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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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Democratic Party Democratic party

This latest claim originated with Wanjun Xie, who identifies himself as chairman of the Chinese Democratic Party, a group banned by Chinese authorities.

From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2026

“Maine is a really independent-minded state, and Mainers don’t like being told what to do,” Devon Murphy-Anderson, executive director of the Maine Democratic Party, said Tuesday.

From Salon ● Oct. 12, 2026

“A Democratic Party that says that it’s for human rights has got to be for human rights,” he explained.

From Slate ● Oct. 6, 2026

The California Democratic Party is backing Ma, whose quarter-century in electoral politics includes stints on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, in the State Assembly and on the State Board of Equalization.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

In June, Wilson wrote to Catt and told her that he would encourage the Democratic Party to include a suffrage endorsement in its platform.

From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling

She then immersed herself in the Social Democratic party, whose youth league she joined when she was 16.

From Barron's ● Sep. 17, 2026

Mr. Merz hails from the free-market wing of his center-right Christian Democratic party, and his grand vision is of a German economy that promotes work, business growth and job creation.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

Where Jackson really left his mark was at the Democratic National Convention, delivering the “Rainbow Coalition” speech that shaped the soul of the Democratic party for decades to come.

From Salon ● Feb. 17, 2026

He is also a member of the same Social Democratic party as Montenegro and is a prominent public figure in his own right, having won his elections for two five-year terms by hefty margins.

From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2025

After receiving a telegram from President Woodrow Wilson urging him to support the amendment, he agreed to call a special legislative session, but he planned to wait until August, after the state’s Democratic party primary.

From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling

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