Historically, political realignment has occurred when groups of voters change their affiliation to a new political party or candidate, especially around presidential and midterm elections.
Yet the period between 1852 and 1860 is crucial here, for it saw the last time a major political party collapsed (the Whig Party in 1854) and the dissolution of another political party (the Democratic Party in 1860).
The 1924 Democratic Party famously went through 103 ballots before agreeing on a compromise candidate, John W. Davis of West Virginia.
Of course, party realignment is a tricky thing since we only come to know that it has happened in hindsight.
A failure to reach a majority consensus signals the doom of an American political party.
Persons:
Thomas Balcerski, James Buchanan, William Rufus King ”, Hakeem Jeffries, Patrick McHenry, let’s, V.O, Abraham Lincoln’s, Franklin D, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Lincoln, William Henry Seward, William L, Yancey, Stephen Douglas of, John C, Breckinridge, Theodore Roosevelt, Moose, Republican William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, John W, Davis of, Hubert H, Humphrey, Republican Richard Nixon, “
Organizations:
Eastern Connecticut State University, Oxford University Press, CNN, Republican Party, Democratic Party, Whig Party, Whigs, Republican Party . Southern Whigs, American Party, Democrats, Whig, Union, Democratic, Southern, Lincoln, splintering, Republican, GOP
Locations:
United States, Northern, Southern, Kansas, Nebraska, Charleston , South Carolina, Alabama, Baltimore, Stephen Douglas of Illinois, Kentucky, Davis of West Virginia, Vietnam, American