Republicans & Democrats

Thomas Nast is widely credited with using and popularizing the Donkey and the Elephant as symbols of the Democratic and Republican political parties in the United States.
In fact, the donkey was first associated with the 1828 Presidential campaign of Andrew Jackson – a Democrat. The opposition called him a “jackass” for his populist views and rather than being insulted, he began using the image of a tough, strong-willed donkey on his campaign posters. In 1870, Thomas Nast used the symbol in cartoons published in the newspaper and the symbol stuck!
Thomas Nast was also the cartoonist that gave Republicans their elephant. In 1874, Nast published an article in Harper’s Weekly, about the possibility of 3rd term candidacy of President Ulysses S. Grant (“The Third-term Panic”). In a cartoon, he drew a donkey clothed in a lion’s skin – scaring off all the other animals at the zoo, except the elephant, fearlessly labeled as “the Republican vote.” Republicans continue to use that symbol to this day!