiscal agenda. Tariffs are taxes on foreign imports, mainly paid by domestic businesses, given that consumers generally do not import foreign goods directly. By raising tariffs to their highest levels since the Gilded Age, Trump enacted one of the largest tax increases on corporations by any Republican president. The Constitution's Import-Export Clause requires that only the federal government be allowed to collect tariff revenue from imports.

Republicans also believe that free markets and individual achievement are the primary factors behind economic prosperity.{{Cite journal|title=The grand old party – a party of values?|first1=Patrick|last1=Mair|first2=Thomas|last2=Rusch|first3=Kurt|last3=Hornik|date=November 27, 2014|journal=SpringerPlus|volume=3|pages=697|doi=10.1186/2193-1801-3-697 |doi-access=free |pmid=25512889|pmc=4256162}} Reduction in income taxes for those with higher incomes{{Cite web|url=https://apnews.com/article/tax-cuts-jobs-act-trump-treasury-agenda-f4031196e0d69d0a1630e3b06b6d3cd7|title=Trump tax cuts, if made permanent, stand to benefit highest income earners, Treasury analysis shows|website=Associated Press News |date=January 10, 2025 }}{{Cite web|url=https://itep.org/a-distributional-analysis-of-donald-trumps-tax-plan-2024/|title=A Distributional Analysis of Donald Trump's Tax Plan

|website=Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy |date=October 7, 2024 }} is a core component of Republicans' fiscal agenda.{{Cite web|url=https://www.russellsage.org/news/how-tax-cuts-became-central-republican-party|title=How Tax Cuts Became Central to the Republican Party|website=www.russellsage.org}}

{{Main|Mercantilism}}

Donald Trump is a mercantilist and staunch proponent of enacting tariffs, that is taxes on imports from foreign countries paid by domestic importers, mostly corporations.{{#invoke:cite|web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/us/politics/trump-tariffs-goal.html|title=To Trump, Tariffs Are Not a Means but an End|quote=Many presidents use tariffs to force negotiations. But for President Trump, they are the point, a source of revenue as he pursues a Gilded Age vision.|date=February 1, 2025|access-date=February 1, 2025|first1=David E.|last1=Sanger|website=The New York Times|archive-date=February 2, 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250202082024/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/01/us/politics/trump-tariffs-goal.html|url-status=live}} Mercantilism is nationalist, and opposes trade deficits and free trade.

In 2025, Trump raised American tariff rates to the highest in the world, at the highest level since the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act of 1930.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ft.com/content/fe5f7469-6f04-40e6-bc59-0d4e004e1cd3|title=Donald Trump escalates global trade war with sweeping tariff blitz|date=April 2, 2025|access-date=April 2, 2025|website=Financial Times}}

Donald Trump opposes globalization, and his economic policies have been described as attempting to unravel the multilateral global economic order, including the power of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

{{As of |2025}} the Republican Party supports near-universal tariffs, but that has not always been the case. For example, during the last half of the 20th century, Republicans were strong proponents of free trade. The current Republican president, Donald Trump, has been a staunch proponent of enacting tariffs as a means of generating tax revenue, and has raised tariffs to their highest levels since World War II.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/01/31/tariff-trump-trade-war/|title=Trump sketches unprecedented plan for sweeping tariffs|date=January 31, 2025|access-date=February 1, 2025|newspaper=The Washington Post|first1=David J.|last1=Lynch|first2=Mary Beth|last2=Sheridan|first3=Amanda|last3=Coletta}} According to an April 2025 Economist/YouGov poll, "Republican voters overwhelmingly support Trump's tariffs, while Democratic voters generally do not."

Trump has expressed his admiration for Republican president William McKinley's tariff policies. McKinley was the author of the Tariff Act of 1890, and both Trump and McKinley nicknamed themselves as a "Tariff Man".{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2025/01/27/trump-mckinley-tariffs-history/|title=Why Trump admires President McKinley, the original 'tariff man'|date=January 27, 2025|access-date=February 1, 2025|first1=Andrew|last1=Jeong|newspaper=The Washington Post}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/politics/trump-tariffs-auto-industry-corporate-executives.html|title=Trump's Unwelcome News to Auto Chiefs: Buckle Up for What's to Come|quote=President Trump’s approach to tariffs has unsettled many corporate leaders who believed he would use the levies as a negotiating tool. As it turns out, he sees them as an end in themselves.|date=March 17, 2025|first1=Jonathan|last1=Swan|first2=Maggie|last2=Haberman|first3=Ana|last3=Swanson|website=The New York Times }}

At its inception, the Republican Party supported protective tariffs. Abraham Lincoln enacted tariffs during the Civil War.{{cite book|author=Coy F. Cross II|title=Justin Smith Morrill: Father of the Land-Grant Colleges|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5NYBqv3E7IMC&pg=PT45|year=2012|publisher=MSU Press|page=45|isbn=9780870139055}}[http://www.cprr.org/Museum/Ephemera/Republican_Platform_1860.html Republican Party National Platform, 1860] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230813035120/http://cprr.org/Museum/Ephemera/Republican_Platform_1860.html |date=August 13, 2023 }} Reported from the Platform Committee by Judge Jessup of Pennsylvania and adopted unanimously by the Republican National Convention held at Chicago on May 17, 1860. Broadside printing by The Chicago Press & Tribune, May 1860 The great battle over the high Payne–Aldrich Tariff Act in 1910 caused a split in the party.Stanley D. Solvick, "William Howard Taft and the Payne-Aldrich Tariff." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 50.3 (1963): 424–442 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1902605 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210307035528/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1902605 |date=March 7, 2021 }} The Reciprocal Tariff Act of 1934 marked a sharp departure from the era of protectionism in the United States. American duties on foreign products declined from an average of 46% in 1934 to 12% by 1962, which included the presidency of Republican president Dwight D. Eisenhower.{{cite journal|last=Bailey|first=Michael A.|author2=Goldstein, Weingast |title=The Institutional Roots of American Trade Policy|journal=World Politics|date=April 1997|volume=49|issue=3|pages=309–38|doi=10.1353/wp.1997.0007|s2cid=154711958 }} After World War II, the U.S. promoted the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) established in 1947, to minimize tariffs and other restrictions, and to liberalize trade among all capitalist countries.John H. Barton, Judith L. Goldstein, Timothy E. Josling, and Richard H. Steinberg, The Evolution of the Trade Regime: Politics, Law, and Economics of the GATT and the WTO (2008){{cite journal |last1=McClenahan |first1=William |title=The Growth of Voluntary Export Restraints and American Foreign Economic Policy, 1956–1969 |journal=Business and Economic History |date=1991 |volume=20 |pages=180–190 |jstor=23702815 }}

During the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations, Republicans abandoned protectionist policies{{cite book |editor1-first=Nikolaos |editor1-last=Karagiannis |editor2-first=Zagros |editor2-last=Madjd-Sadjadi |editor3-first=Swapan |editor3-last=Sen |url=https://www.routledge.com/The-US-Economy-and-Neoliberalism-Alternative-Strategies-and-Policies/Karagiannis-Madjd-Sadjadi-Sen/p/book/9780415645058 |title=The US Economy and Neoliberalism: Alternative Strategies and Policies |publisher=Routledge |date=2013 |isbn=978-1138904910 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=aYKfai1RlPYC&pg=PA58 58] |access-date=August 14, 2023 |archive-date=August 13, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210813193859/https://www.routledge.com/The-US-Economy-and-Neoliberalism-Alternative-Strategies-and-Policies/Karagiannis-Madjd-Sadjadi-Sen/p/book/9780415645058 |url-status=live }} and came out against quotas and in favor of the GATT and the World Trade Organization policy of minimal economic barriers to global trade. Free trade with Canada came about as a result of the Canada–U.S. Free Trade Agreement of 1987, which led in 1994 to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) based on Reagan's plan to enlarge the scope of the market for American firms to include Canada and Mexico. President Bill Clinton, with strong Republican support in 1993, pushed NAFTA through Congress over the vehement objection of labor unions.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zP4wDcT3PeQC&pg=PA358|title=Encyclopedia of U.S. Campaigns, Elections, and Electoral Behavior|first=Kenneth F.|last=Warren|publisher=Sage Publications|year=2008|page=358|isbn=978-1412954891|access-date=August 14, 2023|archive-date=December 15, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231215023725/https://books.google.com/books?id=zP4wDcT3PeQC&pg=PA358#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DxJZxwyMHHYC&pg=PT151|title=Unions in America|first=Gary|last=Chaison|publisher=Sage|year=2005|page=151|isbn=978-1452239477|access-date=August 14, 2023|archive-date=December 15, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231215024942/https://books.google.com/books?id=DxJZxwyMHHYC&pg=PT151#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}

The 2016 presidential election marked a return to supporting protectionism, beginning with Donald Trump's first presidency.{{Cite journal|last=Swedberg |first=Richard|date=2018|title=Folk economics and its role in Trump's presidential campaign: an exploratory study|journal=Theory and Society|volume=47|pages=1–36|doi=10.1007/s11186-018-9308-8|s2cid=149378537}}{{cite news |last=Swanson |first=Ana |date=July 5, 2018 |title=Trump's Trade War With China Is Officially Underway |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/business/china-us-trade-war-trump-tariffs.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=May 26, 2019 }} In 2017, only 36% of Republicans agreed that free trade agreements are good for the United States, compared to 67% of Democrats. When asked if free trade has helped respondents specifically, the approval numbers for Democrats drop to 54%, however approval ratings among Republicans remain relatively unchanged at 34%.{{Cite web|url=http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/25/support-for-free-trade-agreements-rebounds-modestly-but-wide-partisan-differences-remain/|title=Support for free trade agreements rebounds modestly, but wide partisan differences remain|website=Pew Research|date=April 25, 2017 |access-date=August 14, 2023|archive-date=April 11, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411201429/https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/25/support-for-free-trade-agreements-rebounds-modestly-but-wide-partisan-differences-remain/|url-status=live}}

Income tax cuts have been at the core of Republican economic policy since 1980.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2019-01-18/republicans-fell-in-love-with-tax-cuts-thanks-to-reagan|website=www.bloomberg.com|title=Why Republicans Fell in Love With Tax Cuts|last=Fox|first=Justin|date=January 18, 2019}} At the national level and state level, Republicans tend to pursue policies of tax cuts and deregulation.{{Citation |last1=Grumbach |first1=Jacob M. |title=The Political Economies of Red States |date=2021 |work=The American Political Economy: Politics, Markets, and Power |pages=209–244 |editor-last=Hertel-Fernandez |editor-first=Alexander |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1316516362 |last2=Hacker |first2=Jacob S. |last3=Pierson |first3=Paul |editor2-last=Hacker |editor2-first=Jacob S. |editor3-last=Thelen |editor3-first=Kathleen |editor4-last=Pierson |editor4-first=Paul |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/american-political-economy/political-economies-of-red-states/BEE22FE6AAB57A14FF10F807E02116BB |access-date=November 10, 2021 |archive-date=November 23, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211123114921/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/american-political-economy/political-economies-of-red-states/BEE22FE6AAB57A14FF10F807E02116BB |url-status=live}} Modern Republicans advocate the theory of supply-side economics, which holds that lower tax rates increase economic growth.{{cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/node/21530093|newspaper=The Economist|title=Diving into the rich pool|date=September 24, 2011|access-date=January 13, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112210317/http://www.economist.com/node/21530093|archive-date=January 12, 2012|url-status=live}} Many Republicans oppose higher tax rates for higher earners, which they believe are unfairly targeted at those who create jobs and wealth. They believe private spending is more efficient than government spending. Republican lawmakers have also sought to limit funding for tax enforcement and tax collection.{{cite web|url=https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-irs-was-gutted|title=How the IRS Was Gutted|last=Paul Kiel|first=Jesse Eisinger|date=December 11, 2018|website=ProPublica|access-date=December 11, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181211132205/https://www.propublica.org/article/how-the-irs-was-gutted|archive-date=December 11, 2018|url-status=live}}

As per a 2021 study that measured Republicans' congressional votes, the modern Republican Party's economic policy positions tend to align with business interests and the affluent.{{Cite journal|last1=Grossmann|first1=Matt|last2=Mahmood|first2=Zuhaib|last3=Isaac|first3=William|date=2021|title=Political Parties, Interest Groups, and Unequal Class Influence in American Policy|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/711900|journal=The Journal of Politics|volume=83|issue=4|pages=1706–1720|doi=10.1086/711900|s2cid=224851520|issn=0022-3816|access-date=January 13, 2022|archive-date=October 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029170940/https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/711900|url-status=live}}{{Cite book|last=Bartels|first=Larry M.|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/book/64558|title=Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age|edition=2nd|date=2016|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1400883363|access-date=January 13, 2022|archive-date=November 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211105222439/https://muse.jhu.edu/book/64558|url-status=live}}{{Cite journal|last1=Rhodes|first1=Jesse H.|last2=Schaffner|first2=Brian F.|date=2017|title=Testing Models of Unequal Representation: Democratic Populists and Republican Oligarchs?|url=http://www.nowpublishers.com/article/Details/QJPS-16077|journal=Quarterly Journal of Political Science|volume=12|issue=2|pages=185–204|doi=10.1561/100.00016077|access-date=January 13, 2022|archive-date=October 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029183431/https://www.nowpublishers.com/article/Details/QJPS-16077|url-status=live}}{{Cite journal|last1=Lax|first1=Jeffrey R.|last2=Phillips|first2=Justin H.|last3=Zelizer|first3=Adam|date=2019|title=The Party or the Purse? Unequal Representation in the US Senate|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/party-or-the-purse-unequal-representation-in-the-us-senate/286BFEAA039374759DE14D782A0BB8DD|journal=American Political Science Review|language=en|volume=113|issue=4|pages=917–940|doi=10.1017/S0003055419000315|s2cid=21669533|issn=0003-0554|access-date=January 13, 2022|archive-date=October 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211029000457/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/party-or-the-purse-unequal-representation-in-the-us-senate/286BFEAA039374759DE14D782A0BB8DD|url-status=live}}{{Cite book|last1=Hacker|first1=Jacob S.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kqu6DwAAQBAJ|title=Let them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality|last2=Pierson|first2=Paul|date=2020|publisher=Liveright Publishing|isbn=978-1631496851|language=en}}

Republicans advocate in favor of fiscal conservatism. Republican administrations have, since the late 1960s, supported sectors like national defense, veterans affairs, and infrastructure.{{Cite journal|last1=Milkis|first1=Sidney M.|last2=King|first2=Desmond|last3=Jacobs|first3=Nicholas F.|date=2019|title=Building a Conservative State: Partisan Polarization and the Redeployment of Administrative Power|journal=Perspectives on Politics|volume=17|issue=2|pages=453–469|doi=10.1017/S1537592718003511|issn=1537-5927|doi-access=free}}{{Cite web|date=November 12, 2014|title=The Rise in Per Capita Federal Spending|url=https://www.mercatus.org/publications/government-spending/rise-capita-federal-spending|access-date=August 30, 2020|website=Mercatus Center|archive-date=December 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211214020934/https://www.mercatus.org/publications/government-spending/rise-capita-federal-spending|url-status=live}}{{Cite web |last=Atske |first=Sara |date=2019-04-11 |title=Little Public Support for Reductions in Federal Spending |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2019/04/11/little-public-support-for-reductions-in-federal-spending/ |access-date=2024-12-25 |website=Pew Research Center |language=en-US}}

Republicans believe individuals should take responsibility for their own circumstances. They also believe the private sector is more effective in helping the poor through charity than the government is through welfare programs and that social assistance programs often cause government dependency.{{Cite web|last=Konczal|first=Mike|date=March 24, 2014|title=The Conservative Myth of a Social Safety Net Built on Charity|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/the-conservative-myth-of-a-social-safety-net-built-on-charity/284552/|url-status=live|access-date=December 30, 2021|website=The Atlantic|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220503030317/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/03/the-conservative-myth-of-a-social-safety-net-built-on-charity/284552/|archive-date=May 3, 2022}} As of November 2022, all 11 states that had not expanded Medicaid had Republican-controlled state legislatures.{{cite web|title=Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions: Interactive Map|url=https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/status-of-state-medicaid-expansion-decisions-interactive-map|publisher=Kaiser Family Foundation|date=November 9, 2022|access-date=February 26, 2023|archive-date=June 24, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220624102415/https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/status-of-state-medicaid-expansion-decisions-interactive-map/|url-status=live}} Scroll down for state by state info.

The Republican Party is generally opposed to labor unions.{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/gop-debate-republican-trump-union-strikes-b2475831.html|title=What the GOP candidates have said about strikes and unions|date=January 9, 2024|website=The Independent}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/25/republicans-working-class-voter-unions-worker-protections-organize|title=Republicans want working-class voters — without actually supporting workers|first=Steven|last=Greenhouse|date=October 25, 2022|newspaper=The Guardian}} Republicans believe corporations should be able to establish their own employment practices, including benefits and wages, with the free market deciding the price of work. Since the 1920s, Republicans have generally been opposed by labor union organizations and members. At the national level, Republicans supported the Taft–Hartley Act of 1947, which gives workers the right not to participate in unions. Modern Republicans at the state level generally support various right-to-work laws.{{efn|Right-to-work laws ban union security agreements, which require all workers in a unionized workplace to pay dues or a fair-share fee regardless of whether they are members of the union or not.{{cite web|title=Employer/Union Rights and Obligations|url=https://www.nlrb.gov/rights-we-protect/employerunion-rights-and-obligations|publisher=National Labor Relations Board|access-date=July 7, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711175358/https://www.nlrb.gov/rights-we-protect/employerunion-rights-and-obligations|archive-date=July 11, 2017|url-status=live}}}} Most Republicans also oppose increases in the minimum wage.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

{{Main|Political positions of the Republican Party#Environmental policies}}

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| image1 = 2009- Pew survey - is climate change a major threat, by political party.svg

| caption1 = Democrats and Republicans have diverged on the seriousness of the threat posed by climate change, with Republicans' assessment remaining essentially unchanged over the past decade.● {{cite web |title=54% of Americans view climate change as a major threat, but the partisan divide has grown |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/18/for-earth-day-key-facts-about-americans-views-of-climate-change-and-renewable-energy/sr_2023-04-18_climate_5/ |publisher=Pew Research Center |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230422182323/https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/18/for-earth-day-key-facts-about-americans-views-of-climate-change-and-renewable-energy/sr_2023-04-18_climate_5/ |archive-date=April 22, 2023 |date=April 18, 2023 |url-status=live }} ● Broader discussion by {{cite web |last1=Tyson |first1=Alec |last2=Funk |first2=Cary |last3=Kennedy |first3=Brian |title=What the data says about Americans' views of climate change |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/18/for-earth-day-key-facts-about-americans-views-of-climate-change-and-renewable-energy/ |publisher=Pew Research Center |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230512193458/https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/18/for-earth-day-key-facts-about-americans-views-of-climate-change-and-renewable-energy/ |archive-date=May 12, 2023 |date=April 18, 2023 |url-status=live}}

| image3 = 20220301 Opinions by political party - Climate change causation - Action for carbon neutral 2050 - Pew Research.svg

| caption3 = Opinion about human causation of climate change increased substantially with education among Democrats, but not among Republicans. Conversely, opinions favoring becoming carbon neutral declined substantially with age among Republicans, but not among Democrats.{{cite web |last1=Tyson |first1=Alec |last2=Funk |first2=Cary |last3=Kennedy |first3=Brian |title=Americans Largely Favor U.S. Taking Steps To Become Carbon Neutral by 2050 / Appendix (Detailed charts and tables) |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/03/01/carbon-neutral-2050-appendix/ |website=Pew Research |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220418220503/https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2022/03/01/carbon-neutral-2050-appendix/ |archive-date=April 18, 2022 |date=March 1, 2022 |url-status=live }}

