The Republican Party in the United States includes several factions, or wings. During the 19th century, Republican factions included the Half-Breeds, who supported civil service reform; the Radical Republicans, who advocated the immediate and total abolition of slavery, and later advocated civil rights for freed slaves during the Reconstruction era; and the Stalwarts, who supported machine politics
In the 20th century, Republican
factions included the Progressive
Republicans, the Reagan coalition, and
the liberal Rockefeller Republicans. In
the 21st century, Republican factions
include conservatives (represented in
Congress by the Republican Study
Committee and the Freedom Caucus),
moderates (represented in Congress by
the Republican Governance Group),
libertarians (represented in Congress by
the Republican Liberty Caucus). During
and after the presidency of Donald
Trump, Trumpist and anti-Trumpist
factions arose within the Republican
Party.
Modern factions
During the presidency of Barack Obama,
the Republican Party experienced
internal conflict between its governing
class (known as the Republican
establishment) and the
anti-establishment, small-government Tea
Party movement. In 2012,
The New York Times
identified six wings of the Republican
Party: Main Street Voters, Tea Party
Voters, Christian Conservatives,
Libertarians, The Disaffected, and The
Endangered Or Vanished.[5] In 2014, the
Pew Research Center split
Republican-leaning voters into three
groups: Steadfast Conservatives,
Business Conservatives, and Young
Outsiders. In 2019, during the
presidency of Donald Trump, Perry Bacon
Jr. of FiveThirtyEight.com asserted that
there were five groups of Republicans: Trumpists, Pro-Trumpers, Trump-Skeptical
Conservatives, Trump-Skeptical
Moderates, and Anti-Trumpers
In 2021, following Trump's 2020 loss
to Democrat Joe Biden and the 2021
United States Capitol attack, Philip
Bump of The Washington Post posited that
the Republican Party in the U.S. House
of Representatives consisted of three
factions: the Trumpists (who voted
against the second impeachment of Donald
Trump in 2021, voted against stripping
Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee
assignments, and supported efforts to
overturn the results of the 2020
presidential election), the
accountability caucus (who supported
either the Trump impeachment, the effort
to discipline Greene, or both), and the
pro-democracy Republicans (who opposed
the Trump impeachment and the effort to
discipline Greene but also opposed
efforts to overturn the 2020
presidential election results).
Also in 2021, Carl Leubsdorf of the
Dallas Morning News asserted that there
were three groups of Republicans: Never
Trumpers (including Bill Kristol, Sen.
Mitt Romney, and Govs. Charlie Baker and
Larry Hogan), Sometimes Trumpers
(including Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell and former U.N. Ambassador
Nikki Haley), and Always Trumpers. Pew
Research Center identified four
Republican-aligned groups of Americans:
Faith and Flag Conservatives, Committed
Conservatives, the Populist Right, and
the Ambivalent Right.
Republican factions in Congress in the
21st century include conservative
factions such as the Republican Study
Committee and the Freedom Caucus as well
as the moderate Republican Governance
Group.
Conservatives[edit]
Percent of
self-identified conservatives by state
in 2010:
49% and above
45 to 48%
41 to 44%
37
to 40%
33 to 36%
32% and under
The conservative wing grew out of the
1950s and 1960s, with its initial
leaders being Senator Robert A. Taft,
Russell Kirk, and William F. Buckley Jr.
Its central tenets include the promotion
of individual liberty and free-market
economics and opposition to labor
unions, high taxes, and government
regulation.
In economic
policy, conservatives call for a large
reduction in government spending, less
regulation of the economy, and
privatization or changes to Social
Security. Supporters of supply-side
economics and neoliberalism predominate,
but there are deficit hawks and
protectionists within the party as well.
Before 1930, the Northeastern
pro-manufacturing faction of the GOP was
strongly committed to high tariffs, a
political stance that returned to
popularity in many conservative circles
during the Trump presidency. The
conservative wing typically supports
socially conservative positions, such as
opposing LGBT rights and supporting
restrictions on abortion, though there
is a wide range of views on such issues
within the party.
Conservatives generally oppose
affirmative action, support increased
military spending, and are opposed to
gun control. On the issue of school
vouchers, conservative Republicans split
between supporters who believe that "big
government education" is a failure and
opponents who fear greater government
control over private and church schools.
