Martin Van Buren, the eighth president of the United States (1837 to 1841) played the central role in building the coalition of state organizations that formed the Democratic Party in 1828.

The Democratic Party is the world's oldest active political party. It initially supported expansive presidential power,the interests of slave states, agrarianism, and geographical expansionism, while opposing a national bank and high tariffs It split in 1860 over slavery and won the presidency only twice between 1860 and 1912, although it won the popular vote two more times in that period. In the late 19th century, it continued to oppose high tariffs and had fierce internal debates on the gold standard. In the early 20th century, it supported progressive reforms and opposed imperialism, with Woodrow Wilson winning the White House in 1912 and 1916.

Things changed when Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president in 1932.

After Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president in 1932, the Democratic Party has promoted a liberal platform that includes support for Social Security and unemployment insurance. The New Deal attracted strong support for the party from recent European immigrants but diminished the party's pro-business wing. From late in Roosevelt's administration, a minority in the party's Southern wing joined with conservative Republicans to stop progressive domestic reforms. Following the Great Society era of progressive legislation under Lyndon B. Johnson, the party was able to overcome the conservative coalition in the 1960s, the core bases of the parties shifted, with the Southern states becoming more reliably Republican and the Northeastern states becoming more reliably Democratic.The election of Bill Clinton moved the party's economic stance towards market-based economic policy. Barack Obama oversaw the party's passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. During Joe Biden's presidency, the party has adopted an increasingly progressive economic agenda.

In the 21st century, the party is strongest among urban voters, union workers, college graduates, women, African Americans, LGBT+ people, and the unmarried. On social issues, it advocates for abortion rights,voting rights, LGBT rights, action on climate change, and the legalization of marijuana. On economic issues, the party favors healthcare reform, universal child care, paid sick leave and supporting unions. In foreign policy, the party supports liberal internationalism as well as tough stances against China and Russia.

Vice President Kamala Harris, currently in President Joseph R. Biden’s administration, has been nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2024 election. Minnesota Senator Tim Walz is her running mate.

The US States of California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington and the District of Columbia allow all elections to be conducted entirely by mail.

In mostly-mail elections, all registered voters are sent a ballot in the mail. The voter marks the ballot, puts it in a secrecy envelope or sleeve and then into a separate mailing envelope, signs an affidavit on the exterior of the mailing envelope and returns the package via mail or by dropping it off.

Ballots are mailed out well ahead of Election Day, and thus voters have an "election period," not just a single day, to vote. Mostly-mail elections can be thought of as absentee voting for everyone. This system is also referred to as "vote by mail."

Two states - Nebraska and North Dakota - permit counties to opt into conducting elections by mail.

Nine states - Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming - allow specific small elections to be conducted by mail.

Four states - Idaho, Minnesota, New Jersey and New Mexico -permit mostly - mail elections for certain small jurisdictions.
--- The NCSL elections team

John C. Frémont ran as the first Republican nominee for President in 1856 behind the slogan "Free soil, free silver, free men, Frémont and victory!" Although Frémont's bid was unsuccessful, the party showed a strong base in the U.S. Northern States.

The Republican Party was founded in 1854 by anti - slavery activists who opposed the Kansas - Nebraska Act, an act which allowed for the potential expansion of chattel slavery into the western territories of Kansas and Nebraska. It supported classical liberalism and economic reform, while opposing the expansion of slavery into the free territories. The party initially had a very limited presence in the South, but was successful in the North. By 1858, it had enlisted most former Whigs and former Free Soldiers to form majorities in nearly every northern state. White Southerners became alarmed at the threat to the slave trade. With the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, the southern states seceded from the United States, and the American Civil War began on April 12, 1861.

Under the leadership of Lincoln and a Republican Congress, the Republican Party led the fight to defeat the Confederate States in the American Civil War, preserving the Union and abolishing slavery.

For 110 years, the numbers stood as 618,222 men died in the Civil War, 360,222 from the North and 258,000 from the South - by far the greatest toll of any war in American history. But new research shows that the numbers were far too low, by combing through newly digitized census data from the 19th century.

After the Great Depression in the 1930s, the party changed course, and lost its congressional majorities as Democrats' New Deal programs proved popular. Dwight D. Eisenhower's election was a rare break in between Democratic presidents and he presided over a period of increased economic prosperity after World War II. The 1980 election of Ronald Reagan realigned national politics, bringing together advocates of free-market economics, social conservatives, and Cold War foreign policy hawks under the Republican banner. Since 2009, the party has faced significant factionalism within its own ranks and has shifted towards right-wing populism.

