This list of political parties in the United States, both past and present, does not include independents.
Not all states allow the public to access voter registration data. Therefore, voter registration data should not be taken as the correct value and should be viewed as an underestimate.
The abbreviations given come from state ballots used in the most recent elections. [1] Not all political parties have abbreviations.
| Party | Ballot access | Presidential ballot access (2024) | Ideology | Year founded | Political position | Membership (2024) [2] | Presidential vote (2024) | Legislators (federal and state) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electoral | Popular [3] | Senators [4] | Representatives | State legislators [5] | ||||||||
| Republican Party (R) | 50 / 50 + DC | 50 / 50 + DC | Conservatism | 1854 | Right-wing | 37,314,494 | 312 / 538 | 77,234,090 (49.9%) | 53 / 100 | 220 / 435 | 4,031 / 7,383 | |
| Democratic Party (D) | 50 / 50 + DC | 50 / 50 + DC | Liberalism | 1828 | Center-left | 45,512,696 | 226 / 538 | 74,936,918 (48.5%) | 47 / 100 [A] | 215 / 435 | 3,271 / 7,383 | |
The following third parties have members in state legislatures affiliated with them.
| Party | Ballot access | Presidential ballot access (2024) | Ideology | Year founded | Political position | Membership (2024) [2] | Presidential vote (2024) | State legislators | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward Party | 4 / 51 [6] | No candidate | 2022 | Center | 1483 | No candidate | 2 / 7,383 [7] | ||
| Party | Ballot access | Ideology | Year founded | Political position | Membership (2024) [2] | Presidential vote (2024) | State legislators | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vermont Progressive Party | Vermont | Progressivism [8] Democratic socialism [8] | 1993 | Left-wing | Unknown | No candidate | 13 / 7,386 [9] | |
The following third parties have ballot access in at least one state and are not represented in a national office or state legislature. [10]
The following parties have been active in the past 4 years, but as of December 2021, did not have official ballot access in any state. [10]
The following parties are represented in the Puerto Rican Legislature.
| Party | Ideology | Year founded | Political position | President | Gubernatorial vote [62] | Senators [63] | Representatives [63] | Mayors [64] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Progressive Party Partido Nuevo Progresista | Puerto Rico statehood | 1967 [65] | Center to centre-right | Pedro Pierluisi | 427,016 (33.24%) | 10 / 27 | 21 / 51 | 36 / 78 | |
| Popular Democratic Party Partido Popular Democrático | Pro-Commonwealth Centrism | 1938 [66] | Center | Jesús Manuel Ortiz | 407,817 (31.75%) | 12 / 27 | 26 / 51 | 41 / 78 | |
| Citizens' Victory Movement Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana | Anti-imperialism Anti-neoliberalism Progressivism | 2019 | Left-wing | Ana Irma Rivera Lassén | 179,265 (13.95%) | 2 / 27 | 2 / 51 | 0 / 78 | |
| Puerto Rican Independence Party Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño | Puerto Rico independence Social democracy | 1946 [65] | Center-left | Rubén Berríos | 175,402 (13.58%) | 1 / 27 | 1 / 51 | 0 / 78 | |
| Project Dignity Proyecto Dignidad | Christian democracy Anti-corruption | 2019 | Center-right to right-wing | César Váquez Muñiz | 87,379 (6.80%) | 1 / 27 | 1 / 51 | 1 / 78 | |
| Party | Territory | Other names | Ideology | Mergers/Splits | Created | Disbanded | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Puerto Rican Nationalist Party | Puerto Rico | Puerto Rican nationalism [159] | 1922 | 1965 | |||
| Puerto Rican Socialist Party | Puerto Rico | Puerto Rican nationalism [160] | 1959 | 1993 | |||
| Covenant Party | Northern Mariana Islands | Populism | Merged into: Republican Party | 2001 | 2013 [161] | ||
| Working People's Party | Puerto Rico | Partido del Pueblo Trabajador | 2010 | 2016 | |||
| Popular Party (Guam) | Guam | Commercial Party | Merged into: Democratic Party | 1949 | 1964 | ||
| Territorial Party (Guam) | Guam | Merged into: Republican Party | 1956 | 1966 | |||
| Popular Party (Northern Mariana Islands) [162] [163] | Northern Mariana Islands | Merged into: Democratic Party | 1978 | ||||
| Territorial Party (Northern Mariana Islands) [163] | Northern Mariana Islands | Merged into: Republican Party | |||||
 | This section needs additional citations for verification .(March 2023) |
These organizations generally do not nominate candidates for election, but some of them have in the past; they otherwise function similarly to political parties.
