Democratic Party (United States)

==== 1990s and Third Way centrism ====
[[File:Bill Clinton.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Bill Clinton]], the 42nd president (1993–2001)]]
With the ascendancy of the Republicans under Ronald Reagan, the Democrats searched for ways to respond yet were unable to succeed by running traditional candidates, such as former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee [[Walter Mondale]] and Massachusetts Governor [[Michael Dukakis]], who lost to Reagan and [[George H.W. Bush]] in the [[1984 United States presidential election|1984]] and [[1988 United States presidential election|1988 presidential elections]], respectively. Many Democrats attached their hopes to the future star of [[Gary Hart]], who had challenged Mondale in the 1984 primaries running on a theme of "New Ideas"; and in the subsequent 1988 primaries became the de facto front-runner and virtual "shoo-in" for the Democratic presidential nomination before a sex scandal ended his campaign. The party nevertheless began to seek out a younger generation of leaders, who like Hart had been inspired by the pragmatic idealism of John F. Kennedy.<ref>James T. Patterson, ''Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore'' (2011).</ref>

Arkansas governor [[Bill Clinton]] was one such figure, who was [[1992 United States presidential election|elected]] president in 1992 as the Democratic nominee. The [[Democratic Leadership Council]] was a campaign organization connected to Clinton that advocated a [[Political realignment|realignment]] and [[Triangulation (politics)|triangulation]] under the re-branded "[[New Democrats (United States)|New Democrat]]" label.<ref name="Geismer-2019">{{Cite web |last=Geismer |first=Lily |date=June 11, 2019 |title=Democrats and neoliberalism |url=https://www.vox.com/polyarchy/2019/6/11/18660240/democrats-neoliberalism |access-date=November 5, 2022 |website=Vox |language=en |quote=The version of neoliberalism embedded in these policies understood a distinct role for government to stimulate market-oriented solutions to address social ills such as unemployment and poverty. It thereby aimed not to eradicate the welfare state but rather to reformulate it. It extended the importance of poverty alleviation, which had long served as a benchmark of liberal policy, and had many similarities with the basic ideas of the war on poverty. |archive-date=November 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221105045200/https://www.vox.com/polyarchy/2019/6/11/18660240/democrats-neoliberalism |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Hale-1995">{{Cite journal |last=Hale |first=Jon F. |date=1995 |title=The Making of the New Democrats |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2152360 |journal=Political Science Quarterly |volume=110 |issue=2 |pages=207–232 |doi=10.2307/2152360 |jstor=2152360 |issn=0032-3195 |access-date=August 24, 2022 |archive-date=December 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212194604/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2152360 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Wills-1997">{{Cite news |last=Wills |first=Garry |date=January 19, 1997 |title=The Clinton Principle |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/19/magazine/the-clinton-principle.html |access-date=August 24, 2022 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=August 24, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220824024151/https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/19/magazine/the-clinton-principle.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The party adopted a synthesis of [[Neoliberalism|neoliberal]] [[economic policies]] with [[cultural liberalism]], with the voter base after Reagan having shifted considerably to the [[Right (politics)|right]].<ref name="Geismer-2019" /> In an effort to appeal both to liberals and to fiscal conservatives, Democrats began to advocate for a [[balanced budget]] and [[market economy]] tempered by [[Economic interventionism|government intervention]] ([[mixed economy]]), along with a continued emphasis on [[social justice]] and [[affirmative action]]. The economic policy adopted by the Democratic Party, including the former [[Presidency of Bill Clinton|Clinton administration]], has been referred to as "[[Third Way]]".

The Democrats lost control of Congress in the [[Republican Revolution|election of 1994]] to the Republican Party. Re-elected in 1996, Clinton was the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to be elected to two terms.<ref>Patterson. ''Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore'' (2011).</ref> Al Gore won the [[List of United States presidential elections in which the winner lost the popular vote|popular vote]], but after a controversial election dispute over a Florida recount settled by the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] (which [[Bush v. Gore|ruled 5–4 in favor of Bush]]) he lost the [[2000 United States Presidential Election]] to Republican opponent [[George W. Bush]] in the [[United States Electoral College|Electoral College]].<ref name="Cornell-BushvGore">{{cite web|url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-949.ZPC.html|title=George W. Bush, et al., Petitioners v. Albert Gore, Jr., et al., 531 U.S. 98 (2000)|access-date=June 26, 2010|author=Supreme Court of the US|date=December 12, 2000|publisher=[[Cornell Law School]]|archive-date=October 15, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071015060335/https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-949.ZPC.html|url-status=live}}</ref>