major party

noun

Definition of major party

: a political party having electoral strength sufficient to permit it to win control of a government usually with comparative regularity and when defeated to constitute the principal opposition to the party in power

Examples of major party in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Who is the Democrat? Stacey Abrams, minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, has already claimed a victory by becoming the first black female gubernatorial candidate from a major party in the United States. — Stavros Agorakis, Vox, "The 13 most important governor elections in 2018, briefly explained," 15 Oct. 2018 Photo: Charles Krupa/Associated Press In Vermont’s primary, former utility executive Christine Hallquist beat out three other gubernatorial candidates to become the nation’s first transgender gubernatorial nominee for a major party. — Kris Maher, WSJ, "Political Outsiders Progress in State Races," 15 Aug. 2018 Years before making history on Tuesday night by becoming the first Black woman to win a major party’s nomination for governor, Abrams had a career writing romance novels as her side hustle while attending Yale Law School. — Nicola Pardy, refinery29.com, "Stacey Abrams’ Alter Ego Might Be The Key To Winning Georgia’s Election," 25 May 2018 By all measures, the former Georgia House minority leader’s run for the Georgia governorship as the first African American female nominee by a major party was historic. — Brittney Cooper, Marie Claire, "Stacey Abrams Is Just Getting Started," 11 Mar. 2019 While Abrams’s campaign did not result in an outright victory on Election Day, her candidacy is historic, marking the first time that a black woman has been a major party’s gubernatorial nominee. — P.r. Lockhart, Vox, "Black women turned electoral power into political power in 2018," 9 Nov. 2018 However, none of the major parties supported such a solution, forcing Mr. Mattarella to search for another way out of the impasse. — Giovanni Legorano, WSJ, "Italy’s President Searches for Solution to Political Impasse," 30 May 2018 Two years after Clinton’s defeat, more women than ever before won major party primaries for governor, the Senate and the House this year. — Ken Thomas, The Seattle Times, "WHAT TO WATCH: After turbulent campaign, it’s up to voters," 7 Nov. 2018 This will be the second major party event Booker is poised to attend. — Paulina Dedaj, Fox News, "Booker fuels 2020 talk with South Carolina Democratic fundraiser," 13 Sep. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'major party.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

12 Apr 2019

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The first known use of major party was in 1950

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