Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of the two major political parties in the United States. The Party is currently (as of 2005) the minority party in both the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives, as well as in governorships and state legislative seats. Of the two major U.S. parties, the Democratic Party is to the left of the Republican Party, though its politics are not as consistently leftist as the traditional social democratic and labor parties in much of the rest of the world. In the U.S. it is often referred to as the more "liberal" party, within the meaning of liberalism in the United States.

The party's origins lie in the original Republican Party founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1794. (Today, this party is usually referred to as the "Democratic-Republican Party" to avoid confusion). After the disintegration of the Federalist Party, the Democratic-Republicans were the only major party in American politics. The Presidency of Andrew Jackson, however, destroyed the unity of the Party, with the Jacksonians forming the Democratic-Republican faction, opposed by the National Republicans, led by John Quincy Adams. The Jacksonian "Democratic-Republicans" soon became known as simply "Democrats." From 1833 to 1856, the Democratic Party was opposed chiefly by the Whig Party. From 1856 onward its main opposition has come from the modern Republican Party.

Today, Democrats generally support civil rights, progressive taxation, certain gun control measures, reproductive rights, a multilateral foreign policy, environmentalism, public education, social welfare programs to combat unemployment and poverty, and the right of workers to organize in labor unions.

Its 2004 political platform expresses commitment to "a Strong and Respected America," a "Strong, Growing Economy," "Strong, Healthy Families," and a "Strong American Community."

The New Democrat movement of the 1980s and 1990s, however, has tried to move the Democratic agenda in favor of a more centrist approach. This is a primary complaint of many members of the Green Party, leading some Greens, such as David Cobb, to declare, "The Democratic Party is where progressive politics go to die." Democrats generally challenge the validity of the Green critique, citing the important Democratic role in pushing progressive reforms in many states and localities. The Green response to this is that those progressive programs are not being safeguarded by centrist Democrats, and that the country would be better served with election reform measures which would give more progressive third party candidates the opportunity to win races than they have under the current system.

Symbols

"A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nast

On January 19, 1870, a political cartoon by Thomas Nast appearing in Harper's Weekly titled "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" for the first time symbolized the Democratic Party as a donkey. Since then, the donkey has been widely used as a symbol of the Party, though unlike the Republican elephant, the donkey has never been officially adopted as the Party's logo.

In the early 20th century, the traditional symbol of the Democratic Party in Midwestern states such as Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio was the rooster, as opposed to the Republican eagle. This symbol still appears on Kentucky and Indiana ballots.

For the majority of the 20th Century, Missouri Democrats used the Statue of Liberty as their ballot emblem. This meant that when Libertarian candidates received ballot access in Missouri in 1976, they could not use the Statue of Liberty, their national symbol, as the ballot emblem. Missouri Libertarians instead used the Liberty Bell until 1995, when the mule became Missouri's state animal. From 1995 until 2004 there was some confusion on the behalf of voters, as the Democratic ticket was marked with the Statue of Liberty, and it seemed that the Libertarians were using a donkey.

In addition to the physical symbols of the Democratic Party are its emotional symbols. These include persons (Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy), programs (Social Security, minimum wage, Medicare) and goals (expanded health insurance availability, greater incomes for average American citizens, a fairer tax structure, a foreign policy more successful in pursuing the twin goals of both peace and strength.)

A Democratic activist over the last four decades, and delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, State Representative Mark B. Cohen of Philadelphia, said "One cannot fully understand Democratic policy proposals unless one understands the past. Year after year, the Democrats took ideas that were considered impractical and converted them into programs considered to be necessities by many Americans. Democratic campaign rhetoric is full of symbolic references to these achievements."

Organization

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

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) provides national leadership for the United States Democratic Party. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Democratic political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and election strategy. There are similar committees in every U.S. state and most U.S. counties (though in some states, Party organization lower than state-level is arranged by legislative districts). It can be considered the counterpart of the Republican National Committee (RNC) and their state and local organizations. Its current chair is Howard Dean.

The Democratic Party also has fundraising and strategy committees for U.S. House races (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee), U.S. Senate races (Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee), gubernatorial races (Democratic Governors Association ), and state legislative races (Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee ).