These historical organizations did not officially nominate candidates for election but may have endorsed or supported campaigns; they otherwise functioned similarly to political parties.
Officially recognized parties in states are not guaranteed have ballot access, membership numbers of some parties with ballot access are not tracked, and vice versa. Not all of these parties are active, and not all states record voter registration by party. Boxes in gray mean that the specific party's registration is not reported.
| State/DC | As of | DEM | REP | LIB | GRN | CST | NLB | RFM | WFP | Others | Unaffiliated | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | April 3, 2024 [174] | 73,637 | 143,100 | 6,654 | – | 776 | – | 21,232 [d] | 346,110 | 591,509 | ||
| Arizona | April 2024 [175] | 1,192,205 | 1,434,982 | 31,164 | 2,796 | – | 27,539 | – | 1,369,634 | 4,058,320 | ||
| Arkansas | May 3, 2024 [176] | 86,231 | 131,647 | 700 | 104 | – | 1 | 1,543,863 | 1,762,546 | |||
| California | February 20, 2024 [177] | 10,285,108 | 5,388,479 | 240,618 | 102,659 | 271 | 42,039 | – | 1,195,512 [e] | 4,822,647 | 22,077,333 | |
| Colorado | May 1, 2024 [178] | 1,006,438 | 903,079 | 37,315 | 8,280 | 11,245 | 7,969 | – | 9,413 [f] | 1,850,286 | 3,834,112 | |
| Connecticut | May 16, 2024 [179] | 798,205 | 466,908 | 2,996 | 1,350 | – | 298 | 29,155 [g] | 919,524 | 2,218,436 | ||
| Delaware | May 1, 2024 [180] | 350,955 | 205,909 | 2,028 | 718 | 238 | 1,768 | 47 | 314 | 15,130 [h] | 197,529 | 774,636 |
| Washington, D.C. | August 2022 [181] | 379,489 | 26,567 | 2,290 | 3,855 | – | 82,556 | 494,757 | ||||
| Florida | February 20, 2024 [182] | 4,363,490 | 5,214,907 | 35,445 | 7,712 | 14,833 | 7,498 | – | 266,493 [i] | 3,539,382 | 13,449,760 | |
| Idaho | August 2022 [181] | 129,550 | 577,507 | 11,147 | – | 4,036 | – | 275,271 | 997,511 | |||
| Iowa | November 1, 2022 [183] | 597,120 | 681,871 | 12,100 | 2,966 | – | 555,988 | 1,850,045 | ||||
| Kansas | April 30, 2024 [184] | 503,972 | 874,132 | 24,151 | – | 39 | – | 563,482 | 1,965,776 | |||
| Kentucky | April 15, 2024 [185] | 1,511,242 | 1,615,451 | 16,391 | 2,403 | 1,376 | – | 209 | – | 190,063 [j] | 153,870 | 3,491,005 |
| Louisiana | November 7, 2023 [186] | 1,133,813 | 1,021,571 | 15,839 | 2,583 | 154 | 2,296 | 823 | – | 130,273 [k] | 665,154 | 2,979,345 |
| Maine | March 5, 2024 [187] | 341,925 | 281,904 | 5,236 | 36,724 | – | 9,677 | – | 275,560 | 951,026 | ||
| Maryland | March 2024 [188] | 2,208,095 | 994,529 | 18,836 | – | 234 | – | 54,299 | 909,180 | 4,185,173 | ||
| Massachusetts | May 3, 2024 [189] | 1,336,825 | 415,438 | – | 3,599 | 292 | – | 113 | 722 | 36,484 [l] | 3,132,433 | 4,925,906 |
| Nebraska | May 1, 2024 [190] | 330,657 | 605,466 | 18,036 | – | 6,684 [m] | 271,568 | 1,232,411 | ||||
| Nevada | May 1, 2024 [191] | 708,432 | 654,182 | 20,967 | – | 48,105 | 794,532 | 2,329,718 | ||||
| New Hampshire | March 29, 2024 [192] | 260,281 | 304,375 | – | 325,930 | 890,586 | ||||||
| New Jersey | June 1, 2024 [193] | 2,496,054 | 1,563,771 | 25,174 | 11,498 | 12,989 | – | 1,550 | – | 28,084 [n] | 2,422,574 | 6,561,694 |
| New Mexico | April 30, 2024 [194] | 577,692 | 415,653 | – | 27,443 [o] | 315,390 | 1,336,178 | |||||
| New York | February 27, 2024 [195] | 6,404,069 | 2,903,144 | – | 54,678 | 572,778 [p] | 3,173,678 | 13,108,347 | ||||
| North Carolina | May 1, 2024 [196] | 2,404,692 | 2,234,315 | 50,119 | 2,056 | 0 (New) | 7,752 | – | 2,743,054 | 7,441,988 | ||
| Oklahoma | April 30, 2024 [197] | 649,432 | 1,214,774 | 22,365 | – | 449,488 | 2,336,059 | |||||
| Oregon | August 2022 [181] | 1,014,041 | 730,765 | 20,865 | 7,820 | – | 8,364 | 141,185 [q] | 1,031,392 | 2,958,277 | ||
| Pennsylvania | April 29, 2024 [198] | 3,895,223 | 3,499,524 | 42,919 | 10,326 | – | 1,273,199 | 8,721,191 | ||||
