The Republican Party, often called the GOP (for Grand Old Party), is one of the two major political parties in the United States. In the modern political era, the GOP is the more conservative of the two major parties.

The current President of the United States, George W. Bush, is a member of the party and its de facto leader. The Republican Party currently has majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives, as well as in governorships and the majority of state legislatures.

Major policies that the party has supported recently include across the board tax cuts, a partial privatization of Social Security, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The party tends to hold traditional (and socially conservative) stances on such issues as gun ownership rights, abortion and same-sex marriage.

The official symbol of the Republican Party is the elephant. Although the elephant had occasionally been associated with the party earlier, a political cartoon by Thomas Nast, published in Harper's Weekly on November 7, 1874, is considered the first important use of the symbol. In the early 20th century, the traditional symbol of the Republican Party in Midwestern states such as Indiana and Ohio was the eagle, as opposed to the Democratic rooster. This symbol still appears on Indiana ballots.