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Thursday, Apr. 6, 2023

Is Wisconsin the undisputed birthplace of the national Republican Party?

Tom Kertscher, Wisconsin Watch
no

At least two cities — in Wisconsin and Michigan — claim to be the birthplace of the national Republican Party.

The Little White Schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin, is "generally regarded as the traditional birthplace" of the party, according to the National Register of Historic Places. 

According to the museum located in the old schoolhouse, a meeting there in March 1854, and another in Jackson, Michigan, in July 1854, led to the party's formation. The meetings were held in protest of plans to expand slavery westward.

Michigan’s Jackson County Republican Party calls Jackson the GOP birthplace.

The Michigan news website MLive reported in 2011 that the national GOP removed from its website references to Ripon and Jackson as playing roles in the party's formation.

The website had said the party’s first informal meeting was in Ripon and first official meeting was in Jackson, MLive reported.

See a full discussion of this at Wisconsin Watch

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