| Rhode Island | May 2024 [199] | 281,725 | 103,268 | – | 338,629 | 723,622 | ||||||
| South Dakota | May 1, 2024 [200] | 144,243 | 303,722 | 2,923 | – | 22 | – | 945 | 149,935 | 601,790 | ||
| Utah | June 3, 2024 [201] | 275,698 | 991,894 | 26,411 | 74 | 8,497 | 2,353 | – | 88,837 [r] | 574,734 | 1,968,498 | |
| West Virginia | May 4, 2024 [202] | 358,056 | 477,549 | 10,800 | 2,542 | – | 39,412 | 292,963 | 1,181,322 | |||
| Wyoming | May 4, 2024 [203] | 23,787 | 178,387 | 1,057 | – | 343 | 13 | – | 15,875 | 219,462 | ||
The Republicans contended that the Federalists harboured aristocratic attitudes and that their policies placed too much power in the central government and tended to benefit the affluent at the expense of the common man.
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The Libertarian Party (LP) is a libertarian political party in the United States that promotes civil liberties, non-interventionism, laissez-faire capitalism, and limiting the size and scope of government. The world's first explicitly libertarian party, it was conceived in August 1971 at meetings in the home of David F. Nolan in Westminster, Colorado, and was officially formed on December 11, 1971, in Colorado Springs. The organizers of the party drew inspiration from the works and ideas of the prominent Austrian school economist Murray Rothbard. The founding of the party was prompted in part due to concerns about the Nixon administration's wage and price controls, the Vietnam War, conscription, and the introduction of fiat money.
The Constitution Party, named the U.S. Taxpayers' Party until 1999, is an ultra-conservative political party in the United States that promotes a religiously conservative interpretation of the principles and intents of the United States Constitution. The party platform is based on originalist interpretations of the Constitution and shaped by principles which it believes were set forth in the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution and the Bible.
The Peace and Freedom Party (PFP) is a socialist political party in the United States which operates mostly in California. It was formed in 1966 from anti–Vietnam War and pro–civil rights movements.
American electoral politics have been dominated by successive pairs of major political parties since shortly after the founding of the republic of the United States. Since the 1850s, the two largest political parties have been the Democratic Party and the Republican Party—which together have won every United States presidential election since 1852 and controlled the United States Congress since at least 1856. Despite keeping the same names, the two parties have evolved in terms of ideologies, positions, and support bases over their long lifespans, in response to social, cultural, and economic developments—the Democratic Party being the left-of-center party since the time of the New Deal, and the Republican Party now being the right-of-center party.
The American Independent Party (AIP) is an American political party that was established in 1967. The American Independent Party is best known for its nomination of Democratic then-former Governor George Wallace of Alabama, who carried five states in the 1968 presidential election running against Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey on a populist, hard-line anti-Communist, pro-"law and order" platform, appealing to working-class white voters. Wallace was best known for his staunch segregationist stances. In 1976, the party split into the modern American Independent Party and the American Party. From 1992 until 2008, the party was the California affiliate of the national Constitution Party. Its exit from the Constitution Party led to a leadership dispute during the 2008 election.