Parts of the conservative wing have been
criticized for being
anti-environmentalist and promoting
climate change denial in opposition to
the general scientific consensus, making
them unique even among other worldwide
conservative parties.
The Christian right is a
conservative Christian political faction
characterized by strong support of
socially conservative policies.
Christian conservatives principally seek
to apply their understanding of the
teachings of Christianity to politics
and to public policy by proclaiming the
value of those teachings or by seeking
to use those teachings to influence law
and public policy.
The
National Rifle Association of America
(NRA), led by Wayne LaPierre since 1991,
and similar groups such as Gun Owners of
America focus on gun rights and the 2nd
amendment. These groups support and rate
candidates for political office, as well
as engage in legislative lobbying or
litigation related to gun laws.
In the United States, the Christian
right is an informal coalition formed
around a core of evangelical Protestants
and conservative Roman Catholics, as
well as a large number of Latter-day
Saints (Mormons). The movement has its
roots in American politics going back as
far as the 1940s and has been especially
influential since the 1970s. In the late 20th
century, the Christian right became a
notable force in the Republican
Party. Republican politicians
associated with the Christian right in
the 21st century include former Arkansas
Governor Mike Huckabee and former
Senator Rick Santorum. Many within
the Christian right have also identified
as social conservatives, which
sociologist Harry F. Dahms has described
as Christian doctrinal conservatives
(anti-abortion, anti-LGBT rights) and
gun-use conservatives (pro-NRA) as the
two domains of ideology within social
conservatism.
Libertarians
Libertarians make up a relatively
small faction of the Republican Party. In the 1950s and 60s,
fusionism the combination of
traditionalist and social conservatism
with political and economic
right-libertarianism was essential to
the movement's growth. This philosophy
is most closely associated with Frank
Meyer. Barry Goldwater also had a
substantial impact on the
conservative-libertarian movement of the
1960s.
Libertarian conservatives
in the 21st century favor cutting taxes
and regulations, repealing the
Affordable Care Act, and protecting gun
rights. On social issues, they favor
privacy, oppose the USA Patriot Act, and
oppose the War on Drugs. On foreign
policy, libertarian conservatives favor
non-interventionism. The Republican
Liberty Caucus, which describes itself
as "the oldest continuously operating
organization in the Liberty Republican
movement with state charters
nationwide", was founded in 1991. The House Liberty Caucus is
a congressional caucus formed by former
Representative Justin Amash, a former
Republican of Michigan who is now a
member of the Libertarian Party.
Prominent libertarian conservatives
within the Republican Party include New
Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu,
Senators Mike Lee and Rand Paul,
Representative Thomas Massie, and former
Representative Ron Paul (who was a
Republican prior to 1987, then joined
the Libertarian Party from 1987 to 1996,
back to the Republican Party from
1996 to 2015 and has been a Libertarian
since 2015). Ron Paul ran for president
once as a Libertarian and twice more
recently as a Republican.
The
libertarian conservative wing of the
party had significant cross-over with
the Tea Party movement.
Neoconservatives
Neoconservatives promote an
interventionist foreign policy to
promote democracy or American interests
abroad. Many neoconservatives were in
earlier days identified as liberals or
were affiliated with the Democrats.
Neoconservatives have been credited with
importing into the Republican Party a
more active international policy.
Neoconservatives are amenable to
unilateral military action when they
believe it serves a morally valid
purpose (such as the spread of
democracy). Many of its
adherents became politically famous
during the Republican presidential
administrations of the late 20th
century, and neoconservatism peaked in
influence during the administration of
George W. Bush, when they played a major
role in promoting and planning the 2003
invasion of Iraq.
Prominent
neoconservatives in the George W. Bush
administration included John Bolton,
Paul Wolfowitz, Elliott Abrams, Richard
Perle, and Paul Bremer. During and after
Donald Trump's presidency,
neoconservatism has declined and
noninterventionism has grown among
elected federal Republican
officeholders.
Republican members
of the 118th Congress with
neoconservative stances include Senators
Tom Cotton and Lindsey Graham.
Moderates
A faction that
has shrunk since the 1990s, modern
Republican moderates are sometimes known
as "fiscal conservatives, social
liberals". They tend to represent blue
states or swing seats that are
competitive or vote for Democrats in
general elections.