}}

Historically, progressive leaders in the Republican Party supported environmental protection. Republican President Theodore Roosevelt was a prominent conservationist whose policies eventually led to the creation of the National Park Service.{{cite web|author=Filler, Daniel|title=Theodore Roosevelt: Conservation as the Guardian of Democracy|url=http://pantheon.cis.yale.edu/~thomast/essays/filler/filler.html|access-date=November 9, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030802175908/http://pantheon.cis.yale.edu/~thomast/essays/filler/filler.html|archive-date=August 2, 2003}} While Republican President Richard Nixon was not an environmentalist, he signed legislation to create the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 and had a comprehensive environmental program.{{Cite journal|last=Ewert|first=Sara Dant|date=July 3, 2003|title=Environmental Politics in the Nixon Era|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/44406|journal=Journal of Policy History|volume=15|issue=3|pages=345–348|issn=1528-4190|doi=10.1353/jph.2003.0019|s2cid=153711962|access-date=June 3, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809131601/https://muse.jhu.edu/article/44406|archive-date=August 9, 2017|url-status=dead}} However, this position has changed since the 1980s and the administration of President Ronald Reagan, who labeled environmental regulations a burden on the economy.{{cite journal|last1=Dunlap|first1=Riley E.|last2=McCright|first2=Araon M.|title=A Widening Gap: Republican and Democratic Views on Climate Change|journal=Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development|date=August 7, 2010|volume=50|issue=5|pages=26–35|doi=10.3200/ENVT.50.5.26-35|s2cid=154964336}} Since then, Republicans have increasingly taken positions against environmental regulation,{{Cite journal|last1=Bergquist|first1=Parrish|last2=Warshaw|first2=Christopher|date=2020|title=Elections and parties in environmental politics|url=https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781788972833/9781788972833.00017.xml|journal=Handbook of U.S. Environmental Policy|pages=126–141|language=en-US|doi=10.4337/9781788972840.00017|isbn=978-1788972840|s2cid=219077951|access-date=November 7, 2021|archive-date=November 7, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211107233114/https://www.elgaronline.com/view/edcoll/9781788972833/9781788972833.00017.xml|url-status=live}}{{Cite journal|last1=Fredrickson|first1=Leif|last2=Sellers|first2=Christopher|last3=Dillon|first3=Lindsey|last4=Ohayon|first4=Jennifer Liss|last5=Shapiro|first5=Nicholas|last6=Sullivan|first6=Marianne|last7=Bocking|first7=Stephen|last8=Brown|first8=Phil|last9=de la Rosa|first9=Vanessa|last10=Harrison|first10=Jill|last11=Johns|first11=Sara|date=April 1, 2018|title=History of US Presidential Assaults on Modern Environmental Health Protection|journal=American Journal of Public Health|volume=108|issue=S2|pages=S95–S103|doi=10.2105/AJPH.2018.304396|issn=0090-0036|pmc=5922215|pmid=29698097}}{{Cite journal|last1=Coley|first1=Jonathan S.|last2=Hess|first2=David J.|date=2012|title=Green energy laws and Republican legislators in the United States|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421512004752|journal=Energy Policy|language=en|volume=48|pages=576–583|doi=10.1016/j.enpol.2012.05.062|bibcode=2012EnPol..48..576C |issn=0301-4215|access-date=November 7, 2021|archive-date=June 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190618224202/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421512004752|url-status=live}} with many Republicans rejecting the scientific consensus on climate change.{{cite book|url=http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=978-0674979970|title=The Republican Reversal: Conservatives and the Environment from Nixon to Trump|last1=Turner|first1=James Morton|last2=Isenberg|first2=Andrew C.|date=2018|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0674979970 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190108151027/http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=978-0674979970|archive-date=January 8, 2019|url-status=live}}{{cite journal|last1=Ringquist|first1=Evan J.|last2=Neshkova|first2=Milena I.|last3=Aamidor|first3=Joseph|title=Campaign Promises, Democratic Governance, and Environmental Policy in the U.S. Congress|journal=The Policy Studies Journal|date=2013|volume=41|issue=2|pages=365–387|doi=10.1111/psj.12021|doi-access=free}}{{cite journal|last1=Shipan|first1=Charles R.|last2=Lowry|first2=William R.|title=Environmental Policy and Party Divergence in Congress|journal=Political Research Quarterly|date=June 2001|volume=54|issue=2|pages=245–263|jstor=449156|doi=10.1177/106591290105400201|s2cid=153575261}} Republican voters are divided over the human causes of climate change and global warming.{{cite web |date=November 1, 2013 |title=GOP Deeply Divided Over Climate Change |url=http://www.people-press.org/2013/11/01/gop-deeply-divided-over-climate-change/ |access-date=December 11, 2014 |website=Pew Research Center |publisher=}} Since 2008,{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/us/politics/republican-leaders-climate-change.html |title=How G.O.P. Leaders Came to View Climate Change as Fake Science |last1=Davenport |first1=Coral |last2=Lipton |first2=Eric |author-link2=Eric Lipton |date=June 3, 2017 |work=The New York Times |access-date=September 22, 2017 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |quote=The Republican Party's fast journey from debating how to combat human-caused climate change to arguing that it does not exist is a story of big political money, Democratic hubris in the Obama years and a partisan chasm that grew over nine years like a crack in the Antarctic shelf, favoring extreme positions and uncompromising rhetoric over cooperation and conciliation.}} many members of the Republican Party have been criticized for being anti-environmentalist{{cite book|last1=Shabecoff|first1=Philip|title=Earth Rising: American Environmentalism in the 21st Century|date=2000|publisher=Island Press|isbn=978-1-59726-335-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/earthrisingameri00phil/page/125 125]|url=https://archive.org/details/earthrisingameri00phil|url-access=registration|quote=republican party anti-environmental.|access-date=9 November 2017}}{{cite book|last1=Hayes|first1=Samuel P.|title=A History of Environmental Politics Since 1945|date=2000|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Press|isbn=978-0-8229-7224-2|page=119|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jG5IwgEFSYQC&q=republican+party+anti-environmentalist&pg=PA119|access-date=9 November 2017}}{{cite web |last1=Sellers |first1=Christopher |date=7 June 2017 |title=How Republicans came to embrace anti-environmentalism |url=https://www.vox.com/2017/4/22/15377964/republicans-environmentalism |access-date=9 November 2017 |website=Vox}} and promoting climate change denial{{cite journal|last1=Dunlap|first1=Riley E.|last2=McCright|first2=Araon M.|title=A Widening Gap: Republican and Democratic Views on Climate Change|journal=Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development|date=7 August 2010|volume=50|issue=5|pages=26–35|doi=10.3200/ENVT.50.5.26-35|s2cid=154964336}}{{cite journal |last=Båtstrand |first=Sondre |title=More than Markets: A Comparative Study of Nine Conservative Parties on Climate Change |journal=Politics and Policy |language=en |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=538–561 |doi=10.1111/polp.12122 |issn=1747-1346 |year=2015 |s2cid=143331308 |quote=The U.S. Republican Party is an anomaly in denying anthropogenic climate change.}}{{cite news |title=Why Are Republicans the Only Climate-Science-Denying Party in the World? |author-link=Jonathan Chait |first=Jonathan |last=Chait |date=September 27, 2015 |access-date=September 20, 2017 |url=https://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/09/whys-gop-only-science-denying-party-on-earth.html |magazine=New York |quote=Of all the major conservative parties in the democratic world, the Republican Party stands alone in its denial of the legitimacy of climate science. Indeed, the Republican Party stands alone in its conviction that no national or international response to climate change is needed. To the extent that the party is divided on the issue, the gap separates candidates who openly dismiss climate science as a hoax, and those who, shying away from the political risks of blatant ignorance, instead couch their stance in the alleged impossibility of international action.}} in opposition to the general scientific consensus, making them unique even among other worldwide conservative parties.

In 2006, then-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger broke from Republican orthodoxy to sign several bills imposing caps on carbon emissions in California. Then-President George W. Bush opposed mandatory caps at a national level. Bush's decision not to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant was challenged in the Supreme Court by 12 states,{{cite news|title=Schwarzenegger takes center stage on warming|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna15029070|access-date=July 3, 2014|agency=MSNBC News|publisher=NBC News|date=September 27, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714173432/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15029070/ns/us_news-environment/t/schwarzenegger-takes-center-stage-warming/#.U7U0QbFEJJw|archive-date=July 14, 2014|url-status=live}} with the court ruling against the Bush administration in 2007.[{{SCOTUS URL Slip|06|05-1120}} Text of Opinion] Bush also publicly opposed ratification of the Kyoto Protocols{{cite web|author=Bush, George W.|title=Text of a Letter from the President|date=March 13, 2001|url=https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/03/20010314.html|access-date=November 9, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090722073329/http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/03/20010314.html|archive-date=July 22, 2009 }} which sought to limit greenhouse gas emissions and thereby combat climate change; his position was heavily criticized by climate scientists.{{cite journal|last1=Schrope|first1=Mark|title=Criticism mounts as Bush backs out of Kyoto accord|journal=Nature|date=April 5, 2001|volume=410|issue=6829|page=616|doi=10.1038/35070738|pmid=11287908|bibcode=2001Natur.410..616S|doi-access=free}}

The Republican Party rejects cap-and-trade policy to limit carbon emissions.{{cite web|title=Our GOP: The Party of Opportunity|url=http://www.gop.com/our-party/|access-date=December 11, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140821152805/http://www.gop.com/our-party/|archive-date=August 21, 2014|url-status=live}} In the 2000s, Senator John McCain proposed bills (such as the McCain-Lieberman Climate Stewardship Act) that would have regulated carbon emissions, but his position on climate change was unusual among high-ranking party members. Some Republican candidates have supported the development of alternative fuels in order to achieve energy independence for the United States. Some Republicans support increased oil drilling in protected areas such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a position that has drawn criticism from activists.{{cite news|title=On Our Radar: Republicans Urge Opening of Arctic Refuge to Drilling|author=John Collins Rudolf|date=December 6, 2010|url=http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/on-our-radar-republicans-urge-opening-of-arctic-refuge-to-drilling/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=December 11, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714181831/http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/on-our-radar-republicans-urge-opening-of-arctic-refuge-to-drilling/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0|archive-date=July 14, 2014|url-status=dead}}

Many Republicans during the presidency of Barack Obama opposed his administration's new environmental regulations, such as those on carbon emissions from coal. In particular, many Republicans supported building the Keystone Pipeline; this position was supported by businesses, but opposed by indigenous peoples' groups and environmental activists.{{cite news|last1=Davenport|first1=Coral|title=Republicans Vow to Fight E.P.A. and Approve Keystone Pipeline|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/us/politics/republicans-vow-to-fight-epa-and-approve-keystone-pipeline.html|access-date=January 25, 2016|work=The New York Times|date=November 10, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113013421/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/11/us/politics/republicans-vow-to-fight-epa-and-approve-keystone-pipeline.html|archive-date=January 13, 2016|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last1=Levy|first1=Gabrielle|title=Obama Vetoes Keystone XL, Republicans Vow to Continue Fight|url=https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/02/24/obama-vetoes-keystone-xl-republicans-vow-to-continue-fight|access-date=January 25, 2016|work=U.S. News & World Report|date=February 24, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160201202834/http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/02/24/obama-vetoes-keystone-xl-republicans-vow-to-continue-fight|archive-date=February 1, 2016|url-status=live}}{{cite news|title=Keystone XL pipeline: Why is it so disputed?|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30103078|access-date=January 25, 2016|work=BBC News|date=November 6, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160209145216/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-30103078|archive-date=February 9, 2016|url-status=live}}

According to the Center for American Progress, a non-profit liberal advocacy group, more than 55% of congressional Republicans were climate change deniers in 2014.{{cite news|work=Hardball With Chris Matthews|date=May 12, 2014|publisher=MSNBC|last=Matthews|first=Chris|author-link=Chris Matthews|quote=According to a survey by the Center for American Progress' Action Fund, more than 55 percent of congressional Republicans are climate change deniers. And it gets worse from there. They found that 77 percent of Republicans on the House Science Committee say they don't believe it in either. And that number balloons to an astounding 90 percent for all the party's leadership in Congress.|title=Hardball With Chris Matthews for May 12, 2014|agency=NBC news}}{{cite news|title=Earth Talk: Still in denial about climate change|newspaper=The Charleston Gazette|location=Charleston, West Virginia|date=December 22, 2014|page=10|quote=... a recent survey by the non-profit Center for American Progress found that some 58 percent of Republicans in the U.S. Congress still "refuse to accept climate change. Meanwhile, still others acknowledge the existence of global warming but cling to the scientifically debunked notion that the cause is natural forces, not greenhouse gas pollution by humans.}} PolitiFact in May 2014 found "relatively few Republican members of Congress ... accept the prevailing scientific conclusion that global warming is both real and man-made." The group found eight members who acknowledged it, although the group acknowledged there could be more and that not all members of Congress have taken a stance on the issue.{{cite news|title=Jerry Brown says 'virtually no Republican' in Washington accepts climate change science|first=Julie|last=Kliegman|date=May 18, 2014|access-date=September 18, 2017|publisher=PolitiFact|work=Tampa Bay Times|url=http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/may/18/jerry-brown/jerry-brown-says-virtually-no-republican-believes-/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170813152353/http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/may/18/jerry-brown/jerry-brown-says-virtually-no-republican-believes-/|archive-date=August 13, 2017|url-status=live}}{{cite news|title=Meet the Republicans in Congress who don't believe climate change is real|first=Tom|last=McCarthy|date=November 17, 2014|newspaper=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/17/climate-change-denial-scepticism-republicans-congress|access-date=September 18, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170919234320/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/17/climate-change-denial-scepticism-republicans-congress|archive-date=September 19, 2017|url-status=live}}

From 2008 to 2017, the Republican Party went from "debating how to combat human-caused climate change to arguing that it does not exist", according to The New York Times.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/us/politics/republican-leaders-climate-change.html|title=How G.O.P. Leaders Came to View Climate Change as Fake Science|last1=Davenport|first1=Coral|date=June 3, 2017|work=The New York Times|access-date=September 22, 2017|last2=Lipton|first2=Eric|issn=0362-4331|quote=The Republican Party's fast journey from debating how to combat human-caused climate change to arguing that it does not exist is a story of big political money, Democratic hubris in the Obama years and a partisan chasm that grew over nine years like a crack in the Antarctic shelf, favoring extreme positions and uncompromising rhetoric over cooperation and conciliation.|author-link2=Eric Lipton|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170914183020/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/us/politics/republican-leaders-climate-change.html|archive-date=September 14, 2017|url-status=live}} In January 2015, the Republican-led U.S. Senate voted 98–1 to pass a resolution acknowledging that "climate change is real and is not a hoax"; however, an amendment stating that "human activity significantly contributes to climate change" was supported by only five Republican senators.{{cite web|url=https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/230316-senate-votes-98-1-that-climate-change-is-real/|title=Senate votes that climate change is real|first=Dustin|last=Weaver|date=January 21, 2015|website=The Hill|access-date=March 26, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327090248/https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/230316-senate-votes-98-1-that-climate-change-is-real|archive-date=March 27, 2019|url-status=live}}

The party opposes a single-payer health care system,{{Cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/health-care-under-attack-why-gop-making-single-payer-dirty-n907686|title=Beyond Obamacare: Democrats have plans, GOP is out to destroy them|date=September 11, 2018|website=NBC News}}{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2012/06/30/the-republican-turn-against-universal-health-insurance/|title=The Republican Turn Against Universal Health Insurance|newspaper=Washington Post |last=Klein |first=Ezra |date=June 30, 2012}} describing it as socialized medicine. It also opposes the Affordable Care Act{{Cite journal|last=Oberlander|first=Jonathan|date=March 1, 2020|title=The Ten Years' War: Politics, Partisanship, And The ACA|url=https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.01444|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241203210741/https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2019.01444|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 3, 2024|journal=Health Affairs|volume=39|issue=3|pages=471–478|doi=10.1377/hlthaff.2019.01444|pmid=32119603|s2cid=211834684|issn=0278-2715}} and expansions of Medicaid.{{Cite journal|last1=Hertel-Fernandez|first1=Alexander|last2=Skocpol|first2=Theda|last3=Lynch|first3=Daniel|date=April 2016|title=Business Associations, Conservative Networks, and the Ongoing Republican War over Medicaid Expansion|url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/article/41/2/239-286/13814|journal=Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law|volume=41|issue=2|pages=239–286|doi=10.1215/03616878-3476141|pmid=26732316|issn=0361-6878|access-date=April 23, 2021|archive-date=June 2, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180602061451/https://read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/article/41/2/239-286/13814|url-status=live}} Historically, there have been diverse and overlapping views within both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party on the role of government in health care, but the two parties became highly polarized on the topic during 2008–2009 and onwards.{{Cite journal|last=Hacker|first=Jacob S.|date=2010|title=The Road to Somewhere: Why Health Reform Happened: Or Why Political Scientists Who Write about Public Policy Shouldn't Assume They Know How to Shape It|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/abs/road-to-somewhere-why-health-reform-happened/15E0D0CAC2B73C52439A6EBDF3E8C973|journal=Perspectives on Politics|language=en|volume=8|issue=3|pages=861–876|doi=10.1017/S1537592710002021|s2cid=144440604|issn=1541-0986|access-date=November 10, 2021|archive-date=February 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225172530/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/abs/road-to-somewhere-why-health-reform-happened/15E0D0CAC2B73C52439A6EBDF3E8C973|url-status=live}}

Both Republicans and Democrats made various proposals to establish federally funded aged health insurance prior to the bipartisan effort to establish Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.{{Citation|title=The Politics of Medicare, 1957–1965|date=2015|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/ensuring-americas-health/politics-of-medicare-19571965/CE40908D6F8A4EF7EFD741E5D9113513|work=Ensuring America's Health: The Public Creation of the Corporate Health Care System|pages=194–232|editor-last=Chapin|editor-first=Christy Ford|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/CBO9781107045347.008|isbn=978-1107044883|access-date=November 10, 2021|archive-date=April 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200424213404/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/ensuring-americas-health/politics-of-medicare-19571965/CE40908D6F8A4EF7EFD741E5D9113513|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|title= Peter DeFazio says "Medicare passed with virtually no Republican support"|url=https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2011/apr/15/peter-defazio/peter-defazio-says-medicare-passed-virtually-no-re/|url-status=live|access-date=November 10, 2021|website=Politifact|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220419164555/https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2011/apr/15/peter-defazio/peter-defazio-says-medicare-passed-virtually-no-re/|archive-date=April 19, 2022|date=April 15, 2011|last1=Jacobson|first1=Louis|last2=Kennedy|first2=Patrick}}{{Cite web|last=Zeitz|first=Joshua|title=How the GOP Turned Against Medicaid|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/27/medicaid-obamacare-repeal-gop-215314|access-date=November 10, 2021|website=Politico|date=June 27, 2017|language=en|archive-date=February 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213030743/https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/27/medicaid-obamacare-repeal-gop-215314/|url-status=live}} No Republican member of Congress voted for the Affordable Care Act in 2009, and after it passed, the party made frequent attempts to repeal it.{{Cite book|last=Cohn|first=Jonathan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ddLtDwAAQBAJ|title=The Ten Year War: Obamacare and the Unfinished Crusade for Universal Coverage|year=2021|publisher=St. Martin's Publishing Group|isbn=978-1250270948|language=en}} At the state level, the party has tended to adopt a position against Medicaid expansion.

