North Carolina Democratic Party

The North Carolina Democratic Party (NCDP) is the North Carolina affiliate of the Democratic Party. It is headquartered in the historic Goodwin House, located in Raleigh. The party controls the governorship and three other statewide elected offices, as well as seven of the state's 14 U.S. House seats. Since the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act, North Carolina Democrats have advocated for Medicaid expansion (a policy that would provide a federally subsidized health insurance plan to approximately 500,000 North Carolinians) as well as for increasing the state's minimum wage. History The Second Party System emerged from a divide in the Democratic-Republican Party in 1828. They split off into two groups, the Democrats, led by Andrew Jackson, and the Whigs. In North Carolina, people from the west and northeast supported the Whigs mainly for their policies on education and internal improvements. Meanwhile, eastern North Carolina was dominated by wealthy planters who tended to oppose activist government. During the Civil War, Whigs and Unionist Democrats formed the Conservative Party and elected Zebulon Vance as governor on a platform of supporting the Confederate war effort while defending states' rights and civil liberties against the Confederate government in Richmond. Postwar, the Conservative Party reorganized to oppose the reconstruction policies enacted by the U.S. Congress following the Civil War. By 1870, the two main parties were the Conservatives (who changed their name to "Democratic-Conservatives" and then to Democrats by 1876) and the Republicans.