Moderates tend
to be conservative-to-moderate on fiscal
issues and moderate-to-liberal on social
issues. While they sometimes share the
economic views of other Republicans
(i.e. lower taxes, free trade,
deregulation, and welfare reform),
moderate Republicans differ in that some
are for affirmative action, LGBT rights
and same-sex marriage, legal access to
and even public funding for abortion,
gun control laws, more environmental
regulation and anti-climate change
measures, fewer restrictions on
immigration and a path to citizenship
for illegal immigrants, and embryonic
stem cell research.[55][56] In the 21st
century, some former Republican
moderates have switched to the
Democratic Party.
Prominent 21st
century moderate Republicans include
Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and
Susan Collins of Maine and several
current or former governors of
northeastern states, such as Charlie
Baker of Massachusetts,[64] Larry Hogan
of Maryland, Phil Scott of Vermont, and
Chris Sununu of New Hampshire. One of
the most high-ranking moderate
Republicans in recent history was Colin
Powell as Secretary of State in the
first George W. Bush administration
(Powell left the Republican Party in
January 2021 following the 2021 storming
of the United States Capitol, and had
endorsed every Democrat for president in
the general election since 2008).
The Republican Governance Group is a
caucus of moderate Republicans within
the House of Representatives.
Liberal Republicans[edit]
They
are a small faction of the Republican
Party, have the same economic views as
moderate Republicans, support more
environmental measures, have open views
on recreational marijuana, socially
liberal, and are generally young or
celebrities. Liberal Republicans
tend to represent blue states.
Among 21st century liberal Republicans
are actor and former governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger of California, Phil
Scott, Governor of Vermont, and former
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker.
Trumpist faction[edit]
As of 2021, the dominant faction in
the Republican Party consisted of Trumpists,
supporters of a movement associated with
the political base of Donald Trump. The role of the Tea
Party in paving the way for a Trump
faction is a subject of debate. When
conservative columnist George Will
advised voters of all ideologies to vote
for Democratic candidates in the Senate
and House elections of November 2018, political writer Dan
McLaughlin at the National Review
responded that doing so would make the Trumpist
faction even more powerful within the
Republican party.
Anticipating Trump's likely defeat in
the U.S. presidential election held on
November 3, 2020, Peter Feaver wrote in
Foreign Policy magazine: "With victory
having been so close, the Trumpist
faction in the party will be empowered
and in no mood to compromise or
reform." A poll conducted in
February 2021 indicated that a plurality
of Republicans (46%-27%) would leave the
Republican Party to join a new party if
Trump chose to create it. Nick
Beauchamp, assistant professor of
political science at Northeastern
University, says he sees the country as
divided into four parties, with two
factions representing each of the
Democratic and Republican parties: "For
the GOP, there's the Trump faction which
is the larger group and the non-Trump
faction".
Lilliana Mason,
associate professor of political science
at Johns Hopkins University, states that
Donald Trump solidified the trend among
Southern white conservative Democrats
since the 1960s of leaving the
Democratic Party and joining the
Republican Party: "Trump basically
worked as a lightning rod to finalize
that process of creating the Republican
Party as a single entity for defending
the high status of white, Christian,
rural Americans. It's not a huge
percentage of Americans that holds these
beliefs, and it's not even the entire
Republican Party; it's just about half
of it. But the party itself is
controlled by this intolerant, very
strongly pro-Trump faction."
Although the Trump faction of the
Republican Party has produced no
manifesto,[81] Rachel Kleinfeld, senior
fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, describes it as an
authoritarian, antidemocratic movement
that has successfully weaponized
cultural issues, and that cultivates a
narrative placing white people,
Christians, and men at the top of a
status hierarchy as its response to the
so-called "Great Replacement" theory, a
claim that minorities, immigrants, and
women, enabled by Democrats, Jews, and
elites, are displacing white people,
Christians, and men from their rightful
positions in American society.
In a speech he gave on November 2,
2022, at Washington's Union Station near
the U.S. Capitol, President Biden
asserted that "the pro-Trump faction" of
the Republican Party is trying to
undermine the U.S. electoral system and
suppress voting rights. Elaine Karmaarck, founding director of the
Center for Effective Public Management,
writes that although Trump is clearly a
major player in the Republican Party, he
remains a factional leader, while
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other
contenders are maneuvering to take over
the Trump faction.