By 2020, Republican officials have increasingly adopted anti-vaccine activism and policy.{{Cite news |last=Tahir |first=Darius |date=September 30, 2024 |title=Trump leads, and his party follows, on vaccine skepticism |work=CNN |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/30/health/trump-vaccine-skepticism-partner-kff-health-news/index.html |access-date=December 19, 2024 |archive-date=December 1, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241201092214/https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/30/health/trump-vaccine-skepticism-partner-kff-health-news/index.html |url-status=live }}

{{See also|History of foreign policy and national defense in the Republican Party}}

The Republican Party has a persistent history of skepticism and opposition to multilateralism in American foreign policy.{{Cite journal |last1=Fordham |first1=Benjamin O. |last2=Flynn |first2=Michael |date=2022 |title=Everything Old Is New Again: The Persistence of Republican Opposition to Multilateralism in American Foreign Policy |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/studies-in-american-political-development/article/abs/everything-old-is-new-again-the-persistence-of-republican-opposition-to-multilateralism-in-american-foreign-policy/F44B69F178BD7CC9CA71A4B16866DEE8 |journal=Studies in American Political Development |volume=37 |pages=56–73 |language=en |doi=10.1017/S0898588X22000165 |s2cid=252292479 |issn=0898-588X |access-date=September 15, 2022 |archive-date=September 21, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220921134531/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/studies-in-american-political-development/article/abs/everything-old-is-new-again-the-persistence-of-republican-opposition-to-multilateralism-in-american-foreign-policy/F44B69F178BD7CC9CA71A4B16866DEE8 |url-status=live }} Neoconservatism, which supports unilateralism and emphasizes the use of force and hawkishness in American foreign policy, has had some influence in all Republican presidential administrations since Ronald Reagan's.{{Cite web |title=neoconservatism |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100228203 |access-date=September 15, 2022 |website=Oxford Reference |language=en |archive-date=September 22, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922144120/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100228203 |url-status=live }} Some, including paleoconservatives,{{Cite web |last=Matthews |first=Dylan |date=May 6, 2016 |title=Paleoconservatism, the movement that explains Donald Trump, explained |url=https://www.vox.com/2016/5/6/11592604/donald-trump-paleoconservative-buchanan |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220623235749/https://www.vox.com/2016/5/6/11592604/donald-trump-paleoconservative-buchanan |archive-date=June 23, 2022 |website=Vox}} call for non-interventionism and an isolationist "America First" foreign policy agenda. This faction gained strength starting in 2016 with the rise of Donald Trump, demanding that the United States reset its previous interventionist foreign policy and encourage allies and partners to take greater responsibility for their own defense.{{Cite news |date=March 22, 2023 |title=The Case for a Restrained Republican Foreign Policy |language=en-US |work=Foreign Affairs |url=https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/foreign-policy-republican-american-power |access-date=March 25, 2023 |archive-date=March 24, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230324202435/https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/foreign-policy-republican-american-power |url-status=live }}

During the 1940s, Republicans predominantly opposed the cause of an independent Jewish state due to the influence of conservatives of the Old Right.{{Cite book |last1=Cavari |first1=Amnon |title=American Public Opinion Toward Israel: From Consensus to Divide |last2=Freedman |first2=Guy |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=2020 |pages=145}} The rise of neoconservatism saw the Republican Party become predominantly pro-Israel by the 1990s and 2000s,{{Cite web |last=Beauchamp |first=Zack |date=2015-11-11 |title=How Republicans fell in love with Israel |url=https://www.vox.com/2015/11/11/9708018/republicans-israel |access-date=2023-11-09 |website=Vox |language=en |archive-date=November 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231109060429/https://www.vox.com/2015/11/11/9708018/republicans-israel |url-status=live }} although notable anti-Israel sentiment persisted through paleoconservative figures such as Pat Buchanan.{{Cite web |last=Ponnuru |first=Ramesh |date=2018-05-15 |title=The GOP and the Israeli Exception |url=https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/pat-buchanan-republican-infuence-israel-exception/ |access-date=2023-11-09 |website=National Review |language=en-US |archive-date=November 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231109085835/https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/pat-buchanan-republican-infuence-israel-exception/ |url-status=live }} As president, Donald Trump generally supported Israel during most of his term, but became increasingly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu towards the end of it.{{Cite web |last=Collinson |first=Stephen |date=October 13, 2023 |title=Trump's turn against Israel |url=https://www.cnn.com/cnn/2023/10/13/politics/donald-trump-israel-netanyahu-diplomacy/index.html |access-date=November 9, 2023 |website=CNN}} According to i24NEWS, the 2020s have seen declining support for Israel among nationalist Republicans, led by individuals such as Tucker Carlson.{{Cite web |last=Naftali |first=India |date=2024-02-06 |title=Hey Israel, don't be so sure about your support among Republicans |url=https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/americas/1706700133-hey-israel-don-t-be-so-sure-about-your-support-among-republicans |access-date=2024-02-09 |website=I24news |language=en}} Nevertheless, the 2024 Republican Party platform reaffirmed the party would "stand with Israel" and called for the deportation of "pro-Hamas radicals", while expressing a desire for peace in the Middle East.{{cite news|work=Times of Israel|title=GOP platform pledges to stand with Israel, deport 'pro-Hamas radicals' from US|date=9 July 2024|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/gop-platform-pledges-to-stand-with-israel-deport-pro-hamas-radicals-from-us/}} Although the Republican Party has often positioned itself as an opponent of antisemitism and denounced Democrats as insufficiently supportive of Israel,{{cite news |last1=Barbara |first1=Sprunt |title=GOP lawmakers plan to keep focus on antisemitism to divide Democrats|url=https://www.npr.org/2024/05/24/g-s1-930/republican-campus-antisemitism |access-date=24 February 2025 |publisher=NPR |date=29 May 2024}} many members of the Christian right support Israel primarily due to theological beliefs about the centrality of Israel to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the conversion or damnation of Jews and other non-Christians.{{cite web |last1=Alnaqib |first1=Saafya |title=American Evangelicals' Unique Support for Israel |url=https://globalaffairs.org/commentary-and-analysis/blogs/american-evangelicals-unique-support-israel |website=Chicago Council on Global Affairs |date=September 30, 2024 |access-date=24 February 2025}}{{cite web |last1=Posner |first1=Sarah |title=The dispiriting truth about why many evangelical Christians support Israel|url=https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/truth-many-evangelical-christians-support-israel-rcna121481 |website=CNN |date=October 22, 2023 |access-date=24 February 2025}}

In the party's 2016 platform,{{cite web|url=https://prod-static-ngop-pbl.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/DRAFT_12_FINAL[1]-ben_1468872234.pdf|title=Republican Platform 2016|access-date=July 20, 2016|archive-date=July 19, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160719212623/https://prod-static-ngop-pbl.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/DRAFT_12_FINAL%5B1%5D-ben_1468872234.pdf|url-status=live}} its stance on Taiwan is: "We oppose any unilateral steps by either side to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Straits on the principle that all issues regarding the island's future must be resolved peacefully, through dialogue, and be agreeable to the people of Taiwan." In addition, if "China were to violate those principles, the United States, in accord with the Taiwan Relations Act, will help Taiwan defend itself".

{{Main|War on Terror}}

{{Further|September 11 attacks}}

Since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, neoconservatives in the party have supported the War on Terror, including the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War. The George W. Bush administration took the position that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to unlawful combatants, while other prominent Republicans, such as Ted Cruz, strongly oppose the use of enhanced interrogation techniques, which they view as torture.{{cite news|url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/cruz-america-does-not-need-torture-to-protect-ourselves/article/2000049|title=Cruz: 'America Does Not Need Torture to Protect Ourselves'|date=December 3, 2015|access-date=December 27, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101195440/http://www.weeklystandard.com/cruz-america-does-not-need-torture-to-protect-ourselves/article/2000049|archive-date=January 1, 2016|url-status=dead}} In the 2020s, Trumpist Republicans such as Matt Gaetz supported reducing U.S. military presence abroad and ending intervention in countries such as Somalia.{{cite web |last1=Nick |first1=Turse |title=REP. MATT GAETZ, PROGRESSIVES JOINTLY CALL FOR U.S. MILITARY TO LEAVE SOMALIA |date=April 27, 2023 |url=https://theintercept.com/2023/04/27/reactionaries-and-progressives-jointly-call-for-u-s-military-to-leave-somalia/ |publisher=The Intercept |access-date=27 April 2023}}

{{see also|United States and the Russian invasion of Ukraine}}

The 2016 Republican platform eliminated references to giving weapons to Ukraine in its fight with Russia and rebel forces; the removal of this language reportedly resulted from intervention from staffers to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.{{cite news |first=Tracy |last=Wilkinson |title=In a shift, Republican platform doesn't call for arming Ukraine against Russia, spurring outrage |url=https://www.latimes.com/world/la-na-pol-ukraine-gop-20160720-snap-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=July 21, 2016 |access-date=2016-07-25 }} However, the Trump administration approved a new sale of anti-tank weapons to Ukraine in 2017.{{cite web |title=Trump admin approves new sale of anti-tank weapons to Ukraine |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-admin-approves-sale-anti-tank-weapons-ukraine/story?id=65989898#:~:text=The%20Trump%20administration%20first%20approved,Javelins%20to%20Ukraine%20in%202017.&text=Catch%20up%20on%20the%20developing,source%20familiar%20with%20the%20plan. |publisher=ABC News |access-date=2019-10-01 |quote=The Trump administration first approved the sale of Javelins to Ukraine in December 2017 – a step that former President Barack Obama never took and that Trump allies have pointed to as a sign of Trump's toughness on Russia.}} Republicans generally question European NATO members' alleged insufficient investment in defense funding, and some are dissatisfied with U.S. aid to Ukraine.{{cite web |last1=Erik |first1=Piccoli |title=Republicans are no friends of Europe |url=https://www.ispionline.it/en/publication/republicans-are-no-friends-of-europe-162327 |publisher=ISPI |access-date=2024-01-31}}{{cite web |title=Trump's threat to NATO allies draws little condemnation from GOP, reflecting his grip on the party |date=February 12, 2024 |url=https://apnews.com/article/trump-nato-presidential-election-congress-republicans-20e902788e8701999ce0424f73d478cc |publisher=AP |access-date=2024-02-12}} Some Republican members of the U.S. Congress support foreign aid to Israel but not to Ukraine, and have been described by U.S. media as pro-Russian.{{Cite news |last=Lange |first=Jason |date=January 17, 2024 |title=Trump's rise sparks isolationist worries abroad, but voters unfazed |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-rise-sparks-isolationist-worries-among-us-allies-americans-focus-home-2024-01-17/ |access-date=January 17, 2024 |website=Reuters}}{{cite news |title=Fears of a NATO Withdrawal Rise as Trump Seeks a Return to Power|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/09/us/politics/trump-2025-nato.html |work=New York Times |date=December 9, 2023|access-date=December 10, 2023|last1=Swan|first1=Jonathan|last2=Savage|first2=Charlie|last3=Haberman|first3=Maggie}}{{cite news |last=Baker|first=Peter|title=Favoring Foes Over Friends, Trump Threatens to Upend International Order|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/11/us/politics/trump-nato.html|work=The New York Times |date=February 11, 2024|access-date=February 21, 2024|issn=1553-8095|language=en|url-access=subscription}}

Amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, several prominent Republicans criticized some colleagues and conservative media outlets for echoing Russian propaganda. Liz Cheney, formerly the third-ranking House Republican, said "a Putin wing of the Republican Party" had emerged. Former vice president Mike Pence said, "There is no room in the Republican Party for apologists for Putin." House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Michael McCaul asserted that Russian propaganda had "infected a good chunk of my party's base." House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Turner confirmed McCaul's assessment, asserting that some propaganda coming directly from Russia could be heard on the House floor. Republican senator Thom Tillis characterized the influential conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, who frequently expresses pro-Russia sentiments, as Russia's "useful idiot".{{cite news |last1=Lotz |first1=Avery |title=House Intelligence Committee chair says Russian propaganda has spread through parts of GOP |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/07/politics/mike-turner-russia-ukraine-propaganda-gop-cnntv/index.html |publisher=CNN |date=April 7, 2024 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240411080400/https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/07/politics/mike-turner-russia-ukraine-propaganda-gop-cnntv/index.html |archive-date= Apr 11, 2024 }}{{cite news |last1=Blake |first1=Aaron |title=Republicans begin to target Putin 'apologists' in their midst |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/16/republicans-begin-target-putin-apologists-their-midst/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=February 16, 2024}}{{cite news |last1=Miranda |first1=Shauneen |title=Turner: Russian propaganda "being uttered on the House floor" |url=https://www.axios.com/2024/04/07/russian-propaganda-republican-party-mike-turner |work=Axios |date=April 7, 2024}}{{cite news |last1=Blake |first1=Aaron |title=Top GOPers' extraordinary comments on their party and Russian propaganda |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/04/06/when-top-republican-says-russian-propaganda-has-infected-gop/ |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=April 8, 2024}}

In April 2024, a majority of Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted against a military aid package to Ukraine.{{cite news|work=The Guardian|title=US House approves $61bn in military aid for Ukraine after months of stalling|quote=210 Democrats and 101 Republicans joined to support Ukraine, with 112 Republicans – a majority of the GOP members – voting against|date=20 April 2024|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/20/us-house-approves-61bn-aid-ukraine}} Both Trump and Senator JD Vance, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee and vice presidential nominee respectively, have been vocal critics of military aid to Ukraine and advocates of a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.{{Cite web |first=Andrew |last=Stanton |date=July 15, 2024 |title=JD Vance eyes shift in Republican Party |url=https://www.newsweek.com/jd-vance-eyes-shift-republican-party-1925499 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240716020901/https://www.newsweek.com/jd-vance-eyes-shift-republican-party-1925499 |archive-date=July 16, 2024 |access-date=July 16, 2024 |website=Newsweek}}{{Cite news|work=Politico|url=https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-ukraine-russia-war-threatens-cut-aid-election-2024/|date=June 16, 2024|title=Trump threatens to cut US aid to Ukraine quickly if reelected}}{{cite news|work=The Guardian|title=Trump's choice of Vance 'terrible news' for Ukraine, Europe experts warn|date=July 17, 2024|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/17/trump-jd-vance-vp-ukraine}}{{cite news|work=Reuters|title=Exclusive: Trump handed plan to halt US military aid to Kyiv unless it talks peace with Moscow|date=June 25, 2024|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-reviews-plan-halt-us-military-aid-ukraine-unless-it-negotiates-peace-with-2024-06-25/}} The 2024 Republican Party platform did not mention Russia or Ukraine, but stated the party's objectives to "prevent World War III" and "restore peace to Europe".{{cite news|work=Kyiv Independent|title=Republican Party committee approves 2024 platform, makes no mention of Ukraine, Russia|date=July 9, 2024|url=https://kyivindependent.com/republican-party-approves-2024-platform-makes-no-mention-of-ukraine-russia/}}

In February 2025, during the Trump–Zelenskyy meeting, Trump and Vance hostilely berated Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=David |date=2025-02-28 |title=Diplomacy dies on live TV as Trump and Vance gang up to bully Ukraine leader |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/28/trump-zelenskyy-shouting-match-oval-office |access-date=2025-02-28 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

In a 2014 poll, 59% of Republicans favored doing less abroad and focusing on the country's own problems instead.See "July 3, 2014 – Iraq – Getting In Was Wrong; Getting Out Was Right, U.S. Voters Tell Quinnipiac University National Poll" [http://www.quinnipiac.edu/news-and-events/quinnipiac-university-poll/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2057 Quinnipiac University Poll] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160402190652/http://www.quinnipiac.edu/news-and-events/quinnipiac-university-poll/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2057 |date=April 2, 2016 }} item #51

Republicans have frequently advocated for restricting foreign aid as a means of asserting the national security and immigration interests of the United States.{{cite news|first=Erik|last=Wasson|date=July 18, 2013|url=https://thehill.com/policy/finance/156647-house-gop-unveils-spending-bill-with-5-8b-cut-to-foreign-aid/|title=House GOP unveils spending bill with $5.8B cut to foreign aid|newspaper=The Hill|access-date=December 11, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141215001056/http://thehill.com/policy/finance/311939-house-gop-unveils-huge-cuts-to-state-foreign-aid|archive-date=December 15, 2014|url-status=live}}{{cite news|first=David|last=Rogers|date=February 1, 2011|title=GOP seeks to slash foreign aid|newspaper=Politico|url=http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/48551.html|access-date=December 11, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150222120346/http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/48551.html|archive-date=February 22, 2015|url-status=live}}{{cite news|first=Mario|last=Trujillo|date=July 1, 2014|title=Republicans propose halting foreign aid until border surge stops|newspaper=The Hill|url=https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/211058-gop-rep-cut-off-central-american-aid-until-border-is-fixed/|access-date=December 11, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141215001041/http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/211058-gop-rep-cut-off-central-american-aid-until-border-is-fixed|archive-date=December 15, 2014|url-status=live}}

A survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs shows that "Trump Republicans seem to prefer a US role that is more independent, less cooperative, and more inclined to use military force to deal with the threats they see as the most pressing".{{cite web |author1=Dina Smeltz and Craig Kafura |title=Majority of Trump Republicans Prefer the United States Stay out of World Affairs |date=February 16, 2024 |url=https://globalaffairs.org/research/public-opinion-survey/majority-trump-republicans-prefer-united-states-stay-out-world |publisher=Chicago Council on Global Affairs |access-date=16 February 2024}}

The Republican Party is generally associated with social conservative policies, although it does have dissenting centrist and libertarian factions. The social conservatives support laws that uphold their traditional values, such as opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion, and marijuana.{{cite book|last=Zelizer|first=Julian E.|title=The American Congress: The Building of Democracy|url=https://archive.org/details/americancongress00juli|url-access=registration|year=2004|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|pages=[https://archive.org/details/americancongress00juli/page/704 704]–705|isbn=978-0547345505|access-date=June 17, 2015}} The Republican Party's positions on social and cultural issues are in part a reflection of the influential role that the Christian right has had in the party since the 1970s.{{Cite book|last=Williams|first=Daniel K.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lqf3KBaqgI8C|title=God's Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right|date=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0199929061|language=en|access-date=November 13, 2021|archive-date=December 15, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231215024742/https://books.google.com/books?id=lqf3KBaqgI8C|url-status=live}}{{Cite journal|last=Schnabel|first=Landon Paul|date=2013|title=When Fringe Goes Mainstream: A Sociohistorical Content Analysis of the Christian Coalition's Contract With The American Family and the Republican Party Platform|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/21567689.2012.752361|journal=Politics, Religion & Ideology|volume=14|issue=1|pages=94–113|doi=10.1080/21567689.2012.752361|s2cid=144532011|issn=2156-7689|access-date=November 13, 2021|archive-date=November 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211113183413/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21567689.2012.752361|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|last=R. Lewis|first=Andrew|date=2019|title=The Inclusion-Moderation Thesis: The U.S. Republican Party and the Christian Right|url=https://oxfordre.com/politics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-665|website=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics|language=en|doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.665|isbn=978-0190228637|access-date=November 13, 2021|archive-date=April 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418225734/https://oxfordre.com/politics/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-665|url-status=live}} Most conservative Republicans also oppose gun control, affirmative action, and illegal immigration.{{cite book|last=Chapman|first=Roger|title=Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vRY27FkGJAUC|year=2010|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|page=passim|isbn=978-0765622501|access-date=June 17, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150407060657/http://books.google.com/books?id=vRY27FkGJAUC|archive-date=April 7, 2015|url-status=live}}

The Republican position on abortion has changed significantly over time.{{Cite journal |last=Williams |first=Daniel K. |date=June 2015 |title=The Partisan Trajectory of the American Pro-Life Movement: How a Liberal Catholic Campaign Became a Conservative Evangelical Cause |journal=Religions |language=en |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=451–475 |doi=10.3390/rel6020451 |issn=2077-1444|doi-access=free }} During the 1960s and early 1970s, opposition to abortion was concentrated among members of the political left and the Democratic Party; most liberal Catholics—which tended to vote for the Democratic Party—opposed expanding abortion access while most conservative evangelical Protestants supported it.

