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The Seventh Party System is a proposed era of American politics that began sometime around the 2010s or 2020s. Its periodization, alongside the Sixth Party System, is heavily debated due to the lack of an overwhelming change of hands in Congress since the end of the New Deal Party System.
Theories as to the beginning date of the Seventh Party system range from 2008 to 2020. As political scientists Mark D. Brewer and L. Sandy Maisel describe, "In the wake of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential victory, there is now strengthening debate as to whether [the United States is] entering a new party system as Trump fundamentally reshapes the Republican Party and the Democratic Party responds and evolves as well." [1]
Donald Trump's 2024 re-election has led to major speculation and discussions on a potential political realignment due to voter demographic shifts. [2] Trump's victories in all swing states, dominance with white working-class voters, and historic Republican gains with Hispanics, Blacks, and Asians have produced conversations on the emergence of the Seventh Party system in the American landscape. For example, in Florida’s Miami-Dade County, Trump significantly improved his margins among Hispanic voters in 2020 compared to 2016. [3] In Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, predominantly Latino counties such as Zapata County swung Republican for the first time in hundred years, [4] and exit polls nationwide indicated increases in Trump’s support among Hispanic voters. [5]
Proponents of the shift to the Seventh Party System note several recent shifts in demographics and voting patterns. Non-white voters, who historically have predominantly voted Democratic, have grown as a share of the population since the start of the Sixth Party System, and previously Republican-leaning secular college-educated white voters have moved to the left. At the same time, Republicans have made significant inroads with white voters without a college degree, while maintaining their favor with evangelical Christian voters. [6] [7]
As noted by Zachary Wolf of CNN, one of the most significant changes in contemporary politics is that education now appears to be a stronger dividing line than race. Since 2016, Democrats—despite losing considerable support among Asian, Black, and Latino voters—have gained ground with college-educated individuals, whereas Republicans have seen increased backing from those without college degrees. [8]
