No Party Given

Calling your party "the opposition" seems like it'd make it difficult to get votes.

"He's of a non-specific party. Like almost every Prime Minister for the past 20 years."

— Stephen Fry, QI, on his role as the Prime Minister in 24

When a fictional work features a politician, or two characters running for an elected position, often the parties they represent are not identified.

If, for example, a movie features a President Evil, identifying their party might make a political statement that the writer does not intend to make. A President who is a heroic Action Politician? Same problem. It may simply be a lack of commitment on the writer's part — the character might espouse views from both sides. In any case, it avoids unnecessarily offending a large portion of the audience.

It sometimes stretches credibility, but sometimes not. Real-life politicians in the US often say "Smith for Congress" without mentioning party affiliation, but in Britain and Canada, campaigns often give the party name, e.g., "Vote Labour/Conservative/Liberal/NDP — vote John Smith" (okay, in that case, you're voting Labour or NDP). Some ballot papers don't name the candidates' parties, as in Britain until 1968, and some US elections today. Others only name the party without naming candidates, especially those for closed-list proportional representation elections, where the party is what you vote for instead of individual candidates. Populist regimes usually put the emphasis on their political leader rather than the party, and when he's not running personally they use Advertising by Association on their candidates. Conversely, candidates for judicial posts will generally have no party given because ethically judges are supposed to be politically neutral.

A different version of this trope is to have the character be an independent, even though non-affiliation in most Western democracies (especially those with proportional representation, where seats in Parliament are doled out by how many votes a political party has gotten) is fairly rare - even the United States, which does not hand out Congressional seats by party, at the moment only has two Senators who are officially independents (Bernie Sanders and Angus King), both of whom caucus with the Democratic Party (and both from New England, funnily enough), and no independent members of the House of Representatives (ever since Justin Amash (MI-03), an ex-Republican who broke with the party for various reasons decided to join the Libertarians) or independent governors. Although county and lower levels of government tend to avoid this.

Compare: Fictional Political Party, Parts Unknown. May be considered an application of the Ban on Politics.

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Examples

Anime & Manga

• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Smokey Brown from Battle Tendency is mentioned in the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue to have become the first black mayor of his hometown in Georgia (and, in the anime, later the mayor of New York by the late 1980s). It is never mentioned which party he belongs to, but considering he was a poor black kid growing up in the 1930s...
  • In Steel Ball Run, Funny Valentine is the 23rd president of the United States, though it is never mentioned which party he belongs to. In Real Life, the 23rd president was Benjamin Harrison, who was a Republican. A popular fan theory is that since Valentine was progressive enough to hire a black man to be his personal bodyguard in 1890, he was likely a Republican (meaning that by modern standards, he would be a Democrat).

Comic Books

• Senator Robert Kelly in the X-Men comics. He is canonically from New York, which usually elects Democrats, but his party allegiance is not explicitly stated. The issue is skirted and it falls on the writer of the story to make a hinted alignment. However, seeing as how he is opposed to issues not present in our real world as his only defining political characteristic, it mostly boils down to rhetoric a party would use to justify the reason for the registration.
• Transmetropolitan identifies the political parties of the future USA as merely "Ruling" or "Opposition". There is one slip-up, however, when the Smiler, a California senator, is listed as "D-Cal". Because Callahan is compared to Robert Kennedy at one point, and his opponent is an obvious Richard Nixon expy, the implications are clear that Callahan is a Democrat. While the voting map shows Callahan states as red, the comic was written just a few years before blue become solidified as the color of Democrats.
• Ex Machina has Mitchell Hundred running as Independent candidate for Mayor of New York City. His social policies lean left and his economic policies lean right, making him something of a libertarian. In the final issue, he joins John McCain's Republican ticket as Vice-President.
• In one Captain America storyline, a news report announces that a senator (who is secretly working for the Red Skull) has left his party to become an independent presidential candidate, without actually saying what his party was.^note Though given his right-wing populist rhetoric, it's easy to make an educated guess.
• Superman: When Lex Luthor ran for (and won) the presidency, he did it as a third-party candidate, representing "The Tomorrow Party". Even then, DC Comics was very, very careful to not say exactly what his political leanings were to one side or the other.
• DC Comics was careful in the Armageddon 2001 annuals (which came out in 1991) to not say which party President Clark Kent represented. (He beat a Supreme Court challenge over "native born American" because his then-current origin story had him born from a gestation chamber on American soil.)
• One of the main villains in Crimson is a US senator and secretly a powerful vampire lord running for President, yet he runs as an independent with his political leanings not being mentioned. In his own words, being a vampire transcends any notion of human identity politics, so it's inapplicable to classify him as either conservative or progressive.

