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Southern Democrats are members of the U.S. Democratic Party who reside in the Southern United States.[1]
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Before the American Civil War, Southern Democrats were mostly whites living in the South who believed in Jacksonian democracy. In the 19th century, they defended slavery in the United States and promoted its expansion into the Western United States against the Free Soil opposition in the Northern United States. The United States presidential election of 1860 formalized the split in the Democratic Party and brought about the American Civil War.[2] After the Reconstruction Era ended in the late 1870s, so-called redeemers were Southern Democrats who controlled all the southern states and disenfranchised African-Americans.
The monopoly that the Democratic Party held over most of the South showed signs of breaking apart in 1948, when many white Southern Democrats—upset by the policies of desegregation enacted during the administration of Democratic President Harry Truman—created the States Rights Democratic Party. This new party, commonly referred to as the "Dixiecrats", nominated South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond for president. The new party collapsed after Truman won the 1948 United States presidential election.
Despite being a Southern Democrat himself, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.[3] These actions led to heavy opposition from Southern Democrats.[4][5] Many scholars have stated that southern whites shifted to the Republican Party after a civil rights culture change and accepted social conservatism.[6][7][8]
Republicans first dominated presidential elections in the South, then won a majority of Southern gubernatorial and congressional elections after the 1994 Republican Revolution.[9][10] By the 21st century, and especially after the 2010 midterm elections, the Republican Party had gained a solid advantage over the Democratic Party in most southern states.[11] Southern Democrats of the 21st century tend to be more progressive than their predecessors.[12]
- ^ "Texas Politics – Yellow Dogs and Blue Dogs".
- ^ "Southern Democratic Party – Ohio History Central".
- ^ Kaiser, Charles (January 23, 2023). "'We may have lost the south': what LBJ really said about Democrats in 1964". The Guardian. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
- ^ "PolitiFact – Group of Southern Democrats, not all Democrats, held up 1964 Civil Rights Act".
- ^ "Democrat/GOP Vote Tally on 1964 Civil Rights Act". Wall Street Journal. December 31, 2002.
- ^ Carmines, Edward; Stimson, James (1990). Issue Evolution: Race and the Transformation of American Politics. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691023311. Archived from the original on May 16, 2018. Retrieved June 9, 2018.
- ^ Valentino, Nicholas A.; Sears, David O. (2005). "Old Times There Are Not Forgotten: Race and Partisan Realignment in the Contemporary South". American Journal of Political Science. 49 (3): 672–88. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5907.2005.00136.x. ISSN 0092-5853.
- ^ Ilyana, Kuziemko; Ebonya, Washington (2018). "Why Did the Democrats Lose the South? Bringing New Data to an Old Debate". American Economic Review. 108 (10): 2830–2867. doi:10.1257/aer.20161413. ISSN 0002-8282.
- ^ Junn, Jane; Masuoka, Natalie (2020). "The Gender Gap Is a Race Gap: Women Voters in US Presidential Elections". Perspectives on Politics. 18 (4): 1135–1145. doi:10.1017/S1537592719003876. ISSN 1537-5927.
- ^ "Can the Republican Party Keep Trump Democrats?". National Review. November 21, 2016.
- ^ "The long goodbye". The Economist. November 11, 2010. Retrieved February 20, 2023.
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.
- ^ "The Return of the Southern Democrat". U.S. News & World Report. October 5, 2018.