The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. It is often referred to as the Grand Old Party or the GOP. Founded Under the Oaks at Jackson, Michigan in 1854 by anti-slavery expansion activists and modernizers, the Republican Party quickly surpassed the Whig Party as the principal opposition to the Democratic Party. It first came to power in 1860 with the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency and presided over the American Civil War and Reconstruction. Today, the party supports a conservative and neoconservative platform, with further foundations in supply-side fiscal policies and social conservatism. There is debate within the party on partial nationalization of the financial industry, but most of the party leadership supported it.
The Republican Party is currently the second largest party with 55 million registered voters as of 2004, encompassing roughly one-third of the electorate.[1] The current U.S. President, George W. Bush, is the 19th Republican to hold that office. Republicans currently fill a minority of seats in both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives, hold a minority of state governorships, and control a minority of state legislatures.
For the Presidential election of 2008, the party's nominees were Senator John McCain, of Arizona, for President and Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin for Vice-President. The Republicans were defeated at the polls by the Democratic Party.
