17 Facts About Southern Democrats

1. The Southern Democrats held on to their majority in the Senate, though that majority was dramatically reduced.

2. The Southern Democrats increased their majority in the Senate and the House.

3. The Southern Democrats lost decisively the presidential elections of 1920, 1924, and 1928.

4. In November 2018, the Southern Democrats gained 40 seats in the House of Representatives.

5. The Southern Democrats lost control of seven state Senate legislatures and 13 state Houses.

6. The Southern Democrats lost a net of six state governorships and a net 680 seats in state legislatures.

7. The Southern Democrats went from controlling a minority of governorships to a majority.

8. The Southern Democrats had spent twelve successive years as the minority party in the House before the 2006 mid-term elections.

9. In 2005, the Southern Democrats retained their governorships in Virginia and New Jersey, electing Tim Kaine and Jon Corzine, respectively.

10. The Southern Democrats were split over entering Iraq in 2003 and increasingly expressed concerns about both the justification and progress of the War on Terrorism as well as the domestic effects, including threats to civil rights and civil liberties from the Patriot Act.

11. Many of the Democrats, mostly Southern Democrats opposed the act.

12. The Southern Democrats held together while the Republican Party bitterly split between the Roosevelt-oriented progressives and the Taft-oriented conservatives.

13. The Southern Democrats made the high McKinley Tariff of 1890 a major campaign issue, and seized control of Congress in the 1890 elections.

14. In 1860, the Southern Democrats were unable to stop the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln, even as they feared his election would lead to civil war.

15. The Southern Democrats demands included a fugitive slave law to recapture runaway slaves; opening Kansas to slavery; forcing a pro-slavery constitution on Kansas; acquire Cuba; accepting the Dred Scott decision of the Supreme Court; and adopting a federal slave code to protect slavery in the territories.

16. At the beginning of the 20th century the Southern Democrats, led by the dominant Southern wing, had a strong representation in Congress.

17. The Southern Democrats, reflecting the views of the late John C Calhoun, insisted slavery was national.