Who started the democratic party?
Executive summary
The Democratic Party emerged over decades rather than being the product of a single founder: its roots trace back to the Democratic-Republican movement led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the 1790s, while the modern Democratic Party coalesced around Andrew Jackson and the organizational work of Martin Van Buren in the 1820s—formally taking shape with Jackson’s 1828 victory [1] [2] [3] [4]. Historical interpretations differ about whether to credit Jefferson and Madison for intellectual origins or Jackson and Van Buren for creating the party’s enduring mass organization and label [5] [6].
1. The earlier origin story: Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans
The earliest political lineage commonly cited links the Democrats to the Democratic-Republican Party founded in the early 1790s by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison as an Anti-Federalist alternative to the Federalists, advocating decentralized government and republicanism [1] [2]. Sources that emphasize continuity point out that the Jeffersonian Republicans embodied the ideological DNA—agrarianism, suspicion of centralized banking, and states’ rights—that later Democratic coalitions would invoke [1] [6]. Proponents of this view sometimes call Jefferson a founder of a Democratic tradition rather than the institutional Democratic Party that emerged later [2].
2. The decisive organizational shift: Jackson, Van Buren, and 1828
A competing and widely accepted account credits Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren with turning Jeffersonian factions into a disciplined, voter-centered party in the 1820s, reacting to the fractured 1824 election and organizing a new national coalition that won the presidency in 1828 [4] [3] [7]. Historians note that Jackson’s personal popularity and Van Buren’s party-building—especially the development of local, state, and national committees and conventions—created the practical apparatus of the Democratic Party as a mass political organization [3] [4]. Contemporary encyclopedias and histories therefore often mark 1828 as the founding date of the Democratic Party as an institution centered on Jacksonian democracy [8] [7].
3. How historians reconcile the two stories
Most scholarly narratives do not treat the question as either/or but as evolutionary: the Democratic-Republicans supplied ideological origins and early leaders like Jefferson and Madison, while Jackson and Van Buren supplied the organizational innovations and popular appeal that crystallized a new party identity in the 1820s [1] [3]. Secondary sources—ranging from academic histories to reference sites—explicitly trace a line from Jeffersonian principles through intra-party splits after 1824 to the emergence of the Democratic Party under Jacksonian leadership [6] [5]. This blended interpretation explains why sources will alternately highlight Jefferson and Madison as “founders” of a partisan lineage and Jackson/Van Buren as founders of the modern Democratic Party structure [2] [3].
4. What “started” means matters: ideology vs. institution
If the question asks who started the ideological movement that became the Democratic Party, Jefferson and Madison are defensible answers because they established the Democratic-Republican creed in the 1790s [1] [2]. If the question instead asks who started the institutional party recognized today—the mass-organized Democratic Party with a national committee and electoral machinery—the decisive founders are Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren, whose post-1824 coalition and organizational innovations produced the party that began winning presidential elections in 1828 [3] [4] [7]. Both claims are supported by mainstream historical sources; neither fully captures the entire, multi-decade process [6] [5].
5. Caveats, historiography, and modern usage
Modern reference works and historians routinely date the Democratic Party to 1828 while acknowledging Jeffersonian antecedents, but partisan histories may emphasize one origin for rhetorical effect—either claiming descent from the Founding Fathers or embracing the populist legacy of Jackson [8] [9] [3]. The record in the sources used here supports both strands: an 18th-century ideological origin and a 19th-century organizational founding—so definitive attribution to a single individual oversimplifies a layered political development [1] [3].