History

The Democratic Party was formed from the Andrew Jackson-led "Democratic-Republican" faction of the old Republican Party (now, referred to as the "Democratic-Republicans" for convenience). Following his defeat in the election of 1824 despite having a plurality of the popular vote, Jackson set about building a political coalition strong enough to defeat President John Quincy Adams in the election of 1828. The coalition that he built was the foundation of the subsequent Democratic Party.

In the 1850s, following the disintegration of the Whig Party, the Southern wing of the Democratic Party became increasingly associated with the expansion of slavery, in opposition to the newly revamped United States Republican Party. Democrats in the Northern states opposed this new trend, and at the 1860 nominating convention the Party split and nominated two candidates (see U.S. presidential election, 1860). As a result, the Democrats went down in defeat – part of the chain of events leading up to the United States Civil War. During the war, Northern Democrats fractured into two factions, War Democrats, who supported the military policies of Republican President Abraham Lincoln, and Copperheads, who strongly opposed them.

After the war, the Democrats were a shattered party. Nevertheless, the party benefited from white Southerners' resentment of Reconstruction and consequent hostility to the Republican Party. Once Reconstruction ended, and the disenfranchisement of blacks was re-established, the region was for several decades known as the "Solid South" because it reliably voted Democratic (although neither major party tried to use federal power against the Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation). The Democratic Party was also competitive in the mid-Atlantic and lower Midwest. The presidential elections of the years 1876 to 1892 were close, and the Democrats had control of the House of Representatives for most of this period. The reforming Democratic Governor of New York, Grover Cleveland, won the Presidency in 1884 and 1892. In 1888 he won the popular vote but lost the electoral vote, as also happened to the Democratic candidate in 1876, Samuel J. Tilden, and in 2000 to Al Gore.

In 1896 the Democrats chose populist William Jennings Bryan as their candidate, leading to the defection of many conservative Democrats and a decisive loss to Republican William McKinley. The Democrats did not regain the Presidency until William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt split the Republican vote and Woodrow Wilson won with a modest plurality in 1912. The Republicans again took the lead in 1920 by championing laissez-faire regulatory policies.

In 1924 at the Democratic national convention, a resolution denouncing the white-supremacist Ku Klux Klan was introduced, there was much debate and the majority of Democratic delegates voted not to condemn the Klan. This resolution later passed during the 1948 national convention as part of a larger resolution endorsing civil rights.

The stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression set the stage for a more interventionist government and Franklin Delano Roosevelt won a landslide victory in 1932, campaigning on a platform of "relief, recovery, and reform". (see U.S. presidential election, 1932) After winning re-election in 1936, Roosevelt claimed a mandate and embarked on an ambitious legislative program. He was stymied, however, by an alliance of Republicans and conservative Democrats. Frustrated by the conservative wing of the party, Roosevelt made an attempt to rid himself of it, and in 1938, he actively campaigned against five incumbent conservative Democratic senators. However, Roosevelt's attempt to purge the party of its conservatives failed when all five senators won re-election despite Roosevelt's efforts. (Thirty years later, the party did find itself largely divorced from its southern conservative wing, but with much less satisfaction at the result than Roosevelt might have anticipated.)

Roosevelt's New Deal programs focused on job-creation through public works projects as well as on social welfare programs such as Social Security. His policies soon paid off by uniting a diverse collection of Democratic voters called the New Deal Coalition, which included labor unions, minorities (most significantly, Catholics and Jews), liberals, and the traditional base of Southern whites. This united voter base allowed the Democrats to control the government for much of the next 30 years.

The New Deal Coalition began to fracture as more Democratic leaders voiced support for civil rights, upsetting the party's base of Southern Democrats. When Harry Truman's platform displayed support for civil rights and anti-segregation laws during the 1948 Democratic National Convention, many Southern Democratic delegates split from the party and formed the "Dixiecrats", led by Strom Thurmond (who would later join the Republican party). Over the next few years, many white Democrats in the "Solid South" drifted away from the party. On the other hand, African-Americans, who had traditionally given strong support to the Republican party since its inception as the "anti-slavery party", shifted to the Democratic party due to its New Deal economic opportunities and support for civil rights. The party's dramatic reversal on civil rights issues culminated when Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Republicans began their Southern strategy, which aimed to woo the conservative Southern Democrats. Southern Democrats took notice of the fact that 1964 Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater had voted against the Civil Rights Act (an unusual departure from his previous support for such legislation), and in the 1964 election Goldwater's only electoral victories outside his home state of Arizona were in Southern states. The degree to which the Southern Democrats had abandoned the party became evident in the 1968 Presidential election when every former Confederate state except Texas voted for either Republican Richard Nixon or independent George Wallace, a former Southern Democrat. Defeated Democrat Hubert Humphrey's electoral votes came mainly from the Northern states, marking a dramatic shift from the 1948 election 20 years earlier, when the losing Republican candidate's electoral votes were mainly concentrated in the Northern states.

