Party Platforms

A party platform is a document laying out a party's principles and policy goals, made up of individual positions called planks. The Democrats adopted the first national platform in 1840, and both major parties have adopted one at every presidential convention since. A platform committee, made up of delegates chosen by the states, holds hearings and drafts the document, which the full convention then approves.

Platforms are not binding on candidates or officeholders, and presidential nominees often shape or ignore them. Still, political scientists have found that parties carry out a large share of their platform promises when they gain power, and platform fights have marked turning points, such as the 1948 Democratic civil rights plank that led some Southern delegates to walk out, and debates over abortion, trade, and foreign policy in later decades.

Platforms have varied in length from a few pages to tens of thousands of words. In 2020 Republicans did not adopt a new platform and instead declared support for the President's agenda, and the 2024 Republican platform was much shorter than earlier ones, reflecting the nominee's influence. Critics say platforms have become symbolic, while defenders say they remain the clearest statement of what each party's activists want.