Historic RNC FAQs

Republican National Convention Blog NYC 2004

3. How did the elephant become the symbol of the republican party? In 1874 the democratic party promoted the [false] belief that President Ulysses S. Grant would seek an unprecedented third term. Harper's Weekly cartoonist Thomas Nast's editorial cartoon depicted the democrats as a jackass trying to frighten the republicans who were depicted as an elephant. Both symbols stuck to their respective parties