During this period, Republicans generally favored legalized abortion more than Democrats,{{Cite news |last=Halpern |first=Sue |date=November 8, 2018 |title=How Republicans Became Anti-Choice |language=en |work=The New York Review of Books |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/11/08/how-republicans-became-anti-choice/ |access-date=February 4, 2023 |issn=0028-7504 |archive-date=February 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230204085532/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/11/08/how-republicans-became-anti-choice/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite journal |last=Williams |first=Daniel K. |date=2011 |title=The GOP's Abortion Strategy: Why Pro-Choice Republicans Became Pro-Life in the 1970s |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-policy-history/article/abs/gops-abortion-strategy-why-prochoice-republicans-became-prolife-in-the-1970s/C7EC0E0C0F5FF1F4488AA47C787DEC01 |journal=Journal of Policy History |language=en |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=513–539 |doi=10.1017/S0898030611000285 |s2cid=154353515 |issn=1528-4190 |access-date=July 4, 2023 |archive-date=July 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230704221201/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-policy-history/article/abs/gops-abortion-strategy-why-prochoice-republicans-became-prolife-in-the-1970s/C7EC0E0C0F5FF1F4488AA47C787DEC01 |url-status=live }} although significant heterogeneity could be found within both parties.{{Cite web |last=Taylor |first=Justin |date=May 9, 2018 |title=How the Christian Right Became Prolife on Abortion and Transformed the Culture Wars |url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/evangelical-history/christian-right-discovered-abortion-rights-transformed-culture-wars/ |access-date=February 4, 2023 |website=The Gospel Coalition |language=en-US |archive-date=February 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230204085533/https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/evangelical-history/christian-right-discovered-abortion-rights-transformed-culture-wars/ |url-status=live }} Leading Republican political figures, including Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush, took pro-choice positions until the early 1980s. However, starting at this point, both George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan described themselves as pro-life during their presidencies.

In the 21st century, both George W. Bush{{Cite web |last=Bruni |first=Frank |date=January 23, 2000 |title=Bush Says He Supports the Party's Strong Anti-Abortion Stand |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/012300wh-gop-bush-platform.html |access-date=February 4, 2023 |website=The New York Times |archive-date=February 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230204085527/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/politics/camp/012300wh-gop-bush-platform.html |url-status=live }} and Donald Trump described themselves as "pro-life" during their terms. However, Trump stated that he supported the legality and ethics of abortion before his candidacy in 2015.{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=David |date=May 5, 2022 |title=Trump the hero for anti-abortion movement after bending supreme court his way |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/05/trump-abortion-supreme-court |access-date=February 4, 2023 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=February 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230204085526/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/05/trump-abortion-supreme-court |url-status=live }}

Summarizing the rapid shift in the Republican and Democratic positions on abortion, Sue Halpern writes:

...in the late 1960s and early 1970s, many Republicans were behind efforts to liberalize and even decriminalize abortion; theirs was the party of reproductive choice, while Democrats, with their large Catholic constituency, were the opposition. Republican governor Ronald Reagan signed the California Therapeutic Abortion Act, one of the most liberal abortion laws in the country, in 1967, legalizing abortion for women whose mental or physical health would be impaired by pregnancy, or whose pregnancies were the result of rape or incest. The same year, the Republican strongholds of North Carolina and Colorado made it easier for women to obtain abortions. New York, under Governor Nelson Rockefeller, a Republican, eliminated all restrictions on women seeking to terminate pregnancies up to twenty-four weeks gestation.... Richard Nixon, Barry Goldwater, Gerald Ford, and George H.W. Bush were all pro-choice, and they were not party outliers. In 1972, a Gallup poll found that 68 percent of Republicans believed abortion to be a private matter between a woman and her doctor. The government, they said, should not be involved...

{{See also|Affirmative action in the United States}}

Republicans generally oppose affirmative action, often describing it as a "quota system" and believing that it is not meritocratic and is counter-productive socially by only further promoting discrimination. According to a 2023 ABC poll, a majority of Americans (52%) and 75% of Republicans supported the Supreme Court's decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard prohibiting race as a factor in college admissions, compared to only 26% of Democrats.{{Cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/americans-approve-supreme-court-decision-restricting-race-college/story?id=100580375|title=Most Americans approve of Supreme Court decision restricting use of race in college admissions|access-date=March 15, 2024|website=ABC News}}

The 2012 Republican national platform stated, "We support efforts to help low-income individuals get a fair chance based on their potential and individual merit; but we reject preferences, quotas, and set-asides, as the best or sole methods through which fairness can be achieved, whether in government, education or corporate boardrooms...Merit, ability, aptitude, and results should be the factors that determine advancement in our society."See [https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/2012-republican-party-platform Republican 2012 Platform]{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/01/15/bush.affirmativeaction/|work=CNN|title=Bush criticizes university 'quota system'|date=January 15, 2003|access-date=May 22, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100604190524/http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/01/15/bush.affirmativeaction/|archive-date=June 4, 2010|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last=Eilperin|first=Juliet|title=Watts Walks a Tightrope on Affirmative Action|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=May 12, 1998|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/affirm/stories/aa051298.htm|access-date=January 22, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100524122643/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/affirm/stories/aa051298.htm|archive-date=May 24, 2010|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|author=Republican National Committee|author-link=Republican National Committee|date=July 30, 2015|title=Republican Views On Affirmative Action|url=https://www.republicanviews.org/republican-views-on-affirmative-action/|url-status=live|newspaper=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220419164555/https://www.republicanviews.org/republican-views-on-affirmative-action/|archive-date=April 19, 2022}}

File:20210420 Gun control survey by political party - Pew Research.svg

Republicans generally support gun ownership rights and oppose laws regulating guns. According to a 2023 Pew Research Center poll, 45% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents personally own firearms, compared to 32% for the general public and 20% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.{{cite web |title=Key facts about Americans and guns|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/09/13/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/ |website=Pew Research Center|date=September 13, 2023|access-date=May 27, 2024}}

The National Rifle Association of America, a special interest group in support of gun ownership, has consistently aligned itself with the Republican Party.{{cite web |first1=Daniel |last1=Nass |title=A Democrat with an 'A' Grade from the NRA? There's One Left. |url=https://www.thetrace.org/2020/09/nra-grades-2020-election/ |website=The Trace |access-date=September 11, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909235156/https://www.thetrace.org/2020/09/nra-grades-2020-election/ |archive-date=September 9, 2020 |language=en-US |date=September 9, 2020 |url-status=live}} Following gun control measures under the Clinton administration, such as the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, the Republicans allied with the NRA during the Republican Revolution in 1994.Siegel, Reva B. "Dead or Alive: Originalism as Popular Constitutionalism in Heller." The Second Amendment on Trial: Critical Essays on District of Columbia v. Heller, edited by Saul Cornell and Nathan Kozuskanich, University of Massachusetts Press, 2013, p. 104. Since then, the NRA has consistently backed Republican candidates and contributed financial support.{{cite news |first1=Maggie |last1=Astor |title=For First Time in at Least 25 Years, No Democrat Has Top Grade From N.R.A. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/22/us/politics/nra-ratings-grades-democrats.html |access-date=September 11, 2023 |work=The New York Times |date=September 22, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922165110/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/22/us/politics/nra-ratings-grades-democrats.html |archive-date=September 22, 2022 |language=en-US |quote=The Democratic break from the National Rifle Association is complete: For the first time in at least 25 years, not a single Democrat running for Congress anywhere in the country received an A in the group's candidate ratings, which were once a powerful influence in U.S. elections.}}

In contrast, George H. W. Bush, formerly a lifelong NRA member, was highly critical of the organization following their response to the Oklahoma City bombing authored by CEO Wayne LaPierre, and publicly resigned in protest.{{Cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/11/us/letter-of-resignation-sent-by-bush-to-rifle-association.html |date=May 11, 1995 |work=The New York Times |title=Letter of Resignation Sent By Bush to Rifle Association |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121222213941/https://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/11/us/letter-of-resignation-sent-by-bush-to-rifle-association.html |archive-date=December 22, 2012 |url-status=live |url-access=limited}}

{{See also|Illegal drug trade in the United States|Legality of cannabis by U.S. jurisdiction|Capital punishment in the United States|Incarceration in the United States}}

The Republican Party has generally promoted strict anti-crime policies, such as mandatory minimum sentences and the death penalty.{{cite web |title=Republican Party on Crime |url=https://www.ontheissues.org/celeb/Republican_Party_Crime.html |website=On The Issues |access-date=24 February 2025}} In the 2010’s, however, prominent Republicans demonstrated some interest in criminal justice reform designed to combat mass incarceration, with President Trump signing the First Step Act, which expanded good behavior credits for perpetrators of most nonviolent crimes and required the U.S. Attorney General to develop a system to assess the recidivism risk of all federal prisoners.{{cite web |title=Overview of the First Step Act |url=https://www.bop.gov/inmates/fsa/overview.jsp |website=Federal Bureau of Prisons |access-date=24 February 2025}} By 2024, however, the Republican Party and its leaders had largely left behind its prior support for reform of the justice system.{{cite web |last1=Lancaster |first1=Joe |title=Republicans Have Completely Abandoned Criminal Justice Reform |url=https://reason.com/2024/07/17/republicans-have-completely-abandoned-criminal-justice-reform/ |website=Reason |date=July 17, 2024 |access-date=24 February 2025}}

Republican elected officials have historically supported the War on Drugs. They generally oppose legalization or decriminalization of drugs such as marijuana.{{Cite web |last=Tesler |first=Michael |date=April 20, 2022 |title=Why Do GOP Lawmakers Still Oppose Legalizing Weed? |url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-do-gop-lawmakers-still-oppose-legalizing-weed/ |access-date=August 13, 2022 |website=FiveThirtyEight |language=en-US |archive-date=August 24, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220824002207/https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-do-gop-lawmakers-still-oppose-legalizing-weed/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web|url=http://www.republicanviews.org/republican-views-on-drugs/|title=Republican Views on Drugs {{!}} Republican Views|website=www.republicanviews.org|access-date=May 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170502010122/http://www.republicanviews.org/republican-views-on-drugs/|archive-date=May 2, 2017|url-status=dead}}{{Cite news|date=2020|title=House votes to decriminalize marijuana as GOP resists national shift|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/house-marijuana-republicans-election/2020/12/04/db2b00a8-35b0-11eb-8d38-6aea1adb3839_story.html|access-date=December 18, 2020|archive-date=December 21, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201221145058/https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/house-marijuana-republicans-election/2020/12/04/db2b00a8-35b0-11eb-8d38-6aea1adb3839_story.html|url-status=live}}

Opposition to the legalization of marijuana has softened significantly over time among Republican voters and politicians.{{Cite book|last=Kneeland|first=Timothy W.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8vlUDAAAQBAJ&q=republican+party+opposition+drug+legalization&pg=PA206|title=Today's Social Issues: Democrats and Republicans: Democrats and Republicans|year=2016|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1610698368|page=206|access-date=December 16, 2020|archive-date=December 15, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231215024943/https://books.google.com/books?id=8vlUDAAAQBAJ&q=republican+party+opposition+drug+legalization&pg=PA206|url-status=live}}{{cite web|first=Greg|last=Newburn|title=Top GOP Presidential Contenders Support Mandatory Minimum Reform|date=July 18, 2014|url=http://famm.org/top-gop-presidential-contenders-support-mandatory-minimum-reform/|publisher=Families Against Mandatory Minimums|access-date=December 11, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129020752/http://famm.org/top-gop-presidential-contenders-support-mandatory-minimum-reform/|archive-date=November 29, 2014|url-status=dead}}{{cite news |last1=Florko |first1=Nicholas |title=The GOP's Tipping Point on Weed |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/09/florida-trump-recreational-marijuana/680077/ |access-date=26 February 2025 |agency=The Atlantic |date=30 September 2024}} A 2021 Quinnipiac poll found that 62% of Republicans supported the legalization of recreational marijuana use and that net support for the position was +30 points. Some Republican-controlled states have legalized medical and recreational marijuana in recent years.{{cite web|date=June 22, 2023|title=State Medical Cannabis Laws|url=https://www.ncsl.org/research/health/state-medical-marijuana-laws.aspx|access-date=April 26, 2024|publisher=National Conference of State Legislatures|archive-date=February 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210206034555/https://www.ncsl.org/research/health/state-medical-marijuana-laws.aspx|url-status=dead}} In September 2024, then-candidate Donald Trump endorsed the legalization of recreational marijuana.{{cite news |last1=Sullivan |first1=Kate |title=Trump says he will vote to legalize adult recreational marijuana use in Florida |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/09/politics/trump-marijuana-florida/index.html |access-date=26 February 2025 |agency=CNN |date=9 September 2024}}

{{See also|Immigration to the United States|Illegal immigration to the United States}}

The Republican Party has taken widely varying views on immigration throughout its history, but have generally and traditionally taken an anti-immigration and nativist stance compared to the opposition. In the period between 1850 and 1870, the Republican Party was more opposed to immigration than the Democrats. The GOP's opposition was, in part, caused by its reliance on the support of anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant parties such as the Know-Nothings. In the decades following the Civil War, especially in the 1880s, the Republican Party lessened its stance on immigration, as it represented the manufacturers in the northeast (who wanted additional labor); although during this period, the Democratic Party still came to be seen as the party of both American and foreign labor, and many religious Republicans used anti-Irish and pro-Christian sentiments. Starting in the early 1930s, the parties focused on Mexican emigration, as the Democrats proposed a softer stance on Mexican immigration during the Great Depression and New Deal, rather than Republicans under Herbert Hoover.{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/United-States-presidential-election-of-1884|title= United States presidential election of 1884|publisher=Britannica}}{{cite web|url=https://www.history.com/articles/great-depression-repatriation-drives-mexico-deportation|title=The Deportation Campaigns of the Great Depression|publisher=Becky Little}}

In 2006, the Republican-led Senate passed comprehensive immigration reform that would eventually have allowed millions of illegal immigrants to become citizens. Despite the support of Republican President George W. Bush, the House of Representatives (also led by Republicans) did not advance the bill.{{cite news|last=Blanton|first=Dana|title=National Exit Poll: Midterms Come Down to Iraq, Bush|publisher=Fox News|date=November 8, 2006|url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/national-exit-poll-midterms-come-down-to-iraq-bush|access-date=January 6, 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070306050851/http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,228104,00.html|archive-date=March 6, 2007}} After Republican Mitt Romney was defeated in the 2012 presidential election, particularly due to a lack of support among Latinos,{{cite web | last=Thrush | first=Glenn | title=How Romney lost Latinos | website=Politico | date=2012-03-12 | url=https://www.politico.com/story/2012/03/how-romney-lost-latinos-074036 | access-date=2024-04-05}}{{cite web | last=Murray | first=NBC's Mark | title=One month later, Republicans find plenty of blame for election loss | website=NBC News | date=2012-12-04 | url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/one-month-later-republicans-find-plenty-blame-election-loss-flna1c7425742 | access-date=2024-04-05}} several Republicans advocated a friendlier approach to immigrants that would allow for more migrant workers and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 passed the Senate 68–32, but was not brought to a vote in the House and died in the 113th Congress.{{Cite web|url=https://apnews.com/article/immigration-asylum-trump-biden-gang-of-eight-3d8007e72928665b66d8648be0e3e31f|website=AP News|title=Immigration reform stalled decade after Gang of 8′s big push|date=April 3, 2023|access-date=April 3, 2023|archive-date=April 3, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230403061526/https://apnews.com/article/immigration-asylum-trump-biden-gang-of-eight-3d8007e72928665b66d8648be0e3e31f|url-status=live}} In a 2013 poll, 60% of Republicans supported the pathway to citizenship concept.{{cite news|last=Frumin|first=Aliyah|title=Obama: 'Long past time' for immigration reform|date=November 25, 2013|url=https://www.msnbc.com/hardball/obama-long-past-time-reform|publisher=MSNBC|access-date=January 26, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140121145422/http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/obama-long-past-time-reform|archive-date=January 21, 2014|url-status=live}}

In 2016, Donald Trump proposed to build a wall along the southern border of the United States. Trump immigration policies during his administration included a travel ban from multiple Muslim-majority countries, a Remain in Mexico policy for asylum-seekers, a controversial family separation policy, and attempting to end DACA.{{cite journal |last1=Hajnal |first1=Zoltan |date=January 4, 2021 |title=Immigration & the Origins of White Backlash |journal=Daedalus |volume=150 |issue=2 |pages=23–39 |doi=10.1162/daed_a_01844 |issn=0011-5266 |doi-access=free}} During the tenure of Democratic President Joe Biden, the Republican Party has continued to take a hardline stance against illegal immigration. The Party largely opposes immigration reform,{{Cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/senate-border-vote-immigration-policies-trump-19977804?mod=hp_lead_pos1|title=Why Both Parties Have Shifted Right on Immigration—and Still Can't Agree|website=The Wall Street Journal|first1=Michelle|last1=Hackman|first2=Aaron|last2=Zitner|date=February 2, 2024}} although there are widely differing views on immigration within the Party. The Party's proposed 2024 platform was opposed to immigration, and called for the mass deportation of all illegal immigrants in the United States. A 2024 Pew Research Center poll found that 88% of Donald Trump's supporters favored mass deportation of all illegal immigrants, compared to 27% of Kamala Harris supporters.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/race-and-ethnicity/2024/09/27/trump-and-harris-supporters-differ-on-mass-deportations-but-favor-border-security-high-skilled-immigration/|title=Trump and Harris Supporters Differ on Mass Deportations but Favor Border Security, High-Skilled Immigration|date=September 29, 2024|website=Pew Research Center|first1=Sahana|last1=Mukherjee|first2=Jens Manuel|last2=Krogstad}}

Similar to the Democratic Party, the Republican position on LGBT rights has changed significantly over time, with continuously increasing support among both parties on the issue.{{cite web |last1=Igielnik |first1=Ruth |date=November 16, 2022 |title=Backdrop for Vote on Same-Sex Marriage Rights: A Big Shift in Public Opinion |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/16/us/politics/same-sex-marriage-public-opinion.html |access-date=November 17, 2022 |website=The New York Times |archive-date=November 16, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221116235133/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/16/us/politics/same-sex-marriage-public-opinion.html |url-status=live }} The Log Cabin Republicans is a group within the Republican Party that represents LGBT conservatives and allies and advocates for LGBT rights.{{cite web |last=Cullen |first=Margie |date=2024-06-21 |title=Who are the Log Cabin Republicans? What LGBTQ+ group thinks of Trump |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/06/21/log-cabin-republicans-lgbtq-group/74167747007/ |access-date=2024-09-06 |website=USA Today}}{{cite web |last=Kane |first=Christopher |date=2024-07-19 |title=Log Cabin Republicans president, Ric Grenell outline conservative LGBTQ positions |url=https://www.washingtonblade.com/2024/07/19/log-cabin-republicans-president-ric-grenell-outline-conservative-lgbtq-positions/ |access-date=2024-09-06 |website=Washington Blade}}