Fan Works

• Deliberately invoked in Ultimate Sleepwalker: The New Dreams, which specifically notes that Senator Robert Kelly got elected as an Independent candidate, bankrolled by the anti-mutant movement. J. Jonah Jameson's crusading journalism has given his Democratic and Republican opponents plenty of ammunition in their quest to regain Kelly's Senate seat.

Films — Live-Action

• The president in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension can't decide whether he's hawkish or diplomatic. The only pertinent executive decision is in how to resolve the alien crisis and prevent World War III, which would presumably be in any American party's interest. If only a Marty Stu could solve everything and save the world in 30 minutes!
• Advise & Consent makes constant references to the President's party and the opposition, the Majority Leader and the Minority Leader, and even mentions Republicans and Democrats when explaining seating in the Senate, but doesn't say who belongs to which party.
• From the same era, Gore Vidal's The Best Man, though context clues make it pretty clear the protagonists are Democrats.
• In Air Force One, we never learn which party President James Marshall is affiliated with.
• Always Crashing in the Same Car never names the party, although it's obviously meant to be New Labour.
• Black Sheep (1996) identified the party of neither Al Donnelly nor the incumbent governor Evelyn Tracy. Likewise, speeches given by both candidates were so vague and filled with meaningless phrases that it was impossible to even guess at either one's party affiliation.
• In Bob Roberts, the title character is frequently identified as conservative, but rarely as an actual Republican.
• Citizen Kane has a justified example when Kane runs for Governor. Boss Jim Gettys likely controls both parties in New York (a scene in the script, but cut from the finished film says as much), so Kane is probably running as an independent.
• Dave, where Kevin Kline plays both a U.S. President and an impersonator of the same, never mentions a political party. Only a cameo by known Republican Ben Stein (although not even his party is actually mentioned) as himself can allow parties to be indirectly determined.
• The Dish has the Prime Minister mention a party, but he doesn't identify which one. The real PM of the time was John Gorton of the Liberal Party.
• Don't Look Up: President Orlean. Director Adam McKay intentionally kept it vague, saying "I don't think either party has much to be proud about over the last 40 years". While much of the film has her acting like a Donald Trump stand-in, there are a few clues that indicate she might be a Democrat, such as a photo of her hugging Bill Clinton in the Oval Office.
• In Enemy of the State, the Congressman whose murder kicks off the plot is at one point explicitly said to be a Republican, although so is the Congressman who sponsored the surveillance expansion legislation that he was killed for opposing.
• In Escape from New York, the President's political party is never mentioned or indicated. There's no mention of his political positions: he's just an uncaring self-absorbed bastard. Though given the film takes place after a nuclear war and he has an English accent... the question may well be academic in this case. The President in the sequel, Escape from L.A., however, is very obviously a Republican Strawman Political, as an extreme example of the Religious Right. For example, he orders that all atheists be sent to Los Angeles, as well as all prostitutes, and any and all criminals; sex outside of marriage is outright illegal; alcohol is also illegal (teetotalism being a common position in certain Protestant denominations).
• In Evan Almighty the title character, a newly-elected Congressman, is shown driving his new Hummer and watching MSNBC within the first few minutes of the film... ^note a stereotypically Republican car and a network whose opinion shows tend to be Democratic-leaning.
• In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the political party of the Shaw family is never mentioned even though Henry Jr. is a senator. Assuming the politics of the Wizarding World is similar to ours, they can be inferred to be Democrats. Henry Sr. is analogous to William Randolph Hearst, who was a Democrat in 1926, when the movie is set.^note  He eventually turned against the Democrats during the Roosevelt administration Democrats also carried the ticket in New York State in that year's midterms, including a senate seat.
• Gabriel Over the White House: Hammond's party is never named in the film. It's called "the Party" or "my Party".
• Head of State goes out of its way not to say which side has nominated Rock's character for the presidency, partly by giving his opponents traits that would work for either party. Among other things, it's mentioned his opponent has been Vice President for 8 years which, since the movie came out in 2004, clears up nothing.
  • Rock's former position of being a DC Alderman would strongly imply that he's a Democrat, or an independent, since the Democrats aren't allowed by law to control every seat on DC Council. At the same time, however, his opponent being a cousin to Sharon Stone, who is an active Democrat, is repeatedly mentioned as a positive trait, which would imply he's a Democrat. His repeated emphasis on having been Vice President for 8 years suggests that he's a send-up of Al Gore, but the timing of the film's release (i.e. in the middle of George W. Bush's first term) muddles that quite a bit.
  • California, a state with a heavy Democratic lean, is considered competitive for both Lewis and Mays, to the point where it's too close to call until the very last minute. Members of both parties are known to do well in state-level elections, and the race is said to mostly hinge upon whose supporters turn out the most.