In the 21st century, the Republican Party receives its strongest support from rural voters, evangelical Christians, and white male voters without college degrees. It supports deregulation while opposing labor unions and single-payer healthcare. On social issues, it advocates for restricting the legality of abortion, promoting gun ownership and easing gun restrictions, and opposing the transgender rights movement. In foreign policy, during the George W Bush presidency, the party was dominated by neoconservatives, supporting an aggressive foreign policy against China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, while the populist faction is isolationist and in some cases supporting non-interventionism.

The party transitioned again when Donald Trump, a media personality, served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump is the only U.S. president to have been impeached twice. He lost the 2020 presidential election to current president Joe Biden, but as of October 2024 has refused to concede. He falsely claimed widespread electoral fraud and attempted to overturn the results. On January 6, 2021, he urged his supporters to march to the U.S. Capitol, where many of the domestic terrorists attacked and were arrested. Approximately 452 defendants have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees, including around 123 individuals who have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer. Approximately 140 police officers were assaulted on Jan. 6 at the Capitol, including about 80 from the U.S. Capitol Police and about 60 from the Metropolitan Police Department. New evidence in the Federal Election Case Against Trump has been reopened.

Since leaving office, Trump has continued to dominate the Republican Party and is their nominee again in the 2024 presidential election. Ohio Senator J.D. Vance is his running mate, as opposed to his previous Vice President, Mike Pence, whose life was threatened by many of the Trump domestic terrorists for legally certifying Joe Biden as the next U.S. president on Jan. 6. A noose was set up above Pence's desk in the Capitol building. Vance also refuses to concede that Biden won election.

In May 2024, a jury in New York found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in an attempt to influence the 2016 election, making him the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a crime. He has been indicted in three other jurisdictions on 54 other felony counts related to his mishandling of classified documents and for the previous mentioned, efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In civil proceedings, Trump was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation in 2023, defamation in 2024, and financial fraud in 2024.

The Lincoln Project v. Trumpism

The Lincoln Project is an American political action committee (PAC) founded in December 2019 by moderate conservatives and former Republican Party members who oppose U.S. President Donald Trump and Trumpism. During the 2020 presidential election, it aimed to prevent the re-election of President Trump, now a convicted felon, and to defeat incumbent Republican candidates running for re-election who had been loyalists to Trump. In April 2020, the committee endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Since 2022, the committee has focused on preventing the re-election of Trump in the 2024 presidential election, endorsing Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir is an Icelandic politician who served as the fourth president of Iceland from 1980 to 1996. Vigdís is the first woman in the world to be democratically elected as president. Having served as president of Iceland for 16 years, she is the longest-serving elected female head of state in history. Vigdís ran for president to prove that women were able to lead political campaigns. During Vigdís' campaign, her anti-military position and her opposition to a United States presence in Iceland led to allegations that she was sympathetic to communism. She oversaw the Reykjavík Summit in October 1986 between American president Ronald Reagan and Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, which is credited with improving relations between the countries and bringing the Cold War closer to an end. In the 1988 presidential election, Vigdís became the first incumbent president of Iceland to face a challenger in the presidential election. The challenger fared poorly, and Vigdís won with 92.7% of the vote. She was again re-elected without opposition in 1992.

Philippine President, Cory Aquino

Corazon Aquino served as president of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992, the first woman to hold that office. She was also the first female president in Asia. As president, Aquino restored democracy by abolishing the legislature, declaring a new revolutionary government, and appointing a fifty-member commission to write a new constitution. She is best known for her role in leading the country away from the authoritarian regime of Ferdinand Marcos. U.S. President Ronald Reagan supported Marcos, and tried to keep him in office. But he could not overcome the will of the people of the Philippines, and ultimately gave the unpopular Marcos sanctuary in Los Angeles.

Indian President, Pratibha Patil

Pratibha Patil served as president of India from 2007 to 2012, the first woman to become the country's head of state. She was very low-profile during her political life, generating little opposition to her campaign for the presidency. Her time as president, however, was marked with controversy. Patil was reported to have spent more money and to have gone on more foreign trips with her family than any Indian president before her, spending about $30 million.

Argentine President, Isabel (Eva) de Perón

Isabel (Eva) de Perón served as vice president of Argentina from 1973 to 1974 and then succeeded her husband, dictator and Nazi sympathizer, Juan Perón, in the position of president after his death. She served as president from 1974 until 1976. She was Argentina's first woman head of state, and she holds the honor of being the first woman president in the world (though she was not elected to the position). She stood for women's rights and helping the poor, though she was not liked in the Perón government.