Of the seven U.S. Presidents since Lyndon Johnson, two (Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton) have been Democrats; the rest have been Republicans, who have often controlled one or both chambers of the U.S. Congress at the same time. During right-wing Republican President Ronald Reagan's term, conservative Democrats who supported many of Reagan's policies were called "Reagan Democrats". Many of them left the Democratic Party and became Republicans.

The Democratic Leadership Council has in recent years worked to move the Party towards a centrist position. With the Party retaining left-of-center supporters as well as supporters holding moderate or conservative views on some issues, the Democrats are generally a catch all party with widespread appeal to most opponents of the Republicans. This includes organized labor, educators, environmentalists, supporters of civil rights, progressive taxation proponents, gays, supporters of gun control, pro-choice groups and other opponents of the social conservatism favored by many Republicans.

In the 1990s the Democratic Party re-invigorated itself, in part by moving to the right on economic and social policy. President Bill Clinton implemented a balanced federal budget and welfare reform, traditionally Republican causes. Labor unions, which had been steadily losing membership since the 1960s, found they had also lost political clout inside the Democratic Party: Clinton enacted the NAFTA free trade agreement with Canada and Mexico over the strong objection of the unions.

In the extremely close 2000 Presidential election, some progressives, unhappy with the centrist shift of the Party, instead supported the leftist Green Party candidate Ralph Nader. Many Democrats cited this "spoiler effect" as a key cause of Gore's defeat. Some Nader supporters, while agreeing that Nader probably did influence the contested Florida election, counter that Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan won more votes in some states (Wisconsin, Iowa and Oregon) than Bush lost by. Many Greens also criticize the Democrats for calling them "spoilers", and simultaneously not supporting electoral reform such as Instant Runoff Voting. (Some Republicans have countered that if Ross Perot had not run in 1992 and therefore taken away votes from President George H.W. Bush, then Bill Clinton would never have been elected. Other analyses have suggested that Perot had no impact on the electoral vote of any state but Ohio, and that Clinton would have won even without Ohio's electoral votes.) The issue of the "Nader Factor" surfaced again in the 2004 election, when Nader ran as an independent (and, in some states, as the Reform Party candidate), but benefited from financial and get-on-the-state-ballot petition support by some Republicans eager to re-elect President George W. Bush. Unlike the 2000 election, however, transferring all of the Nader votes to the Democratic candidate (John Kerry) would not have changed the outcome of the election.

In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, the nation's focus changed to issues of national security and increasing isolation of the United States as the sole remaining and increasingly proactive superpower. Virtually all Congressional Democrats voted with their Republican colleagues to authorize President Bush's 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, but they were split over the 2003 invasion of Iraq and increasingly expressed concerns about both the justification and progress of the War on Terrorism, the jobless recovery, and the domestic effects including challenges to civil liberties and privacy from the USA PATRIOT Act. By 2004, the failure of George W. Bush's administration to find weapons of mass destruction, mounting combat casualties in Iraq, and the lack of any end point for the War on Terror were also issues in the American national elections. John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran and U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, won his Party's nomination by upsetting an anti-war candidate, former Governor of Vermont Howard Dean, in the Iowa caucus and winning the majority of state primary races that followed. However, Kerry lost the 2004 Presidential election to Bush by a narrow margin (albeit a significantly wider one than that in the disputed 2000 Presidential election). Kerry also lost the popular vote, which Gore had won in 2000. The Democratic Party also lost seats in both the House and Senate in that election.