  • There's a Running Gag in which a member of Mays' party repeatedly says that he's supporting "big buisness." This is normally associated with Republicans in popular media, but it would really depend more upon what industry he's in. The same is true of Lewis, who is said to have "connections with the energy industry."
• President Whitmore in Independence Day has no identified political party. We know he's a Gulf War fighter ace, and a brief reference to a failed "crime bill" is made, but otherwise all we know is that he wants to kick some alien ass.
  • The novelization states that he beat a Republican in the election, which makes it likely than not that he's a Democrat. Then again, in the movie itself, Jasmine mentions that she voted for Whitmore's opponent; Jasmine is an African-American woman from Los Angeles, which puts her in various Democratic-leaning demographics, which could indicate Whitmore's being a Republican (either that, or Jasmine being a Republican).
• The unnamed and almost unseen President in In the Line of Fire doesn't identify with a political party. Signs at his campaign rallies just say "Re-Elect The President".
• In Iron Man 2 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the party of Senator Stern (PA) is never given. Good thing, too, since he is affiliated with HYDRA. Averted with Senator Boynton and Senator Ward in The Avengers and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., respectively. The two of them are briefly revealed to be a Democrat and a Republican, again respectively.
• David the Prime Minister from Love Actually. It's never explicitly stated which party he represents but it is strongly implied that he's a Conservative. He apparently defeated Tony Blair in a General Election and has a large portrait of Margaret Thatcher in his office.
• In the 2004 film adaptation of The Manchurian Candidate, the political party involved is never mentioned by name, even during a scene that revolves around a strategy session involving the electoral map. However, it can sort of be inferred from the states that they are mentioned as "traditional weak" and "traditional strong" in that Senator Shaw and her son are Democrats. This contrasts with the original novel and 1962 adaptation, which make them a family of Republicans. However, even this has an alternate universe spin on it: the political parties have alternate names in the 2004 version if you pay close enough attention. There's one scene in which Senator Shaw's opponent is referred to as "the Conservative nominee", indicating that in the universe of the 2004 movie, the Republicans are instead referred to as the Conservative Party, and implying that the Democrats — and thus the Shaws — are instead referred to as the Liberal Party. The writer's choice to change the party names is definitely a somewhat unusual example.
• The party of Jimmy Stewart's character, Senator Ransom Stoddard in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance is never given.
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington similarly never identifies the party of Jimmy Stewart's character, nor any of the other senators, governors, or party bosses. The most we get is a glimpse of "the majority leaders" and "the minority leaders." Even the state the senators hail from is left unspecified; characters simply refer to "his state" or "that state."
• The Disney Channel movie My Date with the President's Daughter.
• In O Brother, Where Art Thou? Pappy O’Daniel and Homer Stokes are the two principal candidates in the gubernatorial election. Neither is ever described as Democrat or Republican. Stokes’ poster lists him as ‘Reform Party’.
• The party of the doomed minority government in the Canadian short film PMO is not specified; we know only that they are not the New Democratic Party, as an overzealous junior minister murders an NDP opponent of the government's strip mining policy.
• In the movie adaptation of State of Play, Ben Affleck's character is a congressman whose political party is not mentioned, although he has a painting of Dwight D. Eisenhower in his office. That probably isn't as big a hint as you might think, as Affleck's character is a former military man (Eisenhower is revered by military members regardless of party, and was actually a moderate himself) who went into politics. And he's from Pennsylvania, which is typically a swing state.
• Taxi Driver — Senator Palantine, although his comments suggest that he is a Democrat.
• Wag the Dog does everything it can to make sure the unseen president is as blank a slate as possible. His campaign ads promote generic "American Values" and feature equal use of red and blue, the colors of the two major American political parties.
• Senator Robert Kelly in the X-Men film series. His party is not explicitly stated, and there is evidence on both sides. In the first film, he implies that he is for gun control (a Democratic position) for the same reasons he is pro-mutant registration. ("There is no difference!" he says, "All I see is weapons in our schools!") A deleted scene in the second film implies, by a newspaper clip about a speech that he gives and the Democrats had a response to his speech, that he is a Republican. However, seeing as how he is opposed to issues not present in our real world as his only defining political characteristic, it mostly boils down to rhetoric a party would use to justify the reason for the registration.
  • In the "Making Of" featurette of the first movie, called "Mutant Watch", he is given the suffix R-KS, which means that he is a Republican from Kansas. However, "Mutant Watch" had a, um, surprise ending that was most definitely NOT canon, so it's questionable how much any other detail can be relied on.

