The Democratic and Republican Parties are often treated as monoliths that think almost if not entirely the same way on all issues. While Democrats are becoming more uniformly liberal and Republicans are becoming more uniformly conservative, you can find some noticeable differences within the parties in different parts of the country based on political necessity, upbringing and environment, and factional struggles to lead county and state-level affiliates of the two main parties. Today’s episode discusses why we see these variations, how we measure differences within the parties, and specific examples of state-level parties that differ from their counterparts and the national parties at large.

Today is our first iteration of Random Fact of the Day: Did you know that not every state has counties? Check out the episode for more details on this fact, including differences in county governments.

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(0:00) Intro and today’s topic

(3:07) Why There is Variation Within the Democratic/Republican Parties

(10:41) How to Examine Differences Within the Parties

(23:26) An Overview of Intraparty Variation Over Time

(32:36) Specific Examples of State-Level Democratic and Republican Parties

(39:16) Closing and Today’s Random Political Fact of the Day