Reagan Democrats

(noun)

Traditionally Democratic voters, especially white working-class Northerners, who defected from their party to support Republican President Ronald Reagan in both the 1980 and 1984 elections.

Related Terms

Examples of Reagan Democrats in the following topics:

  • The Election of 1984

    • The contest was between the incumbent President Ronald Reagan, the Republican candidate, and former Vice President Walter Mondale, the Democratic candidate.
    • In addition, no post-1984 Republican candidate has managed to match or better Reagan's electoral performance in the American Northeast, known to be a very Democratic region in modern times.
    • Only three Democratic candidates won any state primaries: Mondale, Gary Hart, and Jesse Jackson.
    • Analysts of the election attributed the Republican victory to "Reagan Democrats", millions of Democrats who voted for Reagan, as in 1980.
    • They characterized such Reagan Democrats as southern whites and northern blue collar workers who voted for Reagan because they credited him with the economic recovery, saw Reagan as strong on national security issues, and perceived the Democrats as supporting the poor and minorities at the expense of the middle class.

  • Battles in the Courts and Congress

    • President Reagan made many new court appointments during his administration and ran into challenges with the Democrats in Congress.
    • Within 45 minutes of Bork's nomination to the Court, Democrat Ted Kennedy took to the Senate floor with a strong condemnation of Bork in a nationally televised speech, declaring:
    • In some cases, the nominations were not processed by the Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee before Reagan's presidency ended, while in other cases, nominees were rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee or even blocked by unfriendly members of the Republican Party.Both his Supreme Court nominations and his lower court appointments were in line with Reagan's expressed philosophy that judges should interpret law as enacted and not "legislate from the bench".
    • Reagan's support for an increased defense budget at the height of the Cold War was supported by Congressional Democrats and Republicans.
    • Reagan nominated conservative jurist Robert Bork to the high court.

  • The Election of 1980

    • The 1980 presidential campaigns of both Republican Ronald Reagan and incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter were conducted during times of great domestic concern—times that also included the ongoing Iranian hostage crisis.
    • After receiving the Republican nomination, Reagan selected George H.W.
    • Reagan's showing in the October televised debate boosted his campaign.
    • Weeks before the election, Reagan had trailed Carter in most polls.
    • Republicans captured the Senate for the first time since 1952 and gained 34 House seats, but the Democrats retained a majority.

  • The Election of 1988

    • Bush over Democrat Michael Dukakis.
    • Reagan's Vice President George H.
    • Bush won the Republican nomination, while the Democrats nominated Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis.
    • Bush capitalized on a good economy, a stable international stage, and Reagan's popularity, while Dukakis's campaign suffered from several miscues.
    • After Reagan's image was tarnished in the Iran-Contra scandal, along with Democrats winning back control of the Senate in the 1986 congressional elections, Democratic leaders felt more optimistic about winning the presidency in 1988.

  • Debt and the Stock Market Plunge

    • President Ronald Reagan's tenure marked a time of economic prosperity for many Americans.
    • In August 1981, after negotiations with the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic-controlled House proved to be fruitless, President Reagan signed the largest tax cuts in American history into effect at his California ranch.
    • Reagan labeled the new debt the "greatest disappointment" of his presidency.
    • Reagan's support for an increased defense budget at the height of the Cold War was supported by Congressional Democrats and Republicans.
    • Reagan cut the EPA's budget by 22%, and his director of the EPA, Anne M.

  • NATO and the Militarization and Interventions Abroad

    • The foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration was the foreign policy of the United States from 1981 to 1989.
    • Ambassador Wilson had been President Reagan's personal envoy to the Pope since 1981.
    • During Ronald Reagan's presidency, South Africa continued to use a non-democratic system of government based on racial discrimination, known as apartheid, in which the minority of white South Africans exerted nearly complete legal control over the lives of the non-white majority of the citizens.
    • Reagan administration officials saw the apartheid government as a key anti-communist ally.
    • President Reagan and the First Lady pay their respects to the servicemen killed in the bombing in Lebanon

  • The Reagan Administration

    • Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States, serving from 1981 to 1989.
    • Originally a member of the Democratic Party, his positions began shifting rightward in the late 1950s, and he switched to the Republican Party in 1962.
    • As president, Reagan implemented sweeping new political and economic initiatives.
    • Reagan left office in 1989.
    • Compare and contrast the policies of President Reagan from those of President Carter.

  • Free Enterprise Economics and Reaganomics

    • President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s.
    • In response, Reagan presented his plan directly to the people.
    • Public support for the plan, combined with a surge in the president’s popularity after he survived an assassination attempt in March 1981, swayed Congress, including many Democrats.
    • Questions arose whether Reagan's policies benefited the wealthy more than those living in poverty, and many poor and minority citizens viewed Reagan as indifferent to their struggles.
    • Reagan described the new debt as the "greatest disappointment" of his presidency.

  • The Middle East

    • Ronald Reagan's administration was heavily involved in the Middle East.
    • Reagan’s desire to demonstrate U.S. readiness to use military force abroad sometimes had tragic consequences.
    • Reagan sent a White House team to the site four days later, led by his Vice President, George H.W.
    • On February 7, 1984, President Reagan ordered the U.S.
    • He professed ignorance of the plot's existence and appointed two Republicans and one Democrat (John Tower, Brent Scowcroft, and Edmund Muskie, collectively known as the "Tower Commission") to investigate the scandal.

  • Gridlock in Government

    • Because of the Democratic Party majority in both houses, Republican President George H.
    • Early in his term, Bush faced the problem of what to do with leftover deficits spawned by the Reagan years.
    • Reagan’s policies of cutting taxes and increasing defense spending in relation to the Cold War had exploded the federal budget deficit, making it three times larger in 1989 than when Reagan took office in 1980.
    • He began an effort to persuade the Democratic controlled Congress to act on the budget.
    • Red indicates 2 Republican seats, dark blue indicates 2 Democratic seats, and pink indicates one Republican and one Democratic seat.