From the early-2000s to the mid-2010s, Republicans opposed same-sex marriage, while being divided on the issue of civil unions and domestic partnerships for same-sex couples.{{Cite web |last=Li |first=Anne |date=March 9, 2016 |title='Religious Liberty' Has Replaced 'Gay Marriage' In GOP Talking Points |url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/religious-liberty-has-replaced-gay-marriage-in-gop-talking-points/ |access-date=August 13, 2022 |website=FiveThirtyEight |language=en-US |archive-date=August 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814020215/https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/religious-liberty-has-replaced-gay-marriage-in-gop-talking-points/ |url-status=live }} During the 2004 election, George W. Bush campaigned prominently on a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage; many believe it helped Bush win re-election.{{Cite news|last1=Lerer|first1=Lisa|last2=Russonello|first2=Giovanni|last3=Paz|first3=Isabella Grullón|date=June 17, 2020|title=On L.G.B.T.Q. Rights, a Gulf Between Trump and Many Republican Voters|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/17/us/politics/lgbtq-supreme-court-trump-republicans.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200617232814/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/17/us/politics/lgbtq-supreme-court-trump-republicans.html |archive-date=June 17, 2020 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|access-date=June 8, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/politics/campaign/samesex-marriage-issue-key-to-some-gop-races.html|title=Same-Sex Marriage Issue Key to Some G.O.P. Races|last=Dao|first=James|date=November 4, 2004|work=The New York Times|access-date=August 25, 2019|issn=0362-4331|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190812004009/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/04/politics/campaign/samesex-marriage-issue-key-to-some-gop-races.html|archive-date=August 12, 2019|url-status=live}} In both 2004{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/24/elec04.prez.bush.marriage/|title=Bush calls for ban on same-sex marriages|date=February 25, 2004|work=CNN|access-date=February 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090515103309/http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/24/elec04.prez.bush.marriage/|archive-date=May 15, 2009|url-status=live}} and 2006,{{cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna11442710|title=Bush urges federal marriage amendment|date=June 6, 2006|publisher=NBC News|access-date=February 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160408104009/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/11442710/ns/politics/t/bush-urges-federal-marriage-amendment/|archive-date=April 8, 2016|url-status=live}} President Bush, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and House Majority Leader John Boehner promoted the Federal Marriage Amendment, a proposed constitutional amendment which would legally restrict the definition of marriage to heterosexual couples.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/24/politics/bush-backs-ban-in-constitution-on-gay-marriage.html|title=Bush Backs Ban in Constitution on Gay Marriage|last=Stout|first=David|date=February 24, 2004|work=The New York Times|access-date=December 17, 2018|issn=0362-4331|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181217202413/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/24/politics/bush-backs-ban-in-constitution-on-gay-marriage.html|archive-date=December 17, 2018|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060700830.html|title=Gay Marriage Amendment Fails in Senate|journal=The Washington Post and Times-Herald|last=Murray|first=Shailagh|date=June 8, 2006|access-date=December 17, 2018|issn=0190-8286|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190308131316/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060700830.html|archive-date=March 8, 2019|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/constitutional-amendment-on-marriage-fails|title=Constitutional Amendment on Marriage Fails|date=March 25, 2015|website=Fox News|access-date=December 17, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181217202230/https://www.foxnews.com/story/constitutional-amendment-on-marriage-fails|archive-date=December 17, 2018|url-status=live}} In both attempts, the amendment failed to secure enough votes to invoke cloture and thus ultimately was never passed. As more states legalized same-sex marriage in the 2010s, Republicans increasingly supported allowing each state to decide its own marriage policy.{{cite web|url=http://publicreligion.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2014.LGBT_REPORT.pdf|title=A Shifting Landscape|date=February 26, 2014 |website=Public Religion Research Institute |first1=Robert P. |last1=Jones |first2=Daniel |last2=Cox |first3=Juhem |last3=Navarro-Rivera |access-date=December 27, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160417222101/http://publicreligion.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/2014.LGBT_REPORT.pdf|archive-date=April 17, 2016|url-status=dead}} As of 2014, most state GOP platforms expressed opposition to same-sex marriage.{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gop-platform_n_5242421|title=Anti-Gay Stance Still Enshrined In Majority Of State GOP Platforms |first=Amanda |last=Terkel|date=May 5, 2014|website=HuffPost|access-date=August 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190824093553/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gop-platform_n_5242421|archive-date=August 24, 2019|url-status=live}} The 2016 GOP Platform defined marriage as "natural marriage, the union of one man and one woman," and condemned the Supreme Court's ruling legalizing same-sex marriages.{{Cite magazine|url=https://time.com/4411842/republican-platform-same-sex-marriage-abortion-guns-wall-street/|title=Read the Republican Platform on Same-Sex Marriage, Guns and Wall Street |date=July 18, 2016 |first=Will |last=Drabold |magazine=Time|access-date=August 24, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190804081049/https://time.com/4411842/republican-platform-same-sex-marriage-abortion-guns-wall-street/|archive-date=August 4, 2019|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://gop.com/the-2016-republican-party-platform|title=The 2016 Republican Party Platform|date=July 18, 2016|website=GOP|access-date=February 1, 2020|archive-date=February 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211220913/https://www.gop.com/the-2016-republican-party-platform/|url-status=dead}} The 2020 platform, which reused the 2016 platform, retained the statements against same-sex marriage.{{Cite web|last=Orr|first=Gabby|title=Republicans across the spectrum slam RNC's decision to keep 2016 platform|url=https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/11/republicans-rnc-decision-314172|access-date=June 12, 2020|website=Politico|date=June 11, 2020|archive-date=August 2, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200802160921/https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/11/republicans-rnc-decision-314172|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|last=Kilgore|first=Ed|date=June 11, 2020|title=Republicans Will Just Recycle Their 2016 Party Platform|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/republicans-will-just-recycle-their-2016-party-platform.html|access-date=June 12, 2020|website=New York Intelligencer|archive-date=July 30, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200730000020/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/republicans-will-just-recycle-their-2016-party-platform.html|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|last1=Epstein|first1=Reid J.|last2=Karni|first2=Annie|date=June 11, 2020|title=G.O.P. Platform, Rolled Over From 2016, Condemns the 'Current President'|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/us/politics/republican-platform.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200611181235/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/us/politics/republican-platform.html |archive-date=June 11, 2020 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|access-date=June 12, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}

Following his election as president in 2016, Donald Trump stated that he had no objection to same-sex marriage or to the Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, but had previously promised to consider appointing a Supreme Court justice to roll back the constitutional right.{{cite web|last=de Vogue|first=Ariane|title=Trump: Same-sex marriage is 'settled,' but Roe v Wade can be changed|url=https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/14/politics/trump-gay-marriage-abortion-supreme-court/index.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190511223804/https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/14/politics/trump-gay-marriage-abortion-supreme-court/index.html|archive-date=May 11, 2019|access-date=May 11, 2019|website=CNN|date=November 14, 2016}} In office, Trump was the first sitting Republican president to recognize LGBT Pride Month.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/trump-recognizes-lgbtq-pride-month-first-time-n1012611|title=Trump recognizes LGBTQ pride month in tweets|website=NBC News|date=May 31, 2019 |access-date=August 25, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803192111/https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/trump-recognizes-lgbtq-pride-month-first-time-n1012611|archive-date=August 3, 2019|url-status=live}} Conversely, the Trump administration banned transgender individuals from service in the United States military and rolled back other protections for transgender people which had been enacted during the previous Democratic presidency.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/06/us/politics/trump-transgender-rights.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191206103013/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/06/us/politics/trump-transgender-rights.html |archive-date=December 6, 2019 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|title=Trump's Rollback of Transgender Rights Extends Through Entire Government|website=The New York Times|date=December 6, 2019|access-date=June 9, 2020|last1=Fadulu|first1=Lola|last2=Flanagan|first2=Annie}} However, other Republicans,such as Vivek Ramaswamy, do not support such a ban,{{Cite web |last=Lee |first=Michael |date=2023-06-04 |title='Anti-woke' GOP presidential candidate says he wouldn't ban transgender service in military |url=https://www.foxnews.com/politics/anti-woke-gop-presidential-candidate-says-he-would-not-ban-transgender-service-military |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=Fox News |language=en-US}}

The Republican Party platform previously opposed the inclusion of gay people in the military and opposed adding sexual orientation to the list of protected classes since 1992.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/20/news/delicate-balance-gay-vote-gay-rights-aids-emerging-divisive-issues-campaign.html|title=A Delicate Balance: The Gay Vote; Gay Rights and AIDS Emerging As Divisive Issues in Campaign|last=Schmalz|first=Jeffrey|date=August 20, 1992|work=The New York Times|access-date=August 24, 2019|issn=0362-4331|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190824093556/https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/20/news/delicate-balance-gay-vote-gay-rights-aids-emerging-divisive-issues-campaign.html|archive-date=August 24, 2019|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-platform-through-the-years-shows-partys-shift-from-moderate-to-conservative/2012/08/28/09094512-ed70-11e1-b09d-07d971dee30a_story.html|title=GOP platform through the years shows party's shift from moderate to conservative|last=Fisher|first=Marc|date=August 28, 2012|newspaper=The Washington Post|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190824093557/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-platform-through-the-years-shows-partys-shift-from-moderate-to-conservative/2012/08/28/09094512-ed70-11e1-b09d-07d971dee30a_story.html|archive-date=August 24, 2019|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/2016-election/conventions/party-platform-evolution/|title=What Republicans and Democrats have disagreed on, from 1856 to today|last1=Mellnik|first1=Ted|last2=Alcantara|first2=Chris|date=July 15, 2016|newspaper=The Washington Post|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114164556/https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/2016-election/conventions/party-platform-evolution/|archive-date=November 14, 2017|url-status=live|last3=Uhrmacher|first3=Kevin}} The Republican Party opposed the inclusion of sexual preference in anti-discrimination statutes from 1992 to 2004.{{cite web|url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=25847|title=Republican Party Platforms: Republican Party Platform of 1992|website=Presidency.ucsb.edu|date=August 17, 1992|access-date=December 27, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170204134646/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=25847|archive-date=February 4, 2017|url-status=live}} The 2008 and 2012 Republican Party platform supported anti-discrimination statutes based on sex, race, age, religion, creed, disability, or national origin, but both platforms were silent on sexual orientation and gender identity.{{cite web|url=http://www.gop.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2012GOPPlatform.pdf|title=Layout 1|website=Gop.com|access-date=December 27, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140730001737/http://www.gop.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2012GOPPlatform.pdf|archive-date=July 30, 2014|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=78545|title=Republican Party Platforms: 2008 Republican Party Platform|website=Presidency.ucsb.edu|access-date=December 27, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170128014700/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=78545|archive-date=January 28, 2017|url-status=live}} The 2016 platform was opposed to sex discrimination statutes that included the phrase "sexual orientation".{{Cite web|url=https://gop.com/|title=Republican Party Platform|website=GOP|access-date=December 29, 2019|archive-date=November 23, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191123022603/https://gop.com/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://prod-cdn-static.gop.com/static/home/data/platform.pdf|title=Republican Platform 2016|date=2016|website=GOP.com|access-date=December 29, 2019|archive-date=May 3, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170503220642/https://prod-cdn-static.gop.com/static/home/data/platform.pdf|url-status=live}} The same 2016 platform rejected Obergefell v. Hodges, and was also used for the party's 2020 platform.{{cite news | last1=Zezima | first1=Katie | last2=Weigel | first2=David | title=While Trump stays out of it, GOP platform tacks to the right on gay rights | newspaper=Washington Post | date=2016-07-13 | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/while-trump-stays-out-of-it-gop-platform-tacks-to-the-right-on-gay-rights/2016/07/13/969165ca-490d-11e6-acbc-4d4870a079da_story.html | access-date=2024-01-23}} In the early 2020s, numerous Republican-led states proposed or passed laws that have been described as anti-trans by critics,{{cite web |last=Gabriel |first=Trip |date=2022-07-22 |title=After Roe, Republicans Sharpen Attacks on Gay and Transgender Rights |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/22/us/politics/after-roe-republicans-sharpen-attacks-on-gay-and-transgender-rights.html |access-date=2024-09-30 |website=The New York Times}}{{cite web |last=Astor |first=Maggie |date=2023-01-25 |title=G.O.P. State Lawmakers Push a Growing Wave of Anti-Transgender Bills |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/25/us/politics/transgender-laws-republicans.html |access-date=2024-09-30 |website=The New York Times}}{{cite web |last=Funakoshi |first=Minami |date=2023-08-19 |title=The rise of anti-trans bills in the US |url=https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-HEALTHCARE/TRANS-BILLS/zgvorreyapd/ |access-date=2024-09-30 |website=Reuters}}{{cite web |last=Clare Foran |first=Shawna Mizelle |date=2023-04-20 |title=CNN |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/20/politics/house-transgender-sports-bill/index.html |access-date=2024-09-30 |website=CNN}}{{cite web |date=2022-06-02 |title=1A Remaking America: Why The GOP Has Rallied Behind Anti-Trans Legislation : 1A |url=https://www.npr.org/2022/06/02/1102738161/1a-remaking-america-why-the-gop-has-rallied-behind-anti-trans-legislation |access-date=2024-09-30 |website=NPR}}{{cite web |date=2023-12-17 |title=From drag bans to sports restrictions, 75 anti-LGBTQ bills have become law in 2023 |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/75-anti-lgbtq-bills-become-law-2023-rcna124250 |access-date=2024-09-30 |website=NBC News}}{{cite web |last=Schoenbaum |first=Hannah |date=2023-01-07 |title=Republican states aim to restrict transgender health care in first bills of 2023 |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/republican-states-aim-to-restrict-transgender-health-care-in-first-bills-of-2023 |access-date=2024-09-30 |website=PBS News}} as well as laws limiting or banning public performances of drag shows, and teaching schoolchildren about LGBT topics.{{cite news |last1=Astor |first1=Maggie |title=G.O.P. State Lawmakers Push a Growing Wave of Anti-Transgender Bills |work=The New York Times |date=January 25, 2023 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/25/us/politics/transgender-laws-republicans.html |access-date=June 12, 2023 |archive-date=June 15, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230615112638/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/25/us/politics/transgender-laws-republicans.html |url-status=live }}

On November 6, 2021, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel announced the creation of the "RNC Pride Coalition", in partnership with the Log Cabin Republicans, to promote outreach to LGBTQ voters.{{Cite web|last=Singman|first=Brooke|date=November 8, 2021|title=RNC announces 'Pride Coalition,' partnership with Log Cabin Republicans ahead of midterms|url=https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rnc-announces-pride-coalition-partnership-with-log-cabin-republicans-ahead-of-midterms|access-date=November 18, 2021|website=Fox News|language=en-US|archive-date=November 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211115120520/https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rnc-announces-pride-coalition-partnership-with-log-cabin-republicans-ahead-of-midterms|url-status=live}} However, after the announcement, McDaniel apologized for not having communicated the announcement in advance and emphasized that the new outreach program did not alter the 2016 GOP Platform.{{Cite web|date=November 17, 2021|title=GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel apologizes for poor communication regarding gay outreach|url=https://www.metroweekly.com/2021/11/republican-chairwoman-ronna-mcdaniel-apologizes-for-poor-communication-regarding-gay-outreach-initiative/|access-date=November 18, 2021|website=Metro Weekly|language=en-US|archive-date=November 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211118215808/https://www.metroweekly.com/2021/11/republican-chairwoman-ronna-mcdaniel-apologizes-for-poor-communication-regarding-gay-outreach-initiative/|url-status=live}}

As of 2023, a majority of Republican voters support same-sex marriage.{{Cite web |last=Lindberg |first=Tim |date=August 2, 2022 |title=Congress is considering making same-sex marriage federal law – a political scientist explains how this issue became less polarized over time |url=https://theconversation.com/congress-is-considering-making-same-sex-marriage-federal-law-a-political-scientist-explains-how-this-issue-became-less-polarized-over-time-187509 |access-date=August 14, 2022 |website=Kansas Reflector |language=en-US |archive-date=August 23, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220823203344/http://theconversation.com/congress-is-considering-making-same-sex-marriage-federal-law-a-political-scientist-explains-how-this-issue-became-less-polarized-over-time-187509 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Staff |date=September 28, 2022 |title=Majority of Americans Believe Abortion and Same-Sex Marriage Should be Guaranteed Rights {{!}} Grinnell College |url=https://www.grinnell.edu/poll/guaranteed-rights |access-date=November 17, 2022 |website=Grinnell College |quote=Solid majorities across both parties agree that... marrying someone of the same sex...are rights that should be guaranteed to all citizens... |archive-date=March 5, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230305231449/https://www.grinnell.edu/poll/guaranteed-rights |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |last=Cohn |first=Nate |author-link=Nate Cohn |date=August 10, 2023 |title=It's Not Reagan's Party Anymore |language=en |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/upshot/reagan-trump-gop-stool.html |access-date=August 23, 2023 |quote=It's not Mr. Reagan's party anymore. Today, a majority of Republicans oppose many of the positions that defined the party as recently as a decade ago, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll released last week. Only around one-third of Republican voters... [oppose]... same-sex marriage... |archive-date=December 2, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202100640/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/10/upshot/reagan-trump-gop-stool.html |url-status=live }} According to FiveThirtyEight, as of 2022, Republican voters are consistently more open to same-sex marriage than their representatives.{{cite web|url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/whats-behind-senate-republicans-hesitancy-toward-same-sex-marriage/|first1=Monica|last1=Potts|title=What's Behind Senate Republicans' Hesitancy Toward Same-Sex Marriage?|website=FiveThirtyEight|date=August 3, 2022|access-date=August 24, 2022|archive-date=August 24, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220824063615/https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/whats-behind-senate-republicans-hesitancy-toward-same-sex-marriage/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2022-07-28/same-sex-marriage-divides-elected-republicans-from-their-supporters|date=July 28, 2022|access-date=August 24, 2022|title=The GOP's Same-Sex Marriage Divide|first1=Lauren|last1=Camera|website=U.S. News & World Report|archive-date=August 8, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220808203940/https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2022-07-28/same-sex-marriage-divides-elected-republicans-from-their-supporters|url-status=live}} The party platform approved at the 2024 Republican National Convention no longer states that marriage should be between "one man and one woman", though it did oppose the inclusion of transgender women in women's sports and teaching about LGBT topics in schools. According to a 2023 YouGov poll, Republicans are slightly more likely to oppose intersex medical alterations than Democrats.{{Cite web |last=Orth |first=Taylor |date=February 14, 2023 |title=Which childhood body modification procedures do Americans think are unacceptable? |url=https://today.yougov.com/topics/health/articles-reports/2023/02/14/childhood-body-modification-procedures-transgender |access-date=March 6, 2023 |website=YouGov |language=en-us |archive-date=March 6, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306085411/https://today.yougov.com/topics/health/articles-reports/2023/02/14/childhood-body-modification-procedures-transgender |url-status=live }}{{Cite web|url=https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/7hxynzngn8/results_Childhood_Medical_Procedures.pdf|title=YouGov Survey: Childhood Medical Procedures|access-date=April 21, 2023|archive-date=April 21, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230421004218/https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/7hxynzngn8/results_Childhood_Medical_Procedures.pdf|url-status=live}}

In November 2024, Trump nominated Scott Bessent for United States secretary of the treasury.{{Cite web|url=https://www.wsj.com/politics/trump-treasury-secretary-scott-bessent-cabinet-2470c09a|title=Trump Picks Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary|last1=Restuccia |first1=Andrew |last2=Schwartz |first2=Brian |last3=Timiraos |first3=Nick|last4=Leary|first4=Alex |date=November 22, 2024 |accessdate=November 22, 2024|work=The Wall Street Journal}} If confirmed by the United States Senate, he will be the second openly gay man to serve in the Cabinet of the United States (after Pete Buttigieg) and the fourth openly gay man to serve in a cabinet-level office (after Demetrios Marantis, Richard Grenell and Buttigieg).{{Cite web |last1=Ring |first1=Trudy |date=November 23, 2024 |title=Trump nominates investment manager Scott Bessent, a gay man, as Treasury secretary |url=https://www.advocate.com/politics/scott-bessant-gay-trump-treasury |access-date=November 30, 2024 |work=The Advocate}} As the secretary of the treasury is fifth in the United States presidential line of succession, he will become the highest-ranking openly LGBT person in American history.{{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtonblade.com/2024/11/24/trump-nominates-gay-man-for-treasury-secretary/|title=Trump nominates gay man for Treasury secretary|website=Washington Blade|author=Christopher Kane|date=November 24, 2024|access-date=December 5, 2024}}

{{See also|Voter identification laws in the United States}}

Virtually all restrictions on voting have in recent years been implemented by Republicans. Republicans, mainly at the state level, argue that the restrictions (such as the purging of voter rolls, limiting voting locations, and limiting early and mail-in voting) are vital to prevent voter fraud, saying that voter fraud is an underestimated issue in elections. Polling has found majority support for early voting, automatic voter registration and voter ID laws among the general population.{{Cite web|date=August 22, 2016|title=Four in Five Americans Support Voter ID Laws, Early Voting|url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/194741/four-five-americans-support-voter-laws-early-voting.aspx|access-date=April 7, 2021|website=Gallup.com|archive-date=April 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210406165231/https://news.gallup.com/poll/194741/four-five-americans-support-voter-laws-early-voting.aspx|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|last=Rakich|first=Nathaniel|date=April 2, 2021|title=Americans Oppose Many Voting Restrictions — But Not Voter ID Laws|url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-oppose-many-voting-restrictions-but-not-voter-id-laws/|access-date=April 7, 2021|website=FiveThirtyEight|archive-date=April 6, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210406171627/https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/americans-oppose-many-voting-restrictions-but-not-voter-id-laws/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2021/02/05/republicans-target-ballot-access-after-record-turnout|publisher=Pew Trusts|work=Stateline|first=Matt|last=Vasilogambros|title=Republicans Target Ballot Access After Record Turnout|date=February 5, 2021|access-date=April 25, 2021|archive-date=April 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210425034413/https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2021/02/05/republicans-target-ballot-access-after-record-turnout|url-status=live}}

