Beginning sometime in the late-20th century, social issues that previously had played little role in party division came to separate one party from the other. Republican and Democratic elites staked out opposing positions on a range of issues – including abortion, gay rights, the role of religion in the public sphere, and gun control – and party electorates today are sharply polarized over these issues. 

Using archival and manuscript collections located at the Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Matthew Carr will explore the Democratic and Republican political party platforms from 1960 to the present day, as well as the goals of LGBT activists in relation to the state parties. 

Carr is a doctoral candidate in political science at Columbia University and a 2017 James W. Scott Research Fellow. The Fellowships are awarded in honor of the late Dr. James Scott, a noted scholar of the Pacific Northwest region, and a founder and first director of CPNWS.