Wade, the Republican Party opposed abortion in its party platform and grew its support among evangelicals. After the Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Roe v. Following the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the party's core base shifted, with southern states becoming more reliably Republican in presidential politics.
It was strongly committed to protectionism and tariffs at its founding, but grew more supportive of free trade in the 20th century.Īfter 1912, the Republican Party began to undergo an ideological shift to the right. The GOP was generally dominant during the Third and the Fourth Party System periods. Under the leadership of Lincoln and a Republican Congress, slavery was banned in the United States in 1865. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president. Upon founding, the Republican party supported economic reform and classical liberalism while opposing the expansion of slavery. It was simultaneously strengthened by the collapse of the Whig Party, which had previously been one of the two major parties in the country. The GOP was founded in 1854 by opponents of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which allowed for the potential expansion of chattel slavery into the western territories. The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP (" Grand Old Party"), is one of the two major, contemporary political parties in the United States, along with its main historic rival, the Democratic Party.