In defending their restrictions to voting rights, Republicans have made false and exaggerated claims about the extent of voter fraud in the United States; all existing research indicates that it is extremely rare,{{cite web |author=Bump, Philip |date=October 13, 2014 |title=The disconnect between voter ID laws and voter fraud |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/10/13/the-disconnect-between-voter-id-laws-and-voter-fraud/ |access-date=July 26, 2016 |work=The Fix |publisher=The Washington Post}}{{Cite news |last=Levitt |first=Justin |date=August 6, 2014 |title=A comprehensive investigation of voter impersonation finds 31 credible incidents out of one billion ballots cast |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/06/a-comprehensive-investigation-of-voter-impersonation-finds-31-credible-incidents-out-of-one-billion-ballots-cast/?arc404=true |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191028232347/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/08/06/a-comprehensive-investigation-of-voter-impersonation-finds-31-credible-incidents-out-of-one-billion-ballots-cast/?arc404=true |archive-date=October 28, 2019}} and civil and voting rights organizations often accuse Republicans of enacting restrictions to influence elections in the party's favor. Many laws or regulations restricting voting enacted by Republicans have been successfully challenged in court, with court rulings striking down such regulations and accusing Republicans of establishing them with partisan purpose.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/us/politics/voting-suppression-elections.html|title='They Don't Really Want Us to Vote': How Republicans Made it Harder|newspaper=The New York Times |date=November 3, 2018 |access-date=November 4, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181104152125/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/us/politics/voting-suppression-elections.html|archive-date=November 4, 2018|url-status=live|last1=Hakim |first1=Danny |last2=Wines |first2=Michael }}{{cite magazine|url=https://theweek.com/articles/803156/big-conservative-lie-voter-fraud|title=The big conservative lie on 'voter fraud'|date=October 23, 2018|magazine=The Week|access-date=December 27, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181228130912/https://theweek.com/articles/803156/big-conservative-lie-voter-fraud|archive-date=December 28, 2018|url-status=live}}

After the Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder rolled back aspects of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Republicans introduced cuts to early voting, purges of voter rolls and imposition of strict voter ID laws.{{Cite news|last1=Hakim|first1=Danny|last2=Wines|first2=Michael|date=November 3, 2018|title='They Don't Really Want Us to Vote': How Republicans Made It Harder|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/us/politics/voting-suppression-elections.html|access-date=April 7, 2021|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=November 4, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181104152125/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/03/us/politics/voting-suppression-elections.html|url-status=live}} The 2016 Republican platform advocated proof of citizenship as a prerequisite for registering to vote and photo ID as a prerequisite when voting.{{Cite web |last=Mali |first=Meghashyam |date=July 19, 2016 |title=GOP platform calls for tough voter ID laws |url=https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/288302-gop-platform-calls-for-tough-voter-id-laws/ |access-date=April 7, 2021 |website=The Hill |archive-date=April 18, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418183438/https://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/288302-gop-platform-calls-for-tough-voter-id-laws |url-status=live }}

After Donald Trump and his Republican allies made false claims of fraud during the 2020 presidential election, Republicans launched a nationwide effort to impose tighter election laws at the state level.{{Cite web|last=Wines|first=Michael|date=February 27, 2021|title=In Statehouses, Stolen-Election Myth Fuels a G.O.P. Drive to Rewrite Rules|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/27/us/republican-voter-suppression.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20211228/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/27/us/republican-voter-suppression.html |archive-date=December 28, 2021 |url-access=limited|newspaper=The New York Times}}{{cbignore}}{{Cite web|first=Kelly|last=Mena|title=More than 100 bills that would restrict voting are moving through state legislatures|url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/02/politics/voting-rights-state-legislation/index.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210203013507/https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/02/politics/voting-rights-state-legislation/index.html|archive-date=February 3, 2021|access-date=February 3, 2021|website=CNN|date=February 2, 2021 }}{{cite news|last1=Gardner|first1=Amy|date=March 26, 2021|title=After Trump tried to intervene in the 2020 vote, state Republicans are moving to take more control of elections|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-election-control/2021/03/26/064fffcc-8cb4-11eb-a730-1b4ed9656258_story.html|access-date=April 7, 2021|archive-date=June 14, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220614185326/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-election-control/2021/03/26/064fffcc-8cb4-11eb-a730-1b4ed9656258_story.html|url-status=live}} Such bills are centered around limiting mail-in voting, strengthening voter ID laws, shortening early voting, eliminating automatic and same-day voter registration, curbing the use of ballot drop boxes, and allowing for increased purging of voter rolls.{{Cite web |date=February 24, 2021 |title=State Voting Bills Tracker 2021 |url=https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/state-voting-bills-tracker-2021 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220611232034/https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/state-voting-bills-tracker-2021 |archive-date=June 11, 2022 |website=Brennan Center for Justice}}{{Cite web |last1=Corisaniti |first1=Nick |last2=Epstein |first2=Reid J. |date=March 23, 2021 |title=G.O.P. and Allies Draft 'Best Practices' for Restricting Voting |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/23/us/politics/republican-voter-laws.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220611081640/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/23/us/politics/republican-voter-laws.html |archive-date=June 11, 2022 |website=The New York Times}} Republicans in at least eight states have also introduced bills that would give lawmakers greater power over election administration, after they were unsuccessful in their attempts to overturn election results in swing states won by Biden.{{Cite news |last=Corasaniti |first=Nick |date=March 24, 2021 |title=Republicans Aim to Seize More Power Over How Elections Are Run |website=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/24/us/politics/republicans-election-laws.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220611230735/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/24/us/politics/republicans-election-laws.html |archive-date=June 11, 2022}}{{Cite news |last=Gardner |first=Amy |date=March 26, 2021 |title=After Trump tried to intervene in the 2020 vote, state Republicans are moving to take more control of elections |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-election-control/2021/03/26/064fffcc-8cb4-11eb-a730-1b4ed9656258_story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220614185326/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/republicans-election-control/2021/03/26/064fffcc-8cb4-11eb-a730-1b4ed9656258_story.html |archive-date=June 14, 2022}}{{Cite web |last=Kalmbacher |first=Colin |date=May 26, 2021 |title=Arizona GOP Bill Would Allow GOP-Controlled State Legislature to Strip Key Election Powers from Democratic Secretary of State |url=https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/arizona-gop-bill-would-allow-gop-controlled-state-legislature-to-strip-key-election-powers-from-democratic-secretary-of-state/ |work=Law & Crime |access-date=October 20, 2022 |archive-date=May 31, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210531061200/https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/arizona-gop-bill-would-allow-gop-controlled-state-legislature-to-strip-key-election-powers-from-democratic-secretary-of-state/ |url-status=live }}{{cite news |last1=Gardner |first1=Amy |date=May 29, 2021 |title=Texas Republicans finalize bill that would enact stiff new voting restrictions and make it easier to overturn election results |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/texas-voting-restrictions/2021/05/29/86923248-be25-11eb-9c90-731aff7d9a0d_story.html |access-date=October 20, 2022 |archive-date=July 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210714230135/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/texas-voting-restrictions/2021/05/29/86923248-be25-11eb-9c90-731aff7d9a0d_story.html |url-status=live }}

Supporters of the bills argue they would improve election security and reverse temporary changes enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic; they point to false claims of significant election fraud, as well as the substantial public distrust of the integrity of the 2020 election those claims have fostered,{{Efn|According to an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, while more than 60% of Americans believe the 2020 election was secure, a large majority of Republican voters say they do not trust the results of the 2020 election.{{Cite web|last=Montanaro|first=Domenico|date=December 9, 2020|title=Poll: Just A Quarter Of Republicans Accept Election Outcome |access-date=June 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220611233203/https://www.npr.org/2020/12/09/944385798/poll-just-a-quarter-of-republicans-accept-election-outcome |archive-date=June 11, 2022 |url=https://www.npr.org/2020/12/09/944385798/poll-just-a-quarter-of-republicans-accept-election-outcome|url-status=live|website=NPR}} According to a poll by Quinnipiac, 77% of Republicans believe there was widespread voter fraud.{{Cite web|date=December 10, 2020|title=December 10, 2020 – 60% View Joe Biden's 2020 Presidential Victory As Legitimate, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; 77% Of Republicans Believe There Was Widespread Voter Fraud|url=https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=3685|website=Quinnipiac University|access-date=October 20, 2022|archive-date=March 21, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210321131057/https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=3685|url-status=live}}}} as justification.{{Cite web |last=Inskeep |first=Steve |date=February 28, 2021 |title=Why Republicans Are Moving To Fix Elections That Weren't Broken |url=https://www.npr.org/2021/02/28/970877930/why-republicans-are-moving-to-fix-elections-that-werent-broken |website=NPR |access-date=October 20, 2022 |archive-date=March 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210328143539/https://www.npr.org/2021/02/28/970877930/why-republicans-are-moving-to-fix-elections-that-werent-broken |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Steinhauser |first=Paul |date=February 17, 2021 |title=Republican Party launching new election integrity committee |url=https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republican-party-launching-new-election-integrity-committee |website=Fox News |access-date=October 20, 2022 |archive-date=March 15, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210315121016/https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republican-party-launching-new-election-integrity-committee |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Montellaro |first=Zach |date=January 24, 2021 |title=State Republicans push new voting restrictions after Trump's loss |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/24/republicans-voter-id-laws-461707 |website=Politico |access-date=October 20, 2022 |archive-date=March 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210329192348/https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/24/republicans-voter-id-laws-461707 |url-status=live }} Political analysts say that the efforts amount to voter suppression, are intended to advantage Republicans by reducing the number of people who vote, and would disproportionately affect minority voters.{{cite journal|first1=Davita|last1=Glasberg|first2=William|last2=Armaline|first3=Bandana|last3=Purkayastha|title=I Exist, Therefore I Should Vote: Political Human Rights, Voter Suppression and Undermining Democracy in the U.S.|url=https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/swb/vol16/iss1/2|journal=Societies Without Borders|date=January 1, 2022|issn=1872-1915|pages=20–47|volume=16|issue=1|access-date=October 28, 2022|archive-date=October 28, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221028052113/https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/swb/vol16/iss1/2/|url-status=live}}{{cite journal|first1=Lydia|last1=Hardy|title=Voter Suppression Post-Shelby: Impacts and Issues of Voter Purge and Voter ID Laws|url=https://digitalcommons.law.mercer.edu/jour_mlr/vol71/iss3/10|journal=Mercer Law Review|date=May 1, 2020|issn=0025-987X|volume=71|issue=3|access-date=October 28, 2022|archive-date=October 28, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221028052111/https://digitalcommons.law.mercer.edu/jour_mlr/vol71/iss3/10/|url-status=live}}{{Cite web |last1=Brewster |first1=Adam |last2=Huey-Burns |first2=Caitlin |date=February 25, 2021 |title=Proposals to restrict voting gain traction in Republican states |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/voting-restriction-proposals-republican-states/ |website=CBS News |access-date=October 20, 2022 |archive-date=March 30, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210330114129/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/voting-restriction-proposals-republican-states/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Skelley |first=Geoffrey |date=May 17, 2021 |title=How The Republican Push To Restrict Voting Could Affect Our Elections |url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-the-republican-push-to-restrict-voting-could-affect-our-elections/ |access-date=November 28, 2022 |website=FiveThirtyEight |language=en-US |archive-date=October 21, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231021064741/https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-the-republican-push-to-restrict-voting-could-affect-our-elections/ |url-status=live }}

According to a 2025 Gallup poll, 46% of Americans identify or lean towards Republicans, and 45% identify or lean towards Democrats. Republicans have held an edge since 2022, while the Democratic Party had previously held an overall edge in party identification from 1992 to 2021, since Gallup began polling on the issue in 1991.{{cite web|title=GOP Holds Edge in Party Affiliation for Third Straight Year|website=Gallup|date=January 16, 2025|access-date=January 16, 2025|url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/655157/gop-holds-edge-party-affiliation-third-straight-year.aspx|first1=Jeffrey M.|last1=Jones}} In 2016, The New York Times stated that the party was strongest in the South, most of the Midwestern and Mountain States, and Alaska.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/opinion/campaign-stops/the-divided-states-of-america.html|title=Opinion – The Divided States of America|first=Lee|last=Drutman|date=September 22, 2016|work=The New York Times|access-date=March 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190308003039/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/22/opinion/campaign-stops/the-divided-states-of-america.html|archive-date=March 8, 2019|url-status=live}}

The Republican party's core voting demographics are White voters without college degrees and White Southerners. Racial polarization is extremely high in the Southern United States, with White Southerners almost entirely voting for the Republican Party and Black Southerners almost entirely voting for the Democratic Party.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/upshot/southern-whites-loyalty-to-gop-nearing-that-of-blacks-to-democrats.html|title=Southern Whites' Loyalty to GOP Nearing that of Blacks to Democrats|first1=Nate|last1=Cohn|website=The New York Times|date=April 23, 2014}}

As of 2024, the Republican Party has support from a majority of Arab,{{Cite web |last=Aleaziz |first=Hamed |date=November 6, 2024 |title=For Many Arab Americans in Dearborn, Trump Made the Case for Their Votes |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/us/dearborn-michigan-trump-arab-voters.html |access-date=November 13, 2024 |website=The New York Times}} Native,{{Cite web |last=Staff |date=November 6, 2024 |title=National Exit Polls: Election 2024 Results |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/exit-polls |access-date=November 13, 2024 |website=NBC News |language=en}} and White voters, and increasingly among Hispanics{{Cite web |last1=Lange |first1=Jason |last2=Erickson |first2=Bo |last3=Heath |first3=Brad |date=November 7, 2024 |title=Trump's return to power fueled by Hispanic, working-class voter support |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-return-power-fueled-by-hispanic-working-class-voter-support-2024-11-06/ |access-date=November 13, 2024 |website=Reuters}} and Asians.{{Cite web |last=Yam |first=Kimmy |date=2024-11-06 |title=Asian Americans favored Harris but shifted right by 5 points |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/asian-americans-exit-poll-harris-trump-rcna179005 |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=NBC News |language=en}}

A majority of working-class, rural, men, individuals without college degrees, and lower income voters vote for the party.{{Cite news |last1=Suss |first1=Joel |last2=Xiao |first2=Eva |last3=Burn-Murdoch |first3=John |last4=Murray |first4=Clara |last5=Vincent |first5=Jonathan |date=2024-11-09 |title=Poorer voters flocked to Trump — and other data points from the election |url=https://www.ft.com/content/6de668c7-64e9-4196-b2c5-9ceca966fe3f |access-date=2024-11-12 |work=Financial Times |quote=In contrast to 2020, the majority of lower-income households or those earning less than $50,000 a year voted for Trump this election. Conversely, those making more than $100,000 voted for Harris, according to exit polls.}} Traditionalist religious voters,{{Cite web |last=Dallas |first=Kelsey |date=2024-11-06 |title=The faith vote in 2024 |url=https://www.deseret.com/faith/2024/11/06/religious-voters-2024/ |access-date=2024-11-13 |website=Deseret News |language=en}} including Evangelicals Latter-Day Saints, Muslims, and Catholic voters lean towards the Republicans. The party has made gained significantly among the white working class, Asians, Arabs, Hispanics, Native Americans, and Orthodox Jews.{{Cite web|url=https://www.axios.com/2022/07/14/republicans-democrats-hispnanic-voters|title=The great realignment|website=Axios|date=July 14, 2022|access-date=August 2, 2022|archive-date=July 20, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220720132417/https://www.axios.com/2022/07/14/republicans-democrats-hispnanic-voters|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.axios.com/2022/07/13/democrats-biden-white-college-graduates-poll|title=The Democratic electorate's seismic shift|website=Axios|date=July 13, 2022|access-date=August 2, 2022|archive-date=July 20, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220720140825/https://www.axios.com/2022/07/13/democrats-biden-white-college-graduates-poll|url-status=live}}

Republicans have lost support among upper middle class and college-educated whites.{{Cite web |last=Levitz |first=Eric |date=October 19, 2022 |title=How the Diploma Divide Is Remaking American Politics |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/10/education-polarization-diploma-divide-democratic-party-working-class.html |access-date=October 21, 2022 |website=New York |language=en-us |quote=Blue America is an increasingly wealthy and well-educated place. Throughout the second half of the 20th century, Americans without college degrees were more likely than university graduates to vote Democratic. But that gap began narrowing in the late 1960s before finally flipping in 2004... A more educated Democratic coalition is, naturally, a more affluent one... In every presidential election from 1948 to 2012, white voters in the top 5 percent of America's income distribution were more Republican than those in the bottom 95 percent. Now, the opposite is true: Among America's white majority, the rich voted to the left of the middle class and the poor in 2016 and 2020, while the poor voted to the right of the middle class and the rich. |archive-date=October 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221020215535/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/10/education-polarization-diploma-divide-democratic-party-working-class.html |url-status=live }} In 2024, Trump only narrowly won White voters making $100,000 to $199,999 (50-49%), over $200,000 (51-48%), and White men with college degrees (50-48%), all on par with Trump winning the popular vote 50-48%.

File:Median_Household_Income_per_County_as_of_2021_according_to_the_USDA_Economic_Research_Service_(3).png

Until 2016, higher income was strongly correlated to voting for the Republican Party among the general electorate. However, in all three of Trump's elections in 2016, 2020, and 2024, the previous correlation between higher incomes and voting for the Republican Party was largely eliminated among the electorate as a whole.{{Cite web |title=How culture trumps economic class as the new political fault line|date=March 28, 2024|website=Silver Bulletin|access-date=January 13, 2025|first1=Nate|last1=Silver|url=https://www.natesilver.net/p/how-culture-trumps-economic-class}} For White voters, instead higher educational attainment was strongly correlated with higher support for the Democratic Party. According to a 2024 Pew Research Center poll, homeowners are slightly more likely to be Republicans (51-45%), while renters are much more likely to be Democrats (64-32%).{{Cite web|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/partisanship-by-family-income-home-ownership-union-membership-and-veteran-status/|title=Partisanship by family income, home ownership, union membership and veteran status|website=Pew Research Center|date=April 9, 2024|access-date=February 16, 2025}}

In the 2024 presidential election, Trump did better among lower-income voters than high-income voters, the first time ever for the Republican nominee in modern American political history. Trump lost voters making annual incomes over $100,000 (47-51%) and $200,000 (46-52%) to Democrat Kamala Harris, with voters making over $200,000 a year being Trump's weakest income demographic. Trump won voters making less than $100,000 (51-47%) and $50,000 (50-48%), though Trump did lose voters making less than $30,000 (46-50%).

Trump won some of the lowest-income counties, mainly majority-White counties in Appalachia.{{cite web|last1=Lowrey|first1=Annie|title=What's the Matter With Eastern Kentucky?|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/magazine/whats-the-matter-with-eastern-kentucky.html?_r=0|work=The New York Times|date=June 29, 2014|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201203726/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/magazine/whats-the-matter-with-eastern-kentucky.html?_r=0|archive-date=December 1, 2017}} Most of the lowest-income counties are majority-Black counties in the Southern Black Belt, which Trump lost.Derrick Shapley, Isolation in the South: Poverty and Transportation Infrastructure in the Black Belt (Mississippi State University, 2015).

