Both Democrats themselves and Merriam-Webster are in clear agreement that “Democratic” is the correct adjective to describe one of the two major U.S. political parties and matters related to it. Republicans, however, have argued since at least 1940 that Democrats (capital “D”) should not have a monopoly on all things “democratic” (small “d”), and have attempted to rebrand their opposition as the “Democrat Party.” Sen. Joseph McCarthy was known to use the term, and in August 1956, just months before that year’s presidential election, a Republican National Committee official stated that “Democrat Party” was in “common usage now, at least among Republicans.” In fact, the term fell out of favor for several decades, but it was revived by Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich in the early 1990s as part of a broader effort to shape political messaging within his party. Republican Pres. George W. Bush apologized for using the phrase “Democrat majority” in his 2007 State of the Union address, but the rise of the MAGA movement saw the widespread adoption of “Democrat Party” in right-wing media as well as the administration of Pres. Donald Trump. In a September 2018 speech, Trump even went so far as to claim—falsely—“When you see ‘Democratic Party,’ it’s wrong. There’s no name ‘Democratic Party.’”
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