Third party, or minor party, is a term used in the United States' two-party system for political parties other than the Republican and Democratic parties. The winner take all system for presidential elections and the single-seat plurality voting system for Congressional elections have over time helped establish the two-party system. Third parties are most often encountered in presidential nominations and while third-party candidates rarely win elections, they can have an effect on them through vote splitting and other impacts.
In political science, voter fatigue is a cause of voter abstention which result from the electorates of representative democracies being asked to vote often, on too many issues or without easy access to relevant information. Voter fatigue can be a symptom of efforts that make voting more difficult that some describe as voter suppression, which changes the voting rules and environment in such a way that turnout decreases as the cost of voting increases.
Ballot access are rules and procedures regulating the right to candidacy, the conditions under which a candidate, political party, or ballot measure is entitled to appear on voters' ballots in elections in the United States.
Political party strength in U.S. states is the level of representation of the various political parties in the United States in each statewide elective office providing legislators to the state and to the U.S. Congress and electing the executives at the state and national level.
Elections in California are held to fill various local, state and federal seats. In California, regular elections are held every even year ; however, some seats have terms of office that are longer than two years, so not every seat is on the ballot in every election. Special elections may be held to fill vacancies at other points in time. Recall elections can also be held. Additionally, statewide initiatives, legislative referrals and referendums may be on the ballot.
All U.S. states and territories, except North Dakota, require voter registration by eligible citizens before they can vote in federal, state and local elections. In North Dakota, cities in the state may register voters for city elections, and in other cases voters must provide identification and proof of entitlement to vote at the polling place before being permitted to vote. Voter registration takes place at the county level in many states or at the municipal level in several states. Many states set cutoff dates for registration or to update details, ranging from two to four weeks before an election, while 25 states and Washington, D.C. have same-day voter registration, which enables eligible citizens to register or update their registration on the same day they cast their vote. In states that permit early voting, and have voter registration, the prospective voter must be registered before casting a vote.
The Independent Party of Oregon (IPO) is a centrist political party in the U.S. state of Oregon with more than 140,000 registrants since its inception in January 2007. The IPO is Oregon's third-largest political party and the first political party other than the Democratic Party and Republican Party to be recognized by the state of Oregon as a major political party.
This article contains lists of official and potential third-party and independent candidates associated with the 2016 United States presidential election.
Voter suppression in the United States consists of various legal and illegal efforts to prevent eligible citizens from exercising their right to vote. Such voter suppression efforts vary by state, local government, precinct, and election. Voter suppression has historically been used for racial, economic, gender, age and disability discrimination. After the American Civil War, all African-American men were granted voting rights, but poll taxes or language tests were used to limit and suppress the ability to register or cast a ballot. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 improved voting access. Since the beginning of voter suppression efforts, proponents of these laws have cited concerns over electoral integrity as a justification for various restrictions and requirements, while opponents argue that these constitute bad faith given the lack of voter fraud evidence in the United States.
The American Solidarity Party (ASP) is a Christian democratic political party in the United States. It was founded in 2011 and officially incorporated in 2016. The party has a Solidarity National Committee (SNC) and has numerous active state and local chapters. Peter Sonski was the party's nominee in the 2024 United States presidential election.
The Unity Party of America is a national political party in the United States founded on November 4, 2004 with the slogan "Not Right, Not Left, But Forward!" The party has 45 state affiliates, one of which, Colorado, has ballot access. Additionally, the Unity Party has reported that it has members in 46 states.
The Alliance Party is a centrist American political party formed in 2019. It is affiliated with the Alliance Party of South Carolina; the Independence Party of Minnesota, Independent Party of Connecticut, and the Reform Party of Florida. In 2020, Independence Party of New York affiliated with the Alliance Party, but disaffiliated in 2021.
Postal voting played an important role in the 2020 United States elections, with many voters reluctant to vote in person during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The election was won by Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate. The Republican candidate President Donald Trump made numerous false claims of widespread fraud arising from postal voting, despite nearly-universal agreement to the contrary, with overwhelming amounts of supporting evidence, by the mainstream media, fact-checkers, election officials, and the courts.
The Cost of Voting Index measures and ranks how difficult it is to vote in each state in the United States, focusing on voter registration and voting rules. The index also has rankings for every two years since 1996. The states ranked as being easier to vote also tend to have higher voter turnout.