Men without college degrees, particularly blue-collar men, are Donald Trump's strongest demographic. Per exit polls, Trump won White men without college degrees (69-29%) and around half of Hispanic men in the 2024 presidential election.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/steve-kornacki-white-men-white-women-gap-gender-gap-rcna196791|title=Steve Kornacki: White men, white women, and the gap within the gender gap|quote=New NBC News polling data illustrates the cultural and political gulf separating white men without college degrees and white women with college degrees.|first1=Steve|last1=Kornacki|website=NBC News|date=March 18, 2025|access-date=March 19, 2025}}

{{Main|Solid South}}

File:BibleBelt.png

Some of the oldest Republican strongholds in the country are in the Southern United States, particularly majority-White Unionist counties in Appalachia.Oliver Perry Temple, East Tennessee and the Civil War (Cincinnati: R. Clarke, 1972), pp. 15–17, 547, 556–8. The Republican Party gradually gained power in the Southern United States since 1964. Although Richard Nixon carried 49 states in 1972, including every Southern state, the Republican Party remained quite weak at the local and state levels across the entire South for decades. Republicans first won a majority of U.S. House seats in the South in the 1994 "Republican Revolution", and only began to dominate the South after the 2010 elections.{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/united-states/2010/11/11/the-long-goodbye|date=November 11, 2010|newspaper=The Economist|title=The long goodbye|quote=In 1981 Republicans took control of the Senate for the first time since 1953, but most Southern elected officials remained white Democrats. When Republicans took control of the House in 1995, white Democrats still comprised one-third of the South's tally. ... white Southern Democrats have met their Appomattox: they will account for just 24 of the South's 155 senators and congressmen in the 112th United States Congress.|access-date=February 20, 2023}}

Since the 2010s, White Southerners are the Republican Party's strongest racial demographic, in some Deep South states voting nearly as Republican as African Americans vote Democratic. This is partially attributable to religiosity, with White evangelical Christians in the Bible Belt, which covers most of the South, being the Republican Party's strongest religious demographic. In particular, in 2024 Trump won every state with a significant presence in the Bible Belt except Virginia, because Northern Virginia is part of the heavily Democratic Washington metropolitan area.{{Cite news|title=Without Northern Virginia, Trump would have won the state|work=Inside Nova|url=https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/without-northern-virginia-trump-would-have-won-the-state/article_c937d4de-2516-11eb-9178-bbdf2f2c7b16.html|access-date=17 November 2020}}{{cite book| title=Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt | publisher=Knopf| year= 1997| isbn= 978-0-679-44638-5|quote=Revealing a surprising paradox at the heart of America's "Bible Belt," Christine Leigh Heyrman examines how the conservative religious traditions so strongly associated with the South evolved out of an evangelical Protestantism that began with very different social and political attitudes. Although the American Revolution swept away the institutional structures of the Anglican Church in the South, the itinerant evangelical preachers who subsequently flooded the region at first encountered resistance from southern whites, who were affronted by their opposition to slaveholding and traditional ideals of masculinity, their lack of respect for generational hierarchy, their encouragement of women's public involvement in church affairs, and their allowance for spiritual intimacy with blacks. As Heyrman shows, these evangelicals achieved dominance in the region over the course of a century by deliberately changing their own "traditional values" and assimilating the conventional southern understandings of family relationships, masculine prerogatives, classic patriotism, and martial honor. In so doing, religious groups earlier associated with nonviolence and antislavery activity came to the defense of slavery and secession and the holy cause of upholding both by force of arms--and adopted the values we now associate with the "Bible Belt."}}

White Southerners with college degrees remain strongly Republican. In 2024, Trump won White Southerners 67-32%, including White Southerners with college degrees 57-41%. Trump won White evangelicals 82-17%, including White evangelicals with college degrees 75-23%.

The Republican Party does best with middle age and older voters, particularly voters over the age of 50. In the 2024 presidential election, Trump lost voters aged 18–29 (43-54%) and 30-39 (45-51%), tied with voters aged 40–49 (49-49%), did best among voters aged 50–64 (54-44%), and narrowly won voters 65 and older (50-49%). This also holds when controlling for race.

• Trump tied among Whites aged 18–29 (49-49%), and won Whites aged 30–44 (54-44%), 45-64 (61-37%), and 65 and older (56-43%).
• There was little difference among Black voters, with Trump losing Black voters aged 18–29 (16-83%), 30-44 (15-83%), 45-64 (14-84%), and particularly Black voters 65 and older (6-93%).
• Trump narrowly lost Hispanic voters aged 18–29 (45-51%) and 30-44 (45-52%), narrowly won Hispanic voters aged 45–64 (51-48%), and lost Hispanic voters 65 and older (58-41%).

File:2021 Median wealth by marital status - US.svg

Since 1980, a "gender gap" has seen stronger support for the Republican Party among men than among women. Unmarried and divorced women were far more likely to vote for Democrat John Kerry than for Republican George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election.[http://www.wvwv.org/docs/WVWV_2004_post-election_memo.pdf "Unmarried Women in the 2004 Presidential Election"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101195440/http://www.wvwv.org/docs/WVWV_2004_post-election_memo.pdf|date=January 1, 2016}} (PDF). Report by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, January 2005. p. 3: "The marriage gap is one of the most important cleavages in electoral politics. Unmarried women voted for Kerry by a 25-point margin (62 to 37 percent), while married women voted for President Bush by an 11-point margin (55 percent to 44 percent). Indeed, the 25-point margin Kerry posted among unmarried women represented one of the high water marks for the Senator among all demographic groups." Exit polls from the 2012 elections revealed a continued weakness among unmarried women for the GOP, a large and growing portion of the electorate.{{cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21591624-republicans-should-worry-unmarried-women-shun-them-marriage-gap?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/themarriagegap|title=Republicans should worry that unmarried women shun them|date=December 14, 2013|newspaper=The Economist|access-date=September 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180115185951/https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21591624-republicans-should-worry-unmarried-women-shun-them-marriage-gap?fsrc=scn%2Ftw%2Fte%2Fpe%2Fthemarriagegap|archive-date=January 15, 2018|url-status=live}} Although women supported Obama over Mitt Romney by a margin of 55–44% in 2012, Romney prevailed amongst married women, 53–46%.{{cite news|date=December 3, 2012|title=The Marriage Gap in the Women's Vote|first=Meg T.|last=McDonnell|url=http://www.crisismagazine.com/2012/the-marriage-gap-in-the-womens-vote|work=Crisis Magazine|access-date=December 11, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141031034237/http://www.crisismagazine.com/2012/the-marriage-gap-in-the-womens-vote|archive-date=October 31, 2014|url-status=dead}} Obama won unmarried women 67–31%.{{cite news|first=Suzanne|last=Goldenberg|date=November 9, 2012|title=Single women voted overwhelmingly in favour of Obama, researchers find|newspaper=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/nov/09/single-women-voted-favour-obama|access-date=December 11, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141231035001/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/nov/09/single-women-voted-favour-obama|archive-date=December 31, 2014|url-status=live}}

However, according to a December 2019 study, "White women are the only group of female voters who support Republican Party candidates for president. They have done so by a majority in all but 2 of the last 18 elections".{{Cite journal|last1=Junn|first1=Jane|author-link1=Jane Junn|last2=Masuoka|first2=Natalie|date=2020|title=The Gender Gap Is a Race Gap: Women Voters in US Presidential Elections|journal=Perspectives on Politics|volume=18|issue=4|pages=1135–1145|doi=10.1017/S1537592719003876|issn=1537-5927|doi-access=free}}{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/white-women-support-gop/507617/|title=White Female Voters Continue to Support the Republican Party|quote=Hard-core partisans don't switch teams over the personal shortcomings of their champion.|website=The Atlantic|date=November 14, 2016|access-date=January 30, 2021|archive-date=December 15, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231215024943/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/11/white-women-support-gop/507617/|url-status=live}}

{{see also|Educational attainment in the United States}}

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| alt1 = Map of the Non-college White vote in the 2020 presidential election by state.

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| alt2 = Map of the College White vote in the 2020 presidential election by state.

| footer = {{center|Top to bottom:}} Non-College and College White vote in the 2020 presidential election by state. A key for approximate margins is provided.{{Cite web|url=https://split-ticket.org/2022/01/03/the-white-vote-and-educational-polarization/|title=The White Vote and Educational Polarization|first1=Lakshya|last1=Jain|date=January 3, 2022|access-date=January 4, 2025|website=Split Ticket}}

}}

In all three of Donald Trump's elections in 2016, 2020, and 2024, for White voters lower educational attainment was strongly correlated with higher support for Trump.{{Cite web|url=https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/education-not-income-predicted-who-would-vote-for-trump/|title=Education, Not Income, Predicted Who Would Vote For Trump|date=November 22, 2016|website=FiveThirtyEight|first1=Nate|last1=Silver}}{{Cite news |last=Brenan |first=Megan |date=July 11, 2023 |title=Americans' Confidence in Higher Education Down Sharply |work=Gallup |url=https://news.gallup.com/poll/508352/americans-confidence-higher-education-down-sharply.aspx |access-date=July 12, 2023|quote=All Major Subgroups, Led by Republicans, Less Confident in Higher Ed}} When controlling for educational attainment among White voters, there still remain large variations by state and region. In particular, college-educated White Southerners remain strongly Republican.

The Republican Party has steadily increased the percentage of votes it receives from white voters without college degrees since the 1970s, while the educational attainment of the United States has steadily increased. White voters without college degrees are more likely to live in rural areas.{{cite news|url=https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/12/politics/republicans-democrats-different-worlds/index.html|title=Republicans and Democrats increasingly really do occupy different worlds|last=Brownstein|first=Ronald|work=CNN|access-date=October 24, 2018|archive-date=October 24, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181024113248/https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/12/politics/republicans-democrats-different-worlds/index.html|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.vox.com/2014/9/24/6840037/white-high-school-dropouts-have-more-wealth-than-black-and-hispanic|title=White high school dropouts are wealthier than Black or Latino college graduates|first1=Danielle|last1=Kurtzleben|date=September 24, 2014|website=Vox}}

Voters with college degrees as a whole were a Republican-voting group until the 1990s. Despite losing in a landslide, Republican nominee Barry Goldwater nearly won a majority of voters with college degrees 48–52% in 1964. Republican president Gerald Ford won voters with college degrees 55-43% in 1976, while narrowly losing to Jimmy Carter.{{cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/data.php?year=1976&datatype=national&def=1&f=0&off=0&elect=0|title=1976 Presidential General Election Data – National|access-date=March 18, 2013|archive-date=August 14, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814021625/https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/data.php?year=1976&datatype=national&def=1&f=0&off=0&elect=0|url-status=live}} Since the 1990s, a majority of voters with graduate degrees have consistently voted for the Democratic Party. For example, George W. Bush won voters with just a bachelor's degree 52-46% while losing voters with a graduate degree 44–55%, while winning re-election in 2004.{{cite news |title=CNN.com Election 2004 |url=http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.0.html |access-date=January 2, 2018 |publisher=CNN |archive-date=May 14, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070514025413/http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.0.html |url-status=live }}

Until 2016, white voters with college degrees were a Republican-leaning group. Despite Obama's decisive 2008 victory, Republican nominee John McCain won a majority of white voters with college degrees 51-47% and white voters without college degrees 58-40%.{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#val=USP00p1|title=National Exit Poll|publisher=CNN|access-date=January 28, 2013|archive-date=June 5, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100605132422/http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/results/polls/#val=USP00p1|url-status=live}} In 2012, Republican nominee Mitt Romney won white voters with college degrees 56-42%, though Obama won voters with college degrees as a whole 50-48% while winning re-election.{{Cite web|url=https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/09/15/educational-divide-in-vote-preferences-on-track-to-be-wider-than-in-recent-elections/|date=September 15, 2016|website=Pew Research Center|title=Educational divide in vote preferences on track to be wider than in recent elections|first1=Rob|last1=Suls}} Since the 2010s,{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/united-states/2024/10/13/polarisation-by-education-is-remaking-american-politics|title=Polarisation by education is remaking American politics|newspaper=The Economist|date=October 13, 2024|quote=From 1952 to 2000, a majority of white voters with college degrees self-identified as Republicans. Starting with the 2012 election, this affiliation began to weaken. It loosened even more once [Donald] Trump became the Republican standard-bearer in 2016. By 2020, the college-educated called themselves Democrats by a 2:1 margin. And there were many more of them; their share of the electorate rose from 8% in 1952 to 40% in 2020. Had the party held on to the rest of its support, this would have ensured an enduring majority. Yet at the same time, Democrats lost support among whites without college degrees. They now favour Republicans by their own margin of 2:1.}} white voters with college degrees have been increasingly voting for the Democratic Party.{{cite web|url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/10/education-polarization-diploma-divide-democratic-party-working-class.html|title=How the Diploma Divide Is Remaking American Politics|first1=Eric|last1=Levitz|website=New York Intelligencer|date=October 19, 2022|access-date=April 24, 2023|archive-date=October 20, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221020215535/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/10/education-polarization-diploma-divide-democratic-party-working-class.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/opinion/education-american-politics.html|title=The 'Diploma Divide' Is the New Fault Line in American Politics|website=The New York Times|date=April 17, 2023|access-date=April 24, 2023|first1=Doug|last1=Sosnik|archive-date=April 24, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230424073901/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/17/opinion/education-american-politics.html|url-status=live}} Following the 2016 presidential election, exit polls indicated that "Donald Trump attracted a large share of the vote from Whites without a college degree, receiving 72 percent of the White non-college male vote and 62 percent of the White non-college female vote." Overall, 52% of voters with college degrees voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016, while 52% of voters without college degrees voted for Trump.{{cite web|url=https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2016/11/18/educational-rift-in-2016-election/|title=The educational rift in the 2016 election|first=William A. Galston and Clara|last=Hendrickson|date=November 18, 2016|access-date=March 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190308080815/https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2016/11/18/educational-rift-in-2016-election/|archive-date=March 8, 2019|url-status=live}}

In the 2020 United States presidential election, Donald Trump won white voters without college degrees 67-32%, while losing white voters with a college degree 48–51%.{{Cite news|title=National Results 2020 President exit polls.|url=https://www.cnn.com/election/2020/exit-polls/president/national-results|access-date=2020-12-04|work=CNN|language=en}} In the 2024 United States presidential election, Trump maintained his margins among white voters without college degrees 66-32% and lost white voters with a college degree 45-52%. In 2024, Trump won 56% of voters without a college degree, compared to 42% of voters with a college degree.{{cite news|date=November 6, 2024|title=Exit poll results 2024|url=https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/exit-polls/national-results/general/president/0|access-date=November 6, 2024|publisher=CNN}}

{{see also|Race and ethnicity in the United States}}

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| alt1 = White vote in the 2020 presidential election by state

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| alt2 = White vote in the 2020 presidential election by county

| footer = {{center|Top to bottom:}} White vote in the 2020 presidential election by state and county. A key for approximate margins is provided for states, while the county map uses binary classification.{{Cite web|url=https://split-ticket.org/2023/03/24/where-do-democrats-win-white-voters/|title=Where Do Democrats Win White Voters?|website=Split Ticket|first1=Lakshya|last1=Jain|first2=Harrison|last2=Lavelle|first3=Armin|last3=Thomas|access-date=December 20, 2024|date=March 24, 2023|quote=More generally, evangelicalism is heavily correlated with Republican vote share among whites, and so its relative absence in secular and Catholic areas helps explain why these regions tend to have higher-than-expected white Democratic vote shares. Meanwhile, Protestant denominations that affiliate with evangelicalism are much more Republican. Nowhere is this religious and cultural contrast among similarly-educated white voters on greater display than in the South. Southern rural areas have some of the highest levels of religiosity and racial polarization in the nation, and this combination makes them much more Republican than similarly-white areas elsewhere in the country — in fact, Democrats did not win the white vote in a single rural county in the South. But this is not just limited to rural areas; Biden still failed to win the white vote in diverse, Democratic-trending Atlanta metro counties like Gwinnett and Cobb, and the surprisingly more Republican white splits extend to other southern metros, such as Fort Worth and the Charlotte suburbs. This likely has a good deal to do with southern cultural conservatism, which is elevated relative to the nation thanks in part to marked Protestant religiosity, particularly among white Baptists. For this reason, support for abortion is exceptionally high in the Midwest, but extremely low in the South. This regional mix of religiosity and racial polarization results in something quite striking: whites in virtually every southern county are significantly more Republican than their northern counterparts.}}

}}

Republicans have consistently won the White vote in every presidential election after the 1964 presidential election.{{cite journal|last1=Miller|first1=Gary|last2=Schofield|first2=Norman|year=2008|title=The Transformation of the Republican and Democratic Party Coalitions in the U.S.|journal=Perspectives on Politics|volume=6|issue=3|pages=433–450|doi=10.1017/S1537592708081218|s2cid=145321253|issn=1541-0986|quote=1964 was the last presidential election in which the Democrats earned more than 50 percent of the white vote in the United States.}} There exist large variations among White voters by region and state. In particular, Republicans lose White voters in the Northeast, parts of the Upper Midwest and West Coast. Republicans are strongest with White Southerners, particularly White evangelical Christians in the Bible Belt, which covers most of the Southern United States. White Southerners with college degrees remain strongly Republican. In some Deep South states, Whites vote nearly as Republican as African Americans vote Democratic. In the 2024 presidential election, Trump won White Southerners 67-32%.

Republicans have been winning under 15% of the African American vote in national elections since 1980. Until the New Deal of the 1930s, Black people supported the Republican Party by large margins.In the South, they were often not allowed to vote, but still received some Federal patronage appointments from the Republicans Black delegates were a sizable share of southern delegates to the national Republican convention from Reconstruction until the start of the 20th century when their share began to decline.{{Cite journal|last1=Heersink|first1=Boris|last2=Jenkins|first2=Jeffery A.|date=2020|title=Whiteness and the Emergence of the Republican Party in the Early Twentieth-Century South|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/studies-in-american-political-development/article/whiteness-and-the-emergence-of-the-republican-party-in-the-early-twentiethcentury-south/899B4B98A78353683C3C6050DFA5771B/core-reader|journal=Studies in American Political Development|volume=34|pages=71–90|doi=10.1017/S0898588X19000208|s2cid=213551748|issn=0898-588X|access-date=January 11, 2020|archive-date=February 22, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210222013516/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/studies-in-american-political-development/article/abs/whiteness-and-the-emergence-of-the-republican-party-in-the-early-twentiethcentury-south/899B4B98A78353683C3C6050DFA5771B|url-status=live}} Black people shifted in large margins to the Democratic Party in the 1930s, when Black politicians such as Arthur Mitchell and William Dawson supported the New Deal because it would better serve the interest of Black Americans.{{Cite web |title=Party Realignment – US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives |url=https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/BAIC/Historical-Essays/Temporary-Farewell/Party-Realignment/ |access-date=June 24, 2020 |website=history.house.gov |archive-date=December 21, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201221074318/https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/BAIC/Historical-Essays/Temporary-Farewell/Party-Realignment/ |url-status=live }} Black voters would become one of the core components of the New Deal coalition. In the South, after the Voting Rights Act to prohibit racial discrimination in elections was passed by a bipartisan coalition in 1965, Black people were able to vote again and ever since have formed a significant portion (20–50%) of the Democratic vote in that region.Harvard Sitkoff, A New Deal for Blacks (1978).

