Democratic Party of Georgia
The Democratic Party of Georgia, until 1840 formally known as the Union Democratic Republican Party, commonly shortened to the Union Party, is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Georgia. Since its founding, it has been one of the major political parties in the state and is currently chaired by Charlie Bailey.
As of 2025, Democrats control both U.S. Senate seats, 5 out of Georgia's 14 U.S. House seats, and minorities in both houses of the state legislature.
Former Democratic president Jimmy Carter served one term as Governor of the state from 1971 to 1975.
History
Troup/Clark Rivalry
During the later bit of the first party system and early second party system politics in Georgia was divided between two Democratic-Republican, later Democratic, political factions, the Troup party, earlier called the Jackson and Crawford parties, and the Clark party, informally called the Union party after Clark's departure from the state. During the years when the state was dominated by this rivalry, the parties were based around their personalities rather than actual policies. Both factions were extremely similar, supporting slavery, the War of 1812, Indian removal, and opposing protective tariffs, internal improvements, and the national bank. The Troup party were radicals who tended to lean more towards states' rights while the Clarkites were closer to the Union.Support for the Troup party typically came from Virginian immigrants, aristocratic plantation owners, and residents of the more prosperous and populated areas of the state. In contrast, the Clark party was rooted in the state's poorer, more frontier areas. These affiliations, however, were not rigid, as historian Kenneth Coleman noted, describing them as "vague tendencies in a fluid, confused, highly partisan political milieu that defied logical explanation."
Nullification Crisis, founding, and early years
During the Nullification crisis, the factions fractured into nullifier and union men. In the lead up to the 1833 elections, newspapers began appealing to so called "Troup Union", "Clark Nullifiers," "Troup Nullifiers," and "Clark Union" men. In the gubernatorial election, Union nominee for governor, Lumpkin, won the governorship with the help of defections to the party from "Troup Union" men—who, while they might have agreed with the characterization of Troup as a staunch state rights man, believed that the Troup party had become dominated by Nullifiers.In the aftermath of the elections, on evening of November 13, 1833, Troup party leaders joined the Troup members of the General Assembly in a caucus, passing resolutions changing the name of the party to the State Rights Party of Georgia, adopting the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions as the official creed of the party, and pledging to work for the repeal of the Force Bill. Eight days later, the Clarkites followed suit, creating the "Union Democratic Republican Party". Most Troupers, and Nullifer Clarkites, formed the former party, which favored Nullification; most Clarkites, along with Union Troupers formed the latter party, which opposed nullification. The SRP, though disliking the prominent northern Whigs, would gravitate towards the national Whig Party due to their anti-Jackson stance, while the UP, being a pro-Jackson party, would align more closely with the Democrats.
Right out of the gate, the new party was divided over how it would organize itself statewide. John A. Cuthbert's flagship paper, the Federal Union, advocated for the formation of county associations, as the SRP had done, but in counties where Union Troup men were in the majority, UP meetings refused to form associations, such as one in Warren County that thought forming an association would be "inexpedient, and dangerous to the peace of the good citizens of this county." The party was divided between Clark Union men, who believed Nullification threatened the union, and Troup Union men, who argued that Troup's doctrine of States' Rights was not the same thing as Calhoun's Nullification. More Troup Union men would join the party as they realised how pro-nullification members of the SRP were, though anti-nullifers did exist in the SRP. By 1835, the reorganization of the parties was complete, though they were neither in name or principle amalgamated with the national parties.
In 1834 and 1835, the UP, "waving the bloody shirt" of support for the Union and President Jackson, swept the SRP in the legislature, congressional, and gubernatorial elections. Recognizing the unpopularity of the stance, the SPR would attempt to distance itself from Nullification, though with little initial success. This would not stop the UP from continuing to label the SRP as Nullifiers. Within the UP, divisions emerged over their support of Van Buren—whom many in the old Clark faction despised for his support of Crawford in the 1824 presidential election—as well as over policies such as Jackson's removal of federal deposits from the Bank of the United States and the administration of the Central Bank of Georgia, which they now controlled. These internal divisions ultimately led to the UP's defeat in the 1836 presidential election and the 1837 gubernatorial election, where they lost to George R. Gilmer, an anti-nullifier.