Since then, many Democrats have voiced serious concern over the future of their party, and voiced a variety of strategies for moving forward. Some have said that they need to move further towards the center to regain seats in the House and Senate and possibly win the presidency in 2008. One topic of discussion is the party's policies surrounding reproductive rights, especially abortion. Rethinking the party's position on gun policy has also been a topic of discussion of late. Others, such as commentator Thomas Frank in What's the Matter with Kansas?, have suggested that the Democrats need to re-focus on economic populism, while still others have focused on the party's perceived organizational and tactical shortcomings. These debates were reflected in the 2005 campaign for chair of the Democratic National Committee, which Howard Dean won over the objections of many party insiders.

Factions of the Democratic Party

It should be noted defining the views of any "faction" of any political party is difficult at best, and that any attempt to apply labels within a single political party is no more effective than the application of broad labels to political parties as a whole. Keeping that in mind, there are several ideological groups widely recognized within the modern-day Democratic Party:

• The New Democrats are a grouping of centrists, formally organized as the Democratic Leadership Council. Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Joe Lieberman have all been leaders in the organization, which became particularly prominent during and after Clinton's 1992 campaign. The group was founded and continues to be led by Al From . Senator Evan Bayh, a possible 2008 presidential candidate, is the current chairman.

• The Blue Dog Democrats are a congressional grouping of fiscal and social conservatives and moderates, primarily southerners, willing to broker compromises with the Republican leadership. They have acted as a unified voting bloc in the past, giving its thirty members some ability to change legislation. The name appears to be both a reference to several well-known Louisiana paintings featuring blue dogs, as well as a reference to the old "yellow dog" Democrats having been "choked blue."

• Clintonistas - Political journalists often speak of the political advisors and allies surrounding Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton as a kind of faction, though such individuals hardly have a unified ideological leaning. Though formally a New Democrat, Hillary Clinton is generally considered more liberal than the DLC.

• "Deaniacs" - Howard Dean, a failed candidate for the party's 2004 presidential nomination, emerged as a major player in the Democratic party and a leading opponent to the powerful New Democrats group. His campaign organization "Dean for America" became a new group, Democracy for America, to remain active after the election.

• Progressive Democrats of America - The supporters of Dennis Kucinich's 2004 presidential campaign also started an organization to press their ideas after the election, although it is not restricted to Kucinich supporters.

• Southern Democrats - Socially conservative southern white Democrats, previously a key element in the Democratic coalition, are increasingly rare, many having been defeated, or opting not to run, in the 1994, 2002, and 2004 elections.

• Organized labor - As a key source of political contributions, volunteers, and field organizing expertise, labor unions hold significant sway in the Democratic Party. Former House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt was a leading supporter of labor's agenda in Congress.

• African-American Leadership - African Americans are members of many factions, however there is a Democratic African-American Leadership group which coalesces around the Congressional Black Caucus leadership and is generally considered liberal in outlook. Barack Obama and Jesse Jackson can be considered its most prominent new and old leaders respectively.

• Civil libertarians often (but not always) support the Democratic Party because its positions on such issues as civil rights and separation of church and state more closely resemble their own than the positions of the Republican Party do, and because the Democrats' economic agenda may be more appealing to them than that of the Libertarian Party. They oppose the "War on Drugs", preventative law, protectionism, corporate welfare, immigration restrictions, governmental borrowing, and the USA being the world's police officer.

Presidential tickets

Refer also to: List of Presidents of the United States

Prominent figures of the Democratic Party

Currently notable Democrats

(Years of birth are indicated.)