In the 2010 elections, two African American Republicans, Tim Scott and Allen West, were elected to the House of Representatives. As of January 2023, there are four African-American Republicans in the House of Representatives and one African American Republican in the United States Senate.{{cite news|author=L. A. Holmes|url=http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/11/03/black-republicans-win-first-congress-seats-2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101104213733/http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/11/03/black-republicans-win-first-congress-seats-2003|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 4, 2010|title=Black Republicans Win First Congress Seats Since 2003|publisher=Fox News|date=April 7, 2010|access-date=January 30, 2011}} In recent decades, Republicans have been moderately successful in gaining support from Hispanic and Asian American voters. George W. Bush, who campaigned energetically for Hispanic votes, received 35% of their vote in 2000 and 44% in 2004.{{Cite web |title=CNN.com Election 2004 |url=https://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.0.html |access-date=January 12, 2023 |website=www.cnn.com |archive-date=January 4, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230104035510/https://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.0.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Leal |first=David |date=2004 |title=The Latino Vote in the 2004 Election |url=http://mattbarreto.com/papers/2004vote.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170128155620/http://mattbarreto.com/papers/2004vote.pdf |archive-date=January 28, 2017 |access-date=January 12, 2023 |website=mattbarreto.com/}}{{cite news|title=Exit Polls|work=CNN|url=http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.4.html|date=November 2, 2004|access-date=November 18, 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060421062126/http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.4.html|archive-date=April 21, 2006|url-status=live}} The party's strong anti-communist stance has made it popular among some minority groups from current and former Communist states, in particular Cuban Americans, Korean Americans, Chinese Americans and Vietnamese Americans. The 2007 election of Bobby Jindal as Governor of Louisiana was hailed as pathbreaking.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7907412.stm|title=Americas Profile: Bobby Jindal|work=BBC News|date=February 25, 2009|access-date=May 16, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101102154911/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7907412.stm|archive-date=November 2, 2010|url-status=live}} Jindal became the first elected minority governor in Louisiana and the first state governor of Indian descent.{{cite news|url=http://www.deccanherald.com/content/31998/bobby-jindal-may-become-first.html|title=Bobby Jindal may become first Indian-American to be US prez|newspaper=Deccan Herald|date=October 23, 2009|access-date=May 16, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100420065245/http://www.deccanherald.com/content/31998/bobby-jindal-may-become-first.html|archive-date=April 20, 2010|url-status=live}}

Republicans have gained support among racial and ethnic minorities, particularly among those who are working class, Hispanic or Latino, or Asian American since the 2010s.{{Cite web |title=Vietnamese Americans and Donald Trump – DW – 11/23/2020 |url=https://www.dw.com/en/trump-popular-among-vietnamese-americans/a-55702032 |access-date=January 18, 2023 |website=dw.com |language=en |archive-date=January 14, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230114184033/https://www.dw.com/en/trump-popular-among-vietnamese-americans/a-55702032 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Teixeira |first=Ruy |author-link=Ruy Teixeira |date=November 6, 2022 |title=Democrats' Long Goodbye to the Working Class |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/11/democrats-long-goodbye-to-the-working-class/672016/ |access-date=November 8, 2022 |website=The Atlantic |language=en |quote=As we move into the endgame of the 2022 election, the Democrats face a familiar problem. America's historical party of the working class keeps losing working-class support. And not just among White voters. Not only has the emerging Democratic majority I once predicted failed to materialize, but many of the non-White voters who were supposed to deliver it are instead voting for Republicans... From 2012 to 2020, the Democrats not only saw their support among White working-class voters — those without college degrees — crater, they also saw their advantage among non-White working-class voters fall by 18 points. And between 2016 and 2020 alone, the Democratic advantage among Hispanic voters declined by 16 points, overwhelmingly driven by the defection of working-class voters. In contrast, Democrats' advantage among White college-educated voters improved by 16 points from 2012 to 2020, an edge that delivered Joe Biden the White House. |archive-date=January 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230107212010/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/11/democrats-long-goodbye-to-the-working-class/672016/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite news |last=Cohn |first=Nate |date=July 13, 2022 |title=Poll Shows Tight Race for Control of Congress as Class Divide Widens |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/13/upshot/poll-2022-midterms-congress.html |access-date=August 27, 2022 |issn=0362-4331 |quote=But the cofluence of economic problems and resurgent cultural issues has helped turn the emerging class divide in the Democratic coalition into a chasm, as Republicans appear to be making new inroads among non-White and working class voters... For the first time in a Times/Siena national survey, Democrats had a larger share of support among White college graduates than among non-White voters – a striking indication of the shifting balance of political energy... |archive-date=July 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220720164749/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/13/upshot/poll-2022-midterms-congress.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last1=Zitner |first1=Aaron |last2=Mena |first2=Bryan |date=October 2, 2022 |title=Working-Class Latino Voters, Once Solidly Democratic, Are Shifting Toward Republicans |url=https://www.wsj.com/story/working-class-latino-voters-once-solidly-democratic-are-shifting-toward-republicans-a7578ecc |access-date=October 3, 2022 |website=Wall Street Journal |quote=Latinos across America are splitting among economic lines, with a pronounced shift among working-class voters toward the Republican party. |archive-date=October 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221008131525/https://www.wsj.com/story/working-class-latino-voters-once-solidly-democratic-are-shifting-toward-republicans-a7578ecc |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Kraushaar |first=Josh |date=July 14, 2022 |title=The Great American Realignment |url=https://www.axios.com/2022/07/14/republicans-democrats-hispnanic-voters |access-date=August 2, 2022 |website=Axios |language=en |quote=Shifts in the demographics of the two parties' supporters — taking place before our eyes — are arguably the biggest political story of our time. Republicans are becoming more working class and a little more multiracial. Democrats are becoming more elite and a little more White... |archive-date=July 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220720132417/https://www.axios.com/2022/07/14/republicans-democrats-hispnanic-voters |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Kraushaar |first=Josh |date=July 13, 2022 |title=The Democratic electorate's seismic shift |url=https://www.axios.com/2022/07/13/democrats-biden-white-college-graduates-poll |access-date=August 2, 2022 |website=Axios |language=en |quote=Democrats are becoming the party of upscale voters concerned more about issues like gun control and abortion rights. Republicans are quietly building a multiracial coalition of working-class voters, with inflation as an accelerant... In the Times/Siena poll, Ds hold a 20-point advantage over Rs among White college-educated voters — but are statistically tied among Hispanics. |archive-date=July 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220720140825/https://www.axios.com/2022/07/13/democrats-biden-white-college-graduates-poll |url-status=live }} According to John Avlon, in 2013, the Republican party was more ethnically diverse at the statewide elected official level than the Democratic Party was; GOP statewide elected officials included Latino Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval and African-American U.S. senator Tim Scott of South Carolina.{{cite news|title=GOP's surprising edge on diversity|first=John|last=Avlon|url=http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/18/opinion/avlon-gop-diversity/index.html?c=&page=0|work=CNN|date=January 18, 2013|access-date=January 22, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130131025447/http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/18/opinion/avlon-gop-diversity/index.html?c=&page=0|archive-date=January 31, 2013|url-status=live}}

In the 2008 presidential election, Republican presidential candidate John McCain won 55% of White votes, 35% of Asian votes, 31% of Hispanic votes and 4% of African American votes.[http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1209/racial-ethnic-voters-presidential-election?src=prc-latest&proj=peoplepress "Dissecting the 2008 Electorate: Most Diverse in U.S. History"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120618075224/http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1209/racial-ethnic-voters-presidential-election?src=prc-latest&proj=peoplepress|date=June 18, 2012}}. Pew Research Center. April 30, 2009. In 2012, 88% of Romney voters were White while 56% of Obama voters were White.Tom Scocca, "Eighty-Eight Percent of Romney Voters Were White", [http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/scocca/2012/11/mitt_romney_white_voters_the_gop_candidate_s_race_based_monochromatic_campaign.html Slate November 7, 2012] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150706035304/http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/scocca/2012/11/mitt_romney_white_voters_the_gop_candidate_s_race_based_monochromatic_campaign.html |date=July 6, 2015 }} In the 2024 presidential election, Trump won 57% of White voters, 46% of Hispanic voters, 39% of Asian voters, and 13% of African American voters.

Donald Trump won the popular vote in the 2024 United States presidential election as White voters without college degrees still strongly backed him, in addition to the gains made with Asian and Latino voters in comparison to the 2020 United States presidential election. As a whole, 84% of Trump voters were White.{{Cite web |title=Trump gained some minority voters, but the GOP is hardly a multiracial coalition |url=https://www.brookings.edu/articles/trump-gained-some-minority-voters-but-the-gop-is-hardly-a-multiracial-coalition/ |access-date=28 November 2024 |website=Brookings |language=en-US}}

{{main|Religion and politics in the United States|Bible Belt}}

{{see also|The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and politics in the United States}}

Religion has always played a major role for both parties, but in the course of a century, the parties' religious compositions have changed. Religion was a major dividing line between the parties before 1960, with Catholics, Jews, and southern Protestants heavily Democratic and northeastern Protestants heavily Republican. Most of the old differences faded away after the realignment of the 1970s and 1980s that undercut the New Deal coalition.To some extent the United States Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade (1973) caused American Christians to blur their historical division along the line between Catholics and Protestants and instead to realign as conservatives or liberals, irrespective of the Reformation Era distinction. Since 1980, a large majority of evangelicals has voted Republican; 70–80% voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004 and 70% for Republican House candidates in 2006.

Members of the Mormon faith had a mixed relationship with Donald Trump during his tenure, despite 67% of them voting for him in 2016 and 56% of them supporting his presidency in 2018, disapproving of his personal behavior such as that shown during the Access Hollywood controversy.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/15/mormons-want-to-save-the-republican-partys-soul-but-is-it-too-late|title=Mormons want to save the Republican party's soul. But is it too late?|first=J. Oliver|last=Conroy|website=The Guardian|date=February 15, 2018|access-date=May 7, 2020|archive-date=November 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109035828/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/15/mormons-want-to-save-the-republican-partys-soul-but-is-it-too-late|url-status=live}} In the 2020 United States presidential election in Utah, Trump won the state by about 21.5%, by a margin more than 20% lower compared to Mitt Romney (who is Mormon) in 2012 and George W. Bush in 2004. Their opinion on Trump had not affected their party affiliation, however, as 76% of Mormons in 2018 expressed preference for generic Republican congressional candidates.{{cite news|url=https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2018/11/29/most-mormons-voted/|title=Most Mormons voted Republican in the midterms—but their Trump approval rating continues to decline, study finds|first1=Hannah|last1=Fingerhut|first2=Brady|last2=McCombs|website=The Salt Lake Tribune|date=November 29, 2018|access-date=May 7, 2020|archive-date=January 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111065741/https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2018/11/29/most-mormons-voted/|url-status=live}} Similarly, while Trump again won majority-Mormon Utah in 2024, the state had one of the smallest swings to the right and Trump's 22% margin was well below that of prior Republican presidential nominees.{{Cite web |date=8 November 2024 |title=A 'blue trickle' against the red wave? Utah may skew slightly to the left |url=https://www.fox13now.com/news/politics/a-blue-trickle-against-the-red-wave-utah-may-skew-slightly-to-the-left |access-date=20 November 2024 |website=FOX 13 News Utah (KSTU) |language=en}}

Jews continue to vote 70–80% Democratic; however, a slim majority of Orthodox Jews voted for the Republican Party in 2016, following years of growing Orthodox Jewish support for the party due to its social conservatism and increasingly pro-Israel foreign policy stance.{{cite news|work=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|title='I think it's Israel': How Orthodox Jews became Republicans|date=February 3, 2020|url=https://www.jta.org/2020/02/03/politics/i-think-its-israel-how-orthodox-jews-became-republicans|access-date=June 12, 2020|archive-date=January 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210115111043/https://www.jta.org/2020/02/03/politics/i-think-its-israel-how-orthodox-jews-became-republicans|url-status=live}} Over 70% of Orthodox Jews identify as Republican or Republican leaning as of 2021.{{Cite web |last=Hanau |first=Shira |date=May 11, 2021 |title=New Pew study shows 75% of Orthodox Jews identify as Republicans, up from 57% in 2013 |url=https://www.jta.org/2021/05/11/united-states/new-pew-study-shows-75-of-orthodox-jews-identify-as-republicans-up-from-57-in-2013 |access-date=November 23, 2022 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US |archive-date=November 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221108140806/https://www.jta.org/2021/05/11/united-states/new-pew-study-shows-75-of-orthodox-jews-identify-as-republicans-up-from-57-in-2013 |url-status=live }} An exit poll conducted by the Associated Press for 2020 found 35% of Muslims voted for Donald Trump.{{cite news|url=https://www.npr.org/2020/11/03/929478378/understanding-the-2020-electorate-ap-votecast-survey|title=Understanding The 2020 Electorate: AP VoteCast Survey|work=NPR|date=November 3, 2020|access-date=November 17, 2020|archive-date=February 19, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210219064318/https://www.npr.org/2020/11/03/929478378/understanding-the-2020-electorate-ap-votecast-survey|url-status=live}} The mainline traditional Protestants (Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Disciples) have dropped to about 55% Republican (in contrast to 75% before 1968). Democrats have close links with the African American churches, especially the National Baptists, while their historic dominance among Catholic voters has eroded to 54–46 in the 2010 midterms.{{cite web|url=http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1791/2010-midterm-elections-exit-poll-religion-vote|title=Religion in the 2010 Elections|publisher=Pew Research Center|date=November 3, 2010|access-date=January 30, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110206111210/http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1791/2010-midterm-elections-exit-poll-religion-vote|archive-date=February 6, 2011|url-status=dead}}

Although once strongly Democratic, American Catholic voters have been politically divided in the 21st century with 52% of Catholic voters voting for Trump in 2016 and 52% voting for Biden in 2020. While Catholic Republican leaders try to stay in line with the teachings of the Catholic Church on subjects such as abortion, contraception, euthanasia, and embryonic stem cell research, they tend to differ on the death penalty and same-sex marriage.{{cite news|last=Lee|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/18/politics/pope-encyclical-climate-change-catholic-republicans/|title=Pope hands GOP climate change dilemma|work=CNN|date=June 18, 2015|access-date=July 3, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150705234555/http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/18/politics/pope-encyclical-climate-change-catholic-republicans/|archive-date=July 5, 2015|url-status=live}}

{{see also|List of presidents of the United States|Democratic Party (United States)#Democratic presidents}}

As of 2025, there have been 19 Republican presidents.

{{See also|Party divisions of United States Congresses}}

{{See also|List of United States Republican Party presidential tickets}}

{{Portal|Politics|Conservatism|United States}}

{{div col|colwidth=50em}}

• History of the Republican Party (United States)
• History of the Democratic Party (United States)
• List of African-American Republicans
• List of Hispanic and Latino Republicans
• List of state parties of the Republican Party (United States)
• Political party strength in U.S. states

{{div col end}}

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{{Notelist}}

{{notelist-ua}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Main|Bibliography of the history of the Republican Party}}

{{Refbegin|30em}}

• The Almanac of American Politics 2022 (2022) details on members of Congress, and the governors: their records and election results; also state and district politics; revised every two years since 1975. [https://www.amazon.com/Almanac-American-Politics-Richard-Cohen/dp/195237409X/ details] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220107175827/https://www.amazon.com/Almanac-American-Politics-Richard-Cohen/dp/195237409X |date=January 7, 2022 }}; see The Almanac of American Politics
• American National Biography (20 volumes, 1999) covers all politicians no longer alive; online at many academic libraries and at [https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/partners/84/ Wikipedia Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201030170202/https://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/partners/84/ |date=October 30, 2020 }}.
• Aberbach, Joel D., ed. and Peele, Gillian, ed. Crisis of Conservatism?: The Republican Party, the Conservative Movement, and American Politics after Bush (Oxford UP, 2011). 403pp
• Aistrup, Joseph A. The Southern Strategy Revisited: Republican Top-Down Advancement in the South (1996).
• Bauman, Dan, and Brock Read. "A Brief History of GOP Attempts to Kill the Education Dept" Chronicle of Higher Education (June 21, 2018)
• Black, Earl and Merle Black. The Rise of Southern Republicans (2002).
• Bowen, Michael, The Roots of Modern Conservatism: Dewey, Taft, and the Battle for the Soul of the Republican Party. (U of North Carolina Press, 2011). xii, 254pp.
• Brennan, Mary C. Turning Right in the Sixties: The Conservative Capture of the GOP (1995).
• Conger, Kimberly H. The Christian Right in Republican State Politics (2010) 202 pages; focuses on Arizona, Indiana, and Missouri.
• Crane, Michael. The Political Junkie Handbook: The Definitive Reference Books on Politics (2004) covers all the major issues explaining the parties' positions.
• Critchlow, Donald T. The Conservative Ascendancy: How the Republican Right Rose to Power in Modern America (2nd ed. 2011).
• Ehrman, John, The Eighties: America in the Age of Reagan (2005).
• Fauntroy, Michael K. Republicans and the Black vote (2007).
• {{cite book |last=Fried|first=J|title=Democrats and Republicans – Rhetoric and Reality|publisher=Algora Publishing|location=New York|year=2008}}
• Frank, Thomas. What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (2005).
• Frum, David. What's Right: The New Conservative Majority and the Remaking of America (1996).
• Gould, Lewis L. The Republicans : A History of the Grand Old Party (2nd ed, 2014); First edition 2003 was entitled: Grand Old Party: A History of the Republicans [https://archive.org/details/republicanshisto0000goul online 2nd edition]' th standard scholarly history
• Hemmer, Nicole. Partisans: The Conservative Revolutionaries Who Remade American Politics in the 1990s (2022)
• {{cite book|last=Jensen|first=Richard|title=Grass Roots Politics: Parties, Issues, and Voters, 1854–1983|date=1983|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Westport, CT|url=https://www.questia.com/library/2038656/grass-roots-politics-parties-issues-and-voters|isbn=083716382X|access-date=September 10, 2017|archive-date=May 19, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200519103011/https://www.questia.com/library/2038656/grass-roots-politics-parties-issues-and-voters|url-status=dead}}
• Judis, John B. and Ruy Teixeira. The Emerging Democratic Majority (2004), two Democrats project social trends.
• Kabaservice, Geoffrey. Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party (2012) scholarly history {{ISBN|978-0199768400}}.
• Kleppner, Paul, et al. The Evolution of American Electoral Systems (1983), applies party systems model.
• Kurian, George Thomas ed. The Encyclopedia of the Republican Party (4 vol., 2002).
• Lamis, Alexander P. ed. Southern Politics in the 1990s (1999).
• Levendusky, Matthew. The Partisan Sort: How Liberals Became Democrats and Conservatives Became Republicans (2009). Chicago Studies in American Politics.
• Mason, Robert. The Republican Party and American Politics from Hoover to Reagan (2011).
• Mason, Robert and Morgan, Iwan (eds.) Seeking a New Majority: The Republican Party and American Politics, 1960–1980. (2013) Nashville, TN. Vanderbilt University Press. 2013.
• Mayer, George H. The Republican Party, 1854–1966. 2d ed. (1967); a standard scholarly history; [https://archive.org/details/republicanparty100maye online]
• {{cite book|last=McPherson|first=James M.|title=Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era|year=1988|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford; New York|isbn=978-0195038637|title-link=Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era}}
• Oakes, James. The Crooked Path to Abolition: Abraham Lincoln and the Antislavery Constitution (W.W. Norton, 2021).
• Oakes, James. Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861–1865 (W. W. Norton, 2012)
• Perlstein, Rick. Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (2002), broad account of 1964.
• Perlstein, Rick. Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (2009).
• Reinhard, David W. The Republican Right since 1945 (1983).
• Rutland, Robert Allen. The Republicans: From Lincoln to Bush (1996).
• Sabato, Larry J. Divided States of America: The Slash and Burn Politics of the 2004 Presidential Election (2005).
• Sabato, Larry J. and Bruce Larson. The Party's Just Begun: Shaping Political Parties for America's Future (2001), textbook.
• Schlesinger, Arthur Meier Jr. ed. History of American Presidential Elections, 1789–2000 (various multivolume editions, latest is 2001). Essays on the most important election are reprinted in Schlesinger, The Coming to Power: Critical presidential elections in American history (1972). [https://archive.org/search?query=title%3A%28%20History%20of%20American%20Presidential%20Elections%29%20AND%20creator%3A%28Schlesinger%29 online editions]
• Shafer, Byron E. and Anthony J. Badger, eds. Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775–2000 (2001), essays by specialists on each time period:
• includes: "To One or Another of These Parties Every Man Belongs": 1820–1865 by Joel H. Silbey; "Change and Continuity in the Party Period: 1835–1885" by Michael F. Holt; "The Transformation of American Politics: 1865–1910" by Peter H. Argersinger; "Democracy, Republicanism, and Efficiency: 1885–1930" by Richard Jensen; "The Limits of Federal Power and Social Policy: 1910–1955" by Anthony J. Badger; "The Rise of Rights and Rights Consciousness: 1930–1980" by James T. Patterson; and "Economic Growth, Issue Evolution, and Divided Government: 1955–2000" by Byron E. Shafer.
• Shafer, Byron and Richard Johnston. The End of Southern Exceptionalism (2006), uses statistical election data and polls to argue GOP growth was primarily a response to economic change.
• Steely, Mel. The Gentleman from Georgia: The Biography of Newt Gingrich Mercer University Press, 2000. {{ISBN|0865546711}}.
• Sundquist, James L. Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of Political Parties in the United States (1983).
• Wooldridge, Adrian and John Micklethwait. The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America (2004).

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