Yellow Dog Democrats was a political term applied to voters in the Southern United States who voted solely for Democratic candidates, with the term commencing in the late 19th century. Due to Republican president Abraham Lincoln's leading the Union against the Confederacy, these voters would allegedly "vote for a yellow dog before they would vote for any Republican".[1][2] The term is now more generally applied to refer to any Democrat who will vote a straight Party ticket under any circumstances.
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The phrase "Yellow Dog Democrat" is thought to have achieved popularity during the 1928 Presidential race between the Democratic Al Smith and Republican candidate Herbert Hoover, when Senator J. Thomas Heflin (D-Alabama) crossed party lines to support Hoover.
The first known usage to date of “yaller dog” in relation to Democrats occurred in the 1900 Kentucky gubernatorial contest involving Kentucky Governor William Goebel, who killed a man, exploited the split Democratic Party in Kentucky, and was assassinated in 1900—he was shot in the chest the day before being sworn into office, and died two days after taking the oath of office.
Theodore Hallam was criticised at a Democratic meeting for first supporting Goebel, then campaigning against him. The critic pointed out that Hallam earlier had said "if the Democrats of Kentucky, in convention assembled, nominated a yaller dog for governor you would vote for him" and asked "why do you now repudiate the nominee of that convention, the Honorable William Goebel?" Hallam responded:
"I admit," he stated blandly, "that I said then what I now repeat, namely, that when the Democratic party of Kentucky, in convention assembled, sees fit in its wisdom to nominate a yaller dog for the governorship of this great state, I will support him — but lower than that ye shall not drag me!"[3]
There are indications that the term was in widespread and easily understandable use by 1923. In a letter written in Huntland, Tennessee by Mr. W. L. Moore of Kansas City, Missouri, on May 9, 1923, on the occasion of his 90th birthday and now a web-based genealogical document, Moore writes:
"I am a Democrat from inheritance, from prejudice and principle, if the principle suits me. But I have passed the yaller dog degree."
The term gained national prominence during the 1928 presidential campaign when many Southern voters disliked several items on Democratic candidate Al Smith's platform, as well as his Catholicism, but voted for him regardless.