1840 and second reorganization
In the runup to the 1840 presidential election, the UP once again committed itself to supporting the Van Buren, despite internal opposition. The selection was less certain for the SRP, as many within the party could not support leading candidate Henry Clay and his American system, which included the policy of bank revival, on the basis of Troup's States' Rights doctrine. The paper Georgia Argus, as opposed to other SRP papers, went as far as to say they would rather support Van Buren than Clary or some other third candidate that would make Clay's election easier. SRP newspapers recommended their party "stand aloof" from both presidential candidates, waiting instead for the emergence of a "distinguished southern man," who would protect the interests of the region, eventually landing on Troup.When the convention chose Harrison over Clay, SRP papers were at first stunned but eventually warmed up to him, admitting that they had only backed a Troup candidacy as a tactic to prevent Van Buren from winning Georgia. Now, however, Georgians were so outraged by the economic hardships brought on by Van Buren's policies that the SRP no longer felt the need for such subterfuge, dividing the party. Some members, opposed to the national Whigs, a party full of former Federalists, and who, alongside Harrison, favored the protective tariff and bank renewal, met in Columbus and resolved that they could support neither the Whig Party nor Harrison. Instead, though they had opposed Andrew Jackson, they now found themselves constrained to support Van Buren in the upcoming election. By June 1840, both parties were bleeding support with even prominent SRP members Troup and Henry Lamar expressing their opposition to Harrison's policies and reluctant support for Van Buren. The state convention the same month nominated Harrison and made John Berrien, a proponent of the Whig Party and its ideology, president of the SRP, causing more to move into the UP camp on the basis of States' Rights. These included congressmen Mark Cooper, Walter Colquitt, and Edward Black who aided the UP's increasing influence by Troup's doctrine of state rights and eventually found themselves in prominent positions within the UP hierarchy, much to the dismay of some long time members. Meanwhile, UP members who opposed Van Buren shifted their support to the SRP. The SRP swept all offices.
Third reorganization
By early 1841, the UP had largely abandoned its old label, adopting instead variations of the name used by the party of Andrew Jackson: "Democrats," "the Democracy," "Democratic Republicans," "Republican Democratic Party," and "State Rights Democratic Party." The inclusion of "State Rights" in the party's name seemed to validate the claims made by the congressmen defectors, that true believers in States' Rights could now only be found within the ranks of the Democratic Party. The SRP, too, was going under a name change, with SRP newspapers using various titles such as the "Harrison Party," the "State Rights Party," the "State Rights and Harrison Party," the "Whig and State Rights party," and even just the "Whig Party of Georgia". Ironically, the once anti-Jackson SRP, which had formed in favor of nullification, were becoming supporters of the Union, while the once pro-Jackson UP, which had formed in opposition to nullification, was becoming a staunch supporter of States' Rights. By the end of 1845, the parties finally had adopted national party names as their own and reshaped their principles accordingly.Compromise of 1850 and the formation of a new party
By 1849 both parties had come to see the possibility of the passage of the Wilmot Proviso, the admission of California, the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, or the refusal of Northern states to deliver up fugitive slaves as threats to the South, with the general assembly passing a bill mandating the governor to call a state convention if any of these events occurred. Meanwhile, in Congress, Georgia Whig leaders Alexander H. Stephens and Robert Toombs divorced from their national party and entered into negotiations with Speaker Howell Cobb, a Democrat, to form a coalition supporting compromise measures aimed at preserving the Union.In Georgia, political leaders, beginning in Macon, started a movement to unify the state parties to preserve the union, which rapidly spread across the state. Prominent Democrats such as Herschel V. Johnson, a few old SRP Whigs, and Fire-Eaters William Lowndes Yancey of Alabama and Robert Barnwell of South Carolina, also met in Macon, forming the Anti-Union or "Resistance" group.
Thus, by the time Governor George W. Towns called a state convention in response to the admission of California, party lines had already fractured and reorganized. In the ensuing election of delegates to the convention, acting as a referendum of the Compromise of 1850, Unionists outnumbered the resistance nine to one. At the convention, Unionists issued the Georgia Platform, which affirmed support for the Compromise of 1850 but warned that it was "final solution" to the issue of slavery's expansion. In three evening caucuses held from December 11–13, Whigs and Democrats formalized their coalition by creating a new party: the Constitutional Union Party.
At its first convention in June 1851, while agreeing to replace Berrin, who drifted into the resistance, with former Whig Toombs, the governor nomination was given to former Democrat Cobb, and the executive committee of the new party of made up of mostly former Democrats. With their new majority in the general assembly, the Constitutional Union Party split spoils as agreed but the party was divided between "Union Democrats" and "Union Whigs." Each faction sent delegates to their respective national party conventions for 1852. The resistance party changed its name to the Southern Rights Party and sent delegates to the Democratic convention with an electoral ticket of successionist.
In the following Constitutional Union convention, the dominant Democrats nominated Franklin Pierce, causing anti-Pierce/anti-Scott Whigs to walk out of the convention. These dissenting Whigs hoped to nominate Daniel Webster and throw the election into the House of Representatives, which they proceeded to do at a separate convention in Macon. Simultaneously, pro-Winfield Scott Whigs nominated their preferred candidate. Following these conventions, the Democratic majority on the Constitutional Union Party's executive committee declared the party dissolved. Union Democrats who refused to support the Southern Rights Party-sponsored Pierce ticket fielded their own Pierce ticket. In the end, the Southern Rights-Democrat ticket won the 1852 election over the other three competing tickets, showing that while Georgians supported the compromise, they also demanded more specific recognition of "Southern Rights" basis for the future. In the aftermath, the Southern Rights Party of Georgia was absorbed into the national Democratic Party, dropping its former title and uniting with the other Democratic faction.