A Lincoln Dinner is an annual celebration and fundraising event of many state and county organizations of the
Republican Party in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...
. It is held annually in February or March depending on the county and often features a well known speaker from the Republican Party. Its counterpart for the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
* Botswana Democratic Party
* Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*De ...
, held the same time every year, is the
Jefferson-Jackson Dinner.
The event is traditionally named after
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation throu ...
as the first
elected president of the Republican Party who helped found and shape the party. However, the event has since been renamed in many locations. Most typically,
Ronald Reagan has been honored in addition or instead, resulting in events named Reagan Dinner, Reagan Day Dinner, Lincoln–Reagan Dinner, and so on. In particular, this trend is common in the
Southern United States
The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...
, where the Republican Party essentially absorbed what had previously been the Democratic Party's constituency in a process which began in the 1940s and then lasted through the 1990s (most of this process occurred during the 1960s, when White Southerners who had previously been Democrats began to abandon the party, especially in national elections, because of misgivings about the Democratic Party's increased support for
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensla ...
civil rights), resulting in the present situation that most of those White Southerners suspicious or disapproving of President Lincoln and sympathetic to the
Confederacy have switched from being Democrats to Republicans.
[Parties swap names on fundraising dinners to reflect modern alignment](_blank)
/ref> Commenting on this difference in 2005, Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the ...
Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Olin Graham (born July 9, 1955) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from South Carolina, a seat he has held since 2003. A member of the Republican Party, Graham chaired the Senate Committee ...
of South Carolina
)'' Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no)
, anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind"
, Former = Province of South Carolina
, seat = Columbia
, LargestCity = Charleston
, LargestMetro = ...
joked "We don't do Lincoln Day Dinners in South Carolina. It's nothing personal, but it takes a while to get over things," referencing the fact that Lincoln's election led to the secession of South Carolina and other states, which caused the American Civil War.Tell it to the slaves
/ref>
See also
* Jefferson–Jackson Dinner
* History of the Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP (meaning Grand Old Party), is one of the two major political parties in the United States. It is the second-oldest extant political party in the United States after its main political rival, t ...
References
External links
''Lincoln is Yielding to Reagan: Some counties change name of annual GOP event''
in the Houston Chronicle
The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...
{{Ronald Reagan, state=collapsed
Republican Party (United States) events