Parties in American Presidential Elections, 1789–2020

This book offers a timely understanding of the history of the Democratic and Republican Parties and their adaptability, endurance, and importance in presidential elections. Taking the reader from the beginnings of parties as caucuses of members of the First Congress meeting in 1789 through November 2020’s presidential election, it provides a fascinating historical account of the debates, events, and personalities behind the beginnings of the nation’s political parties. This includes the importance of national party nominating conventions in the nineteenth century, the growing importance of primary elections in nominations beginning in the early twentieth century, and the changes of campaigning for presidential candidates as they started to travel across the United States for the first time in the early twentieth century. The book tells the story of the beginnings of nationally televised presidential debates and any number of other changes in the era of broadcasting and now digital platforms for presidential elections in the twenty-first century. It finishes with a look at political dynamics since the November 2020 election and a study of negative partisanship to define how campaigning for the White House works today.