Literature

• In Dan Brown's Deception Point, the almost saintly President Herney's party is never mentioned. However his opponent, Senator Sexton is explicitly mentioned to be a Republican.
• John Grisham doesn't usually identify the party affiliations of his politician characters. However, if you know anything about U.S. politics, it's not hard to figure it out.
• Greg Stillson, from Stephen King's The Dead Zone, is running for the House (and, in the future, for president). It is explicitly stated that Stillson runs as an independent in his first campaign, defeating a well-known Republican congressman in a hard-red area of New Hampshire. Stillson later founds the America Now party, which runs on a conservative platform.
• In Harry Potter, the Muggle Prime Minister who is the POV character of one of the chapters and American President whose phone call he's awaiting are never given parties. He also doesn't mention any specific policies so it's not even implied if he's a Labour or Tory PM. Given the time frame of the books, the PM and POTUS should be John Major and Bill Clinton, respectively, but the PM's (implied) direct predecessor is referred to as male, when in real life it would have been Margaret Thatcher.
• In Out of the Dark, it isn't specified what party the Premier of Saskatchewan belongs to, even though the Leader of the Opposition is specifically identified as belonging to the New Democratic Party.
• Presidential: Averted almost immediately, as Connie Calvin is a Democrat explicitly (though her policies would give that away very quickly). Similarly, supporting characters are also shown to be Democrats or Republicans explicitly.
• In President's Vampire Zach and President Curtis belong to the same party, but which one is never given, and based on their actions, it's rather hard to pinpoint it.
• In Meg Cabot's novel All-American Girl, about a teenager who takes a bullet for the president, survives, and ends up falling for his son, the party of the president is never mentioned... though it's implied a few times, based on the president's stances, that he's a Republican.
• Very deliberately in S Wise Bauer's THE REVOLT. The novel's president was elected after an independent campaign, and his advisers worry that anything discrediting him will permanently doom the non-party noble experiment.
• In the introduction to The Overton Window, Glenn Beck explicitly states that he did not want to pinpoint either party as the source of evil.
• In Fletcher Knebel's Dark Horse book, the political party is never named, but based on internal evidence in the book it's likely that Eddie Quinn is running within the Republican party.
• Star Trek: With United Earth and later the United Federation of Planets elected officials such as the President and Federation Council members were generally not identified by party affiliation. The Star Trek: Enterprise Rise of the Federation novels state that political parties had largely fallen out of favor on Earth following World War III, an attitude that heavily influenced the early Federation.
• Wet Desert: Tracking Down a Terrorist on the Colorado River: While not directly relevant, the political affiliation of the governor of Nevada is never stated. The President however is explicitly stated to be of the Republican Party.