Anti-Trump faction
A divide has formed in the party between
those who remain loyal to Donald Trump
and those who oppose him. A recent survey
concluded that the Republican Party was
divided between pro-Trump (the "Trump
Boosters," "Die-hard Trumpers," and "Infowars
G.O.P." wings) and anti-Trump factions
(the "Never Trump" and "Post-Trump
G.O.P." wings). Senator John McCain
was an early leading critic of Trumpism
within the Republican Party, refusing to
support the then-Republican presidential
nominee in the 2016 presidential
election.
Several critics of
the Trump faction have faced various
forms of retaliation. Cheney was removed
from her position as Republican
conference chair in the House of
Representatives, which was widely
perceived as retaliation for her
criticism of Trump; in 2022, she was
defeated by a pro-Trump primary
challenger. Representative Adam Kinzinger decided to retire at the end
of his term, while Murkowski faced a
pro-Trump primary challenger in 2022
against Kelly Tshibaka whom she
defeated. A primary challenge to
Romney has been suggested by Jason Chaffetz,
who has criticized his opponents within
the Republican Party as "Trump haters".
Representative Anthony Gonzalez, one of
10 House Republicans who voted to
impeach Trump over the Capitol riot,
called Trump "a cancer" while announcing
his retirement.
Political caucuses
Election year
Republican Study Committee Republican
Governance Group Freedom Caucus
2020
157 / 213
45 / 213
45 / 213
2022
156 /
222
42 / 222
46 /
222
Historical factions
Half-Breeds
The Half-Breeds were
a reformist faction of the 1870s and
1880s. The name, which originated with
rivals claiming they were only "half"
Republicans, came to encompass a wide
array of figures who did not all get
along with each other. Generally
speaking, politicians labeled
Half-Breeds were moderates or
progressives who opposed the machine
politics of the Stalwarts and advanced
civil services reforms.
Progressive Republicans
Historically, the Republican Party
included a progressive wing that
advocated using government to improve
the problems of modern society. Theodore
Roosevelt, an early leader of the
progressive movement, advanced a "Square
Deal" domestic program as president
(1901 to 09) that was built on the goals of
controlling corporations, protecting
consumers, and conserving natural
resources.[96] After splitting with his
successor, William Howard Taft, in the
aftermath of the Pinchot Ballinger
controversy, Roosevelt sought to
block Taft's re-election, first by
challenging him for the 1912 Republican
presidential nomination, and then when
that failed, by entering the 1912
presidential contest as a third party
candidate, running on the Progressive
ticket. He succeeded in depriving Taft
of a second term, but came in second
behind Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
After Roosevelt's 1912 defeat, the
progressive wing of the party went into
decline. Progressive Republicans in the
U.S. House of Representatives held a
"last stand" protest in December 1923,
at the start of the 68th Congress, when
they refused to support the Republican
Conference nominee for Speaker of the
House, Frederick H. Gillett, voting
instead for two other candidates. After
eight ballots spanning two days, they
agreed to support Gillett in exchange
for a seat on the House Rules Committee
and pledges that subsequent rules
changes would be considered. On the
ninth ballot, Gillett received 215
votes, a majority of the 414 votes cast,
to win the election.
In
addition to Theodore Roosevelt, leading
early progressive Republicans included
Robert M. La Follette, Charles Evans
Hughes, Hiram Johnson, William Borah,
George W. Norris, William Allen White,
Victor Murdock, Clyde M. Reed and
Fiorello La Guardia.
Radical
Republicans
The Radical
Republicans were a major factor of the
party from its inception in 1854 until
the end of the Reconstruction Era in
1877. The Radicals strongly opposed
slavery, were hard-line abolitionists,
and later advocated equal rights for the
freedmen and women. They were often at
odds with the moderate and conservative
factions of the party. During the
American Civil War, Radical Republicans
pressed for abolition as a major war aim
and they opposed the moderate
Reconstruction plans of Abraham Lincoln
as too lenient on the Confederates.
After the war's end and Lincoln's
assassination, the Radicals clashed with
Andrew Johnson over Reconstruction
policy.
