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• Democratic Party
  Democratic Party

  noun

  one of the two major political parties in the U.S., founded in 1828.
• Democratic party
  Democratic party

  One of the two major political parties in the United States; the Democrats. The origins of the Democrats are in the Democratic-Republican party, organized by Thomas Jefferson in the late eighteenth century; the first president elected simply as a Democrat was Andrew Jackson. Always strong in the South, the party was severely damaged by secession, the Civil War, and Reconstruction, and did not produce a winning presidential candidate between 1861 and 1885, when Grover Cleveland was elected. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in contrast to the Republicans, the Democrats tended to be the party of the South and West, opposed to the interests of business and the Northeast. Woodrow Wilson, the next Democratic president, was part of the Progressive movement. In the period of the New Deal, in the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Democratic party reached enormous strength among labor union members, minority groups, and middle-income people. The Democratic presidents since Roosevelt have been Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, James Earl Carter, and William Jefferson Clinton.

Democratic Party

American  

noun

1. one of the two major political parties in the U.S., founded in 1828.

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Democratic Party British  

noun

1. (in the US) the older and more liberal of the two major political parties, so named since 1840 Compare Republican Party

2.  DP.  (in South Africa) a multiracial political party of the centre-left, now the main opposition to the African National Congress

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Democratic party ¹ Cultural  

1. One of the two major political parties in the United States; the Democrats. The origins of the Democrats are in the Democratic-Republican party, organized by Thomas Jefferson in the late eighteenth century; the first president elected simply as a Democrat was Andrew Jackson. Always strong in the South, the party was severely damaged by secession, the Civil War, and Reconstruction, and did not produce a winning presidential candidate between 1861 and 1885, when Grover Cleveland was elected. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in contrast to the Republicans, the Democrats tended to be the party of the South and West, opposed to the interests of business and the Northeast. Woodrow Wilson, the next Democratic president, was part of the Progressive movement. In the period of the New Deal, in the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Democratic party reached enormous strength among labor union members, minority groups, and middle-income people. The Democratic presidents since Roosevelt have been Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, James Earl Carter, and William Jefferson Clinton.

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Democratic party ² Cultural  

1. A political party that arose in the 1820s from a split in the Democratic-Republican party. Andrew Jackson was the first president elected from the Democratic party. The other Democratic presidents elected before the Civil War were Martin Van Buren, James K. Polk, Franklin Pierce, and James Buchanan. The party generally opposed the national bank, high protective tariffs, interference with slavery, and federal aid for internal improvements in the nation — all measures that the Whigs came to favor. The Democrats' greatest strength was with farmers, laborers, and people of the frontier.

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The Democrats' party symbol (see also symbol) is the donkey.

Under President Clinton, the Democratic Party shed some of its New Deal legacies in order to win back white working-class and middle-class voters lost to the Republicans.

Since the New Deal, Democrats have emphasized the role of the federal government in promoting social, economic, and political opportunities for all citizens. They generally support a tax system that places a greater burden on the rich and large corporations, and they prefer spending on social programs to spending on defense. Today most blacks, along with Jews (see also Jews), liberals, and labor unions, support the party, which since the 1930s has been strong in major cities. The Democrats' strength in the white South, its strongest base before 1950, has slipped significantly, and in the 1970s and 1980s many blue-collar workers shifted to the Republican party.

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How does democratic-party compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• Democratic Party vs. Republican Party

Example Sentences

He was raised in Sullivan, the child of divorced parents who were active in Democratic Party politics.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 6, 2026

“When I canvass for Chuck, sometimes I ask people, ‘What do you actually think about the state of the Democratic Party?’

From Salon • Jun. 4, 2026

Bass, an ex-US congresswoman and Democratic Party stalwart, had an unremarkable start to her stint at the helm of America's second biggest city, and seemed headed for a quasi-automatic re-election in the liberal city.

From Barron's • Jun. 2, 2026

Months since Denmark's general election, acting prime minister Mette Frederiksen, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, will form a centre-left coalition minority government.

From BBC • Jun. 2, 2026

Guillaume joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany and eventually became a trusted aide to Willy Brandt—who was first the mayor of West Berlin and then rose to become chancellor of West Germany.

From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau