Fusionism in North Carolina

From 1894 to 1900 the North Carolina Republican Party and the Populist Party collaborated via electoral fusion to compete against the North Carolina Democratic Party. This political coalition was dubbed Fusionism.

Background

After years of growing debt and diminished returns on crops, farmers in North Carolina founded their own chapter of the Farmers' Alliance in 1887. The body lobbied for increased regulation of railroads, uniform interest rates, and additional reforms aimed at ameliorating the agricultural economy. Some leading North Carolina Republicans, such as Daniel L. Russell and John James Mott, endorsed Alliance proposals to create a commission to oversee the railroads, but such efforts had been rejected by Democratic leaders. In an 1889 article in the Raleigh ''Signal'', an anonymous correspondent suggested that Republican and Alliance members join together to break the Democrats' dominance of state institutions.

However, at first, the Farmers' Alliance, under the leadership of National Farmers' Alliance presidents Leonidas L. Polk and Marion Butler, concentrated on working within the dominant Democratic Party and ensuring the nomination and election of "Alliance Democrats"; by one estimate, over 110 of 170 representatives of the 1891 North Carolina House were members.

By 1892, Polk and other Alliance members had established their own chapter of the Populist Party. At first Marion Butler and many other Alliance leaders refused to join the Populists, advocating continued cooperation with the North Carolina Democratic Party. After former Alliance president Elias Carr won the nomination of the party for governor over incumbent Bourbon Democrat Thomas Michael Holt, Butler proposed electoral fusion between the state Populists and Democrats, while Polk demurred. However, the nomination of Bourbon Democrat Grover Cleveland for US President in June of 1892, combined with a North Carolina Democratic Party edict that no party member could "split the ticket" and vote Democratic in state and local elections but for Populist James B. Weaver for President, caused Butler and many other Alliance Democrats to bolt the party and join the Populists.

In response, many Republicans urged cooperation with Populists during the 1892 statewide elections in North Carolina. Party leaders eventually rejected this as a strategy, but a handful of Republicans and Populists agreed jointly to support municipal candidates. While Governor Carr and the North Carolina Democrats won the election, the combined vote total of the Populists and Republicans exceeded that of the Democrats, suggesting that Populist-Republican fusion might have a chance of success. In 1893 the Democrat-dominated General Assembly placed restrictions on the Farmers' Alliance's charter, infuriating its members and increasing their willingness to cooperate with Republicans.

1894 election and rise to prominence

In 1894 Republican and Populist leaders in North Carolina agreed to support one another. Methods differed, but sometimes the two parties chose candidates jointly and other times they agreed to support the candidate nominated by one of the parties. Their Democratic opponents dubbed this process "Fusionism".

Demise

In 1900 the Democratic Party soundly defeated the Republicans and Populists in the statewide elections, leading to the dissolution of the Populist Party in the state and greatly weakening the Republican Party.

See also

* Wilmington insurrection of 1898

References

Works cited

* {{cite book , last = Crow, first = Jeffrey J., author2-link=Robert Franklin Durden, last2 = Durden, first2 = Robert F., title = Maverick Republican in the Old North State : A Political Biography of Daniel L. Russell, publisher = Louisiana State University Press, date = 1977, location = Baton Rouge, isbn = 9780807102916

Political party alliances in the United States
African-American people in North Carolina politics
Political history of North Carolina