After winning major
victories in the 1866 congressional
elections, the Radicals took over
Reconstruction, pushing through new
legislation protecting the civil rights
of African Americans. John C. Fremont of
Michigan, the party's first nominee for
president in 1856, was a Radical
Republican. Upset with Lincoln's
politics, the faction split from the
Republican Party to form the short-lived
Radical Democracy Party in 1864 and
again nominated Fremont for president.
They supported Ulysses S. Grant for
president in 1868 and 1872. As Southern
Democrats retook control in the South
and enthusiasm for continued
Reconstruction declined, their influence
within the GOP waned.
Reagan
coalition
According to historian
George H. Nash, the Reagan coalition in
the Republican Party, which centered
around Ronald Reagan and his
administration throughout all of the
1980s (continuing in the late 1980s with
the George H. W. Bush administration),
originally consisted of five factions:
the libertarians, the traditionalists,
the anti-communists, the
neoconservatives, and the religious
right (which consisted of Protestants,
Catholics, and some Jewish Republicans).
Rockefeller Republicans
Moderate or
liberal Republicans in the 20th century,
particularly those from the Northeast
and West Coast, were referred to as "The
Eastern Establishment" or "Rockefeller
Republicans", after Nelson
Rockefeller. Prominent
liberal Republicans from the mid-1930s
through the 1970s included: Alf Landon,
Wendell Willkie, Earl Warren, Thomas
Dewey, Prescott Bush, James B. Pearson,
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., George W. Romney,
Theodore McKeldin, William Scranton,
Charles Mathias, Lowell Weicker, Nancy
Kassebaum, Jacob Javits, and President
Dwight D. Eisenhower.
With their
power decreasing in the final decades of
the 20th century, many Rockefeller-style
Republicans were replaced by
conservative and moderate Democrats,
such as those from the Blue Dog or New
Democrat coalitions. Writer and academic
Michael Lind contended that by the
mid-1990s, the liberalism of Democratic
President Bill Clinton and the Third Way
movement were in many ways to the right
of Eisenhower, Rockefeller, and John
Lindsay, the Republican mayor of New
York City in the late 1960s.
Stalwarts
The Stalwarts were a
traditionalist faction that existed from
the 1860s through the 1880s. They
represented "traditional" Republicans
who favored machine politics and opposed
the civil service reforms of Rutherford
B. Hayes and the more progressive
Half-Breeds. They
declined following the elections of
Hayes and James A. Garfield. After
Garfield's assassination by Charles J. Guiteau,
his Stalwart Vice President Chester A.
Arthur assumed the presidency. However,
rather than pursuing Stalwart goals he
took up the reformist cause, which
curbed the faction's influence.
Tea
Party movement
The Tea Party
movement was an American fiscally
conservative political movement within
the Republican Party that began in 2009
following the election of Barack Obama
as President of the United States.
Members of the movement have called for
lower taxes, and for a reduction of the
national debt of the United States and
federal budget deficit through decreased
government spending. The movement
supports small-government principles and
opposes government-sponsored universal
healthcare. It has been described as a
popular constitutional movement.
On matters of foreign policy, the
movement largely supports avoiding being
drawn into unnecessary conflicts and
opposes "liberal internationalism". Its
name refers to the Boston Tea Party of
December 16, 1773, a watershed event in
the launch of the American Revolution.
By 2016, Politico said that the modern
Tea Party movement was "pretty much dead
now"; however, the article noted that it
seemed to die in part because some of
its ideas had been "co-opted" by the
mainstream Republican Party.
Politicians associated with the Tea
Party include former Representatives Ron
Paul, Michele Bachmann and Allen West,
Senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Tim
Scott, former Senator Jim
DeMint, former acting White House
Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and
2008 Republican vice presidential
nominee and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Although there has never
been any one clear founder or leader of
the movement, Palin scored highest in a
2010 Washington Post poll asking Tea
Party organizers "which national figure
best represents your groups?". Ron
Paul was described in a 2011 Atlantic
article as its "intellectual
godfather".[126] Both Paul and Palin,
although ideologically different in many
ways, had a major influence on the
emergence of the movement due to their
separate 2008 presidential primary and
vice presidential general election runs
respectively.
Several
political organizations were created in
response to the movement's growing
popularity in the late 2000s and into
the early 2010s, including the Tea Party
Patriots, Tea Party Express and Tea
Party Caucus.
You Can Follow Us By E Mail