Executive Summary
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The two majority parties in the United States are the Democratic and Republican parties. While there
are other parties thatsometimes gain control on state levels, usually Americans either identify with the Democratic or Republican party. However, the definition of what makes up the ideologies of these parties has changed dramatically since the Civil War. During that period, the South made up the majority of Democrats who favored state rights, slavery, and the working man. The North made up the majority of Republicans with Republican Abraham Lincoln as president. They wanted to maintain a Union of states with larger federal control and abolish slavery. Moving to modern day, the blue “solid south” has now found a new home in the Republican party while the more urbanized areas and northern states side with the liberal Democrats. This change is due to the realignment of political ideologies and the people that make up the parties.
Political realignment refers to the theory that explains the gradual change in party favor in an area. This
could be from a number of factors including the introduction of social issues to political discussion, major events and the parties’ reactions, urbanization and increase of diversity in areas, and so on. The introduction of social issues such as abortion, civil rights, and social values influence voters in their party affiliation. Ideas that were not focal points in elections previously, so as these ideas came into light voters realized that their views did not fully match their current party alignment. Slowly, voters change their party as the Democrat and Republican parties themselves change. Realignment is often slow and hard to predict, but in America the largest realignments have centered around events such as the Civil War, Great Depression and the New Deal Coalition, the election of Ronald Reagan due to economic issues and the Iran hostage crisis, and Barack Obama’s presidency.
After the Republican party guided the country to free the slaves and win the Civil War, civil rights
became more ingrained in politics. For a time, most black voters sided with the Republican party who fought for their rights. Moving into the middle of the 20th century, however, Republicans were less inclined to fight for civil rights and focused more on pushing traditional values and business without the government having such a strong hold. These are similar to the values the Democratic party held during the Civil War era. The Democratic party was now taking up civil rights and gathering more votes from minorities as well as former Republicans who now feel that their party does not fit who they truly are.
Just like the rest of the U.S., Kentucky has been involved in realignment since the Civil War. Kentucky is
interesting in that it is a political border state. During the Civil War it remained Democrat, yet stayed with the mostly Republican Union. After the Civil War it remained Democratic in most of its presidential and general elections, with some deviation. The Democratic ideals of that time still meshed with Kentuckians who were less inclined to support civil rights and were more interested in their rural-focused economy and work. Around the 1950s is when Kentucky began voting Republican more often in primary elections, although still not as often in general. Kentuckians were relating less to the new Democratic party and more to the traditional and business-oriented Republicans. After the election of Barack Obama (in which Kentucky still voted Republican), one of the more liberal presidents to date, Kentucky was more assured in the Republican party. In the next election Kentucky voted for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. Not only that, but in the past 20 years has elected two Republican governors and recently had a Republican trifecta in state government.
Despite this, Kentucky still has more registered Democrat voters than Republican, though the numbers
are increasing. Democrat Andy Beshear won governor over Matt Bevin in the 2019 election, but political scientists predict President Trump will win over Kentucky in the next election. The realignment of Kentucky has been incredibly slow, but is still occurring. It is difficult to predict when Kentucky may have another realignment, but if the cyclical realignment theory has any truth then it may be quite some time before a new majority party takes control.