In 1860 and 1948, two election years when racial issues predominated, there were two Democratic parties, each with its own nominee: John C.
Breckinridge and Stephen A.
Douglas in the 19th century, and Harry Truman and Strom Thurmond in the 20th. There arguably were two Democratic parties in the 1930s – one led by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and another opposed to FDR’s New Deal – and two different one…