US ELECTION 2024
Why Republicans are elephants and Democrats are donkeys: The curious story behind the symbols of each party
The animal mascots that represent the Democrats and Republicans were created over a century ago with color-coding scheme a modern invention.
Two animals take centre stage in the USA every four years as the Republican and Democratic political parties battle it out in the US Presidential elections with the 2024 edition set to be a closely contested affair as both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump loom to become the 47th US President with Trump holding the position from 2017-2021.
It’s Republican ‘elephants’ against Democratic ‘donkeys’.
Although no crystal clear reason has been given for the animal associations, it is thought that the Republican elephant was first used in an Illinois newspaper back in the 1860 presidential election campaign during the the time of Abraham Lincoln. By the end of the 19th century both the Republican elephant and the Democrat donkey were firmly associated with the parties thanks to their use in cartoons in large circulation newspapers.
The Democratic donkey came about in the 1870s after cartoonist Thomas Nast, popularized the stubborn beast as the symbol for Democrats as a whole. He is also credited with the association of Republicans with the elephant, previously used by the party itself, as well as the popular image of Santa Claus and Uncle Sam.
In recent times, both political parties have adapted color codes with the Republican party being the red party and Democrats blue, with red ironically a colour associated with the left globally. This was due to television colour coding to show voting tendencies on television maps during the 2000 elections.