Khertek Anchimaa-Toka, Tuvan People's Revolutionary Party chairwoman

Khertek Anchimaa-Toka is regarded as the first ever elected woman head of state in the world, BUT not in multiparty, free and fair elections. She served as head of the parliament of the Tuvan People's Republic, called the Little Khural. Anchimaa studied in Moscow where she learned Stalinist ideology that earned her multiple leadership positions within the Tuvan People's Revolutionary Party when she returned to her home. Once elected chairwoman, Anchimaa led Tuva into World War II in 1941 on the side of the Allied powers, largely assisting the Soviet forces. She acted as head of state in Tuva until the country's inclusion into the Soviet Union by a vote in 1944, afterward becoming deputy chair of the Tuvan executive committee until 1961.

Rutherford Birchard Hayes

Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822 - January 17, 1893) was the 19th president of the United States, serving from 1877 to 1881. Hayes died of heart disease on January 17, 1893. A long funeral procession wound through the Ohio countryside, led by President-elect Grover Cleveland. Biographer Ari Hoogenboom has written that Hayes's greatest achievement was to restore popular faith in the presidency and reverse the deterioration of executive power that had established itself after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. His supporters have praised his commitment to civil-service reform; his critics have derided his leniency toward former Confederate states. In retirement, Hayes was troubled by the disparity between the rich and the poor, saying in an 1886 speech, "Free government cannot long endure if property is largely in a few hands and large masses of people are unable to earn homes, education, and a support in old age."

Archduke Franz Ferdinand: Austria-Hungary

In June 1914, Austria-Hungary's Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip at Sarajevo, today the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A month later, World War I began with Austria's declaration of war against Serbia. Princip's act gave Austria-Hungary the excuse that it had sought for opening hostilities against Serbia and thus precipitated World War I. In the former Yugoslavia, Princip was regarded as a national hero. The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I, was around 40 million. The total number of deaths includes 9.7 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians.

Indira Gandhi, Indian prime minister

Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated in 1984 at her residence in New Delhi. She was killed by her Sikh bodyguards. Gandhi's military operation was to remove Sikh militant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and other Sikh separatists from the Golden Temple of Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, Punjab, the holiest site of Sikhism..

Gandhi's assassination led to the 1984 Sikh massacres which were instigated by political figures from the Indian National Congress, who orchestrated pogroms against Sikh populations throughout India. Four days of mob violence resulted in the destruction of 40 historic Gurdwaras and other important Sikh holy sites. Official Indian government figures put the death toll at 3,350 while other sources have quoted that between 8,000 to 16,000 Sikhs were killed.

William McKinley, US President

Following his inauguration in 1901, United States President William McKinley left Washington for a tour of the western states, to be concluded with a speech at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. Cheering crowds throughout the journey attested to McKinley's immense popularity. More than 50,000 admirers attended his exposition speech. The following day, September 6, 1901, while McKinley was shaking hands with a crowd of well-wishers at the exposition, Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, fired two shots at the president's chest and abdomen. Rushed to a hospital in Buffalo, McKinley lingered for a week before dying in the early morning hours of September 14. He was the third American president to be assassinated, after Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and James A. Garfield in 1881. John F. Kennedy would follow in 1963.

After McKinley's death, newly inaugurated President Theodore Roosevelt declared, "When compared with the suppression of anarchy, every other question sinks into insignificance." On October 14, 1912, Theodore Roosevelt, now a former US President, survived an assassination attempt while campaigning for the presidency in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, under his new progressive Bull Moose Party. The bullet lodged in Roosevelt's chest after penetrating his steel eyeglass case and passing through a 50-page-thick copy of his speech titled "Progressive Cause Greater Than Any Individual," which he was carrying in his jacket pocket.

Roosevelt concluded that since he was not coughing blood, the bullet had not reached his lung; he declined suggestions to go to the hospital immediately. Instead, he delivered his scheduled speech. His opening comments to the gathered crowd were, "Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot - but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose."

Anwar Sadat, the 3rd President of Egypt

On  October 6, 1981, Anwar Sadat, the 3rd President of Egypt, was assassinated during the annual victory parade held in Cairo to celebrate Operation Badr, during which the Egyptian Army had crossed the Suez Canal and taken back the Sinai Peninsula from Israel at the beginning of the Yom Kippur War.  The assassination was undertaken by members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

Sadat's assassination likely stemmed from Islamists who opposed Sadat's peace initiative with Israel and the United States relating to the Camp David Accords, signed by Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in September 1978, following twelve days of secret negotiations at Camp David, the country retreat of the President of the United States in Maryland. The two framework agreements were signed at the White House, witnessed by President Jimmy Carter. Due to the agreement, Sadat and Begin received the shared 1978 Nobel Peace Prize.