• Evan Bayh (1955), Senator from Indiana
• Joseph Biden (1942), Senator from Delaware
• Barbara Boxer (1940), Senator from California
• Jerry Brown (1938), mayor of Oakland, California, former Governor of California, former presidential candidate
• Robert Byrd (1917), Senator from West Virginia
• Wesley Clark (1944), former NATO commander, former presidential candidate
• Hillary Clinton (1947), Senator from New York, former First Lady
• Tom Daschle (1947), former Senator from South Dakota, former Senate Minority Leader
• Howard Dean (1948), former Governor of Vermont, former presidential candidate, current chair of the Democratic National Committee
• Christopher Dodd (1944), Senator from Connecticut
• John Edwards (1953), former Senator from North Carolina, former presidential candidate and 2004 vice presidential nominee
• Russ Feingold (1953), Senator from Wisconsin
• Harold Ford (1970), U.S. Representative from Tennessee
• Dick Gephardt (1941), former U.S. Representative from Missouri, former House Minority Leader, former presidential candidate
• Jennifer Granholm (1959), Governor of Michigan
• Tom Harkin (1939), Senator from Iowa, former presidential candidate
• Daniel Inouye (1924), Senator from Hawaii
• Jesse Jackson (1941), political activist, former presidential candidate
• Ted Kennedy (1932), Senator from Massachusetts, former presidential candidate
• John Kerry (1943), Senator from Massachusetts, former presidential candidate
• Dennis Kucinich (1946), U.S. Representative from Ohio, former presidential candidate
• Joseph Lieberman (1942), Senator from Connecticut
• Barack Obama (1961), Senator from Illinois
• Nancy Pelosi (1940), House Minority Leader, from California
• Harry Reid (1939), Senate Minority Leader from Nevada
• Bill Richardson (1947), Governor of New Mexico, former Energy Secretary
• Charles Schumer (1950), Senator from New York and chairman of Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
• Al Sharpton (1954), political activist, former presidential candidate
• Louise Slaughter (1929), Congresswoman from New York and Co-Chair of the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus
• Tom Vilsack (1950), Governor of Iowa
• Mark Warner (1954), Governor of Virginia

Historically notable Democrats

(Years of birth and death are indicated.)

• Carl Albert (1908–2000), Speaker of the House for six years (1971-1977)
• Clinton Anderson, U.S. senator from New Mexico for 24 years
• Reubin Askew, Governor of Florida, candidate for Democratic nomination for president
• Bruce Babbitt, Governor of Arizona and United States Secretary of the Interior
• Birch Bayh, U.S. senator from Indiana for 18 years
• Lloyd Bentsen, U.S. senator from Texas, candidate for U.S. vice president, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
• Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) -- associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
• Pat Brown (1905–1996), Governor of California, presidential candidate
• Dale Bumpers, governor of Arkansas, U.S. senator from Arkansas for 24 years
• Quentin N. Burdick, U.S. senator from North Dakota for 32 years
• Howard Cannon, U.S. senator from Nevada for 24 years
• Dick Celeste, Governor of Ohio, U.S. ambassador to India
• Lawton Chiles, U.S. senator from Florida for 18 years, governor of Florida
• Frank Church (1924–1984), U.S. senator from Idaho for 24 years
• Champ Clark (1850–1921), Speaker of the House
• Max Cleland, (1942), former Senator from Georgia
• Bill Clinton, (1946), Governor of Arkansas, and President of the United States
• Mario Cuomo (1932), former Governor of New York
• Alan Cranston (1914–2000), U.S. senator from California for 24 years
• Richard J. Daley (1902–1976), mayor of Chicago
• Tom Eagleton, U.S. senator from Missouri for 27 years; nominee for vice president in 1972 (resigned from ticket)
• James Eastland (1904–1986), U.S. senator from Mississippi for 36 years
• Sam Ervin (1896–1985), U.S. senator from North Carolina for 20 years
• Wendell Ford, U.S. senator from Kentucky for 25 years
• J. William Fulbright (1905–1995), U.S. senator from Arkansas for 29 years
• John Glenn, U.S. senator from Ohio for 24 years
• Albert Gore, Sr. (1907–1998), U.S. senator from Tennessee for 18 years
• Gary Hart, U.S. senator from Colorado, presidential candidate
• Carl T. Hayden (1877–1972), U.S. senator from Arizona for 42 years
• Spessard L. Holland (1892–1971), U.S. senator from Florida for 26 years
• Cordell Hull (1871–1955), Secretary of State
• Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978) US vice president, US senator from Minnesota, founder of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
• Scoop Jackson (1912–1983) US senator from Washington for 30 years
• Bennett Johnston, U.S. senator from Louisiana for 25 years
• Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968), U.S. attorney general, senator from New York, presidential candidate
• John F. Kennedy (1917-1963),United States House of Representatives, United States Senate, and President of the United States
• Richard Lamm (1935), Governor of Colorado from 1975 to 1987
• Frank Lausche (1895–1990), U.S. senator from Ohio for 12 years, Governor of Ohio for eight years
• Huey Long (1893–1935) Governor of Louisiana, U.S. senator from Louisiana
• Russell B. Long (1918–2003), U.S. senator from Louisiana for 39 years
• Mike Mansfield (1903–2001), U.S. senator from Montana for 24 years, Senate majority leader for 16 years
• Eugene McCarthy, U.S. senator from Minnesota, candidate for Democratic nomination for president in 1968, 1972, and 1992
• John McClellan , U.S. senator from Arkansas for 34 years
• John W. McCormack (1891–1980), U.S. representative from Massachusetts for 43 years, Speaker of the House
• Howard Metzenbaum, U.S. senator from Ohio for 18 years
• George Mitchell, U.S. senator from Maine
• Wayne Morse (1900–1974), U.S. senator from Oregon
• Frank Moss (1911–2003), U.S. senator from Utah
• Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1927–2003), U.S. senator from New York
• Edmund Muskie (1914–1996), U.S. senator from Maine
• Sam Nunn, U.S. senator from Georgia
• Frank O'Bannon (1930–2003), Governor of Indiana
• Tip O'Neill (1912–1994), Speaker of the House
• John Pastore , U.S. senator from Rhode Island
• Claiborne Pell, U.S. senator from Rhode Island
• William Proxmire, U.S. senator from Wisconsin
• Sam Rayburn (1882–1961), Speaker of the House
• Abraham Ribicoff (1910–1998), U.S. senator from Connecticut
• Don Riegle, U.S. senator from Michigan
• Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962), First Lady
• Richard B. Russell Jr. (1897–1971), U.S. senator from Georgia
• Jim Sasser, U.S. senator from Tennessee
• Paul Simon (1928–2003), U.S. senator from Illinois
• John Sparkman (1899–1985), U.S. senator from Alabama
• John Stennis (1901–1995), U.S. senator from Mississippi
• Stuart Symington (1901–1988), U.S. senator from Missouri
• Herman Talmadge (1913–2002), U.S. senator from Georgia
• Roger B. Taney (1777–1864), Chief Justice of the United States
• Strom Thurmond (1902–2003), the oldest serving U.S. Senator in history (from South Carolina)
• Paul Tsongas (1941–1997), U.S. senator from Massachusetts
• Paul Wellstone (1944–2002), U.S. senator from Minnesota
• Doug Wilder, Governor of Virginia, candidate for Democratic presidential nomination
• Harrison Williams , U.S. senator from New Jersey
• Harris Wofford, U.S. senator from Pennsylvania
• Ralph Yarborough (1903–1996), U.S. senator from Texas
• Stephen M. Young (1889–1984), U.S. senator from Ohio

State affiliates

In most states the Democratic Party is simply known as the "Democratic Party". However, two of its state Party organizations have slightly different names, namely the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and the North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party. See List of state Democratic Parties in the U.S.

A note on style

The usual adjective used in connection with the party is "Democratic", e.g., "Democratic Party" or "Democratic candidates", whereas members of the party are "Democrats". In order to avoid the arguably positive connotation of the word "democratic", Republicans will occasionally use "Democrat" as the adjective form, but this is relatively rare and generally regarded as incorrect. The abbreviation "Dems" is sometimes used to refer to members of the Party, but unlike "GOP", it is generally not acceptable in formal contexts, such as the text of news articles. When identifying an elected representative, the single letter "D" is used to denote a Democrat, followed by a hyphen and an abbreviation of the locale he or she represents. For example, Barbara Boxer, a Democratic U.S. senator from California may be referred to as "U.S. Sen. Barbara L. Boxer (D-CA)" or, in Associated Press style, "U.S. Sen. Barbara L. Boxer, D-Calif."

See also

• Democratic Freedom Caucus
• List of Democratic National Conventions
• Democratic National Convention
• Unofficial organizations for Democrats
• Democrats Abroad
• List of political parties in the United States
• Democrat In Name Only
• Democrats for Life
• Blue Dog Democrats
• Yellow dog Democrat

External links

• Democratic Freedom Caucus
• Democratic National Committee
• Young Democrats of America
• College Democrats of America
• Kicking Ass: Daily Dispatches from the DNC
• Progressive Democrats of America

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