Live-Action TV

• In 24, presidential candidate David Palmer is referred to as a Democrat in Season 1. His opponent in the general election (not the party primaries), John Keeler, is presumably a Republican, yet he is never explicitly referred to as such, is endorsed by the very left-leaning AFL-CIO, and had a campaign logo presciently similar to the later real-life Kerry-Edwards 2004 logo. Wayne Palmer, who becomes President in season 6, is presumably a Democrat like his brother, yet has strawman conservatives as his Vice President and Chief of Staff.
  • In Season 7, President Allison Taylor is not explicitly identified by party (at least so far). Since her predecessor is presumably Democrat, she is presumably Republican - and yet her idealism tends to be more of a liberal trait, and her predecessor appears to have mostly GOP traits.
    • It could be resolved if one assumes that Keeler is a Democrat and that his election against Palmer was a primary election. Consider that, from what we know of Palmer, he seems to be a very moderate, JFK-style Democrat, which nowadays could theoretically open him up to a primary challenge from the left wing of the Democratic Party. Early in Season One, as Palmer visits a school on the campaign trail, we very briefly see hints that a teacher—and the teacher's union—are disgruntled with Palmer's stance on education, with the exact dialogue implying that Palmer is for merit pay and other measures opposed by the teacher's union, thus making him at least somewhat conservative on that issue. Also consider that in the debate between Palmer and Keeler, we see Keeler railing against free trade agreements that Palmer has signed, thus putting Keeler to the left of Palmer on that issue. And of course, there's the fact that when it comes to homeland security and defense issues, Palmer is seen taking stances that Jack and many real life conservatives tend to agree with. All in all, it makes it possible that Keeler is a more left-wing Democrat challenging Palmer in the primary. This would make Logan, and possibly Taylor, Democrats as well.
    • There's another theory that Keeler and Logan are Republicans, but that Wayne Palmer is a Republican as well, unlike his Democratic brother. This would explain why his Cabinet is staffed by neoconservatives, and would thus make Taylor a Democrat. As for the plausibility of this, not all members of the same family necessarily are from the same party. And considering that David Palmer was implied to be a very moderate Democrat, his brother Wayne being a moderate Republican is certainly not impossible.
  • Alistair Davies, the UK Prime Minister in Live Another Day is of an unspecified party, as later Lampshaded by Stephen Fry on QI.
• Arguably lampshaded by the entire short-lived series "Mr. Sterling", in which Josh Brolin's character (a prison teacher) is assumed to be a Democrat when he is appointed to finish the term of a Democratic Senator, but declares himself an independent. (In real life a freshman independent, appointed to fill a term, would be a political cipher, but Sterling ends up getting appointed to key committees almost immediately, presumably because a show about a Senator with no power at all would be pretty boring.)
• Jim Hacker, in Yes, Minister, had Conservative views as well as looking and acting very much like the stereotypical Conservative MP, but was not identified as such. His party HQ was called "Central House", an amalgam of Central Office and Transport House, the locations of the Conservative Party and the Labour Party in real life at that time. In fact, many of the plot points in Yes Minister are based on real incidents, but they occurred under both Conservative and Labour ministries.
  • On one occasion, in fact, Hacker is heard musing on what the Conservative or Labour parties would do in a similar situation, implying he is neither.
  • Hacker is also seen wearing a white rosette as the election results are read out at the start of the pilot episode Open Government, alongside others wearing blue (Conservative) and red (Labour) rosettes.
  • This is actually part of the point of the show—that regardless of party and ideology, the elected leaders are hamstrung by the career bureaucrats (who, for their own part, may honestly believe that they serve the people best by preventing well-intentioned politicians from gumming up the works).
  "The Opposition aren't really the Opposition. They're just called the Opposition. But in fact they are the Opposition in exile. The Civil Service are the Opposition in residence."

  —Journalist Anthony Jay, paraphrased in an early episode of Yes, Minister
  • In the remake, Hacker's party's coalition partner is likewise unidentified, although it seems to be the SNP or some equivalent, rather than the Lib Dems.
• Governor Gatling of Benson only ever refers to his party as "The Party". For that matter, we're never even told what state he's the governor of.
• Harriet Jones from Doctor Who repeatedly introduces herself as "MP for Flydale North" without ever mentioning what party she represents. Certain clues have led fans to believe she belongs to either the Labour (the reference to "the babes" in "Aliens of London", and that her predecessor was played by an extra who was meant to be a Tony Blair lookalike) or Conservative (the Margaret Thatcher allegory in "The Christmas Invasion").
  • Nicely averted with the third series with the Master, who was an "independent candidate" who attracted a coalition of MPs from all the parties. Didn't matter much in the end, though: he was using mind control to get elected. He was apparently not even an MP, and several private citizens from different areas mention having voted for him; those aren't just unlikely, they're actually impossible without major changes to Britain's government structure. ^*They might have meant they voted for the candidate representing him in their constituency.
• Handled in Jack & Bobby by stating that Bobby grew up to be America's first independent party president. After brief stints in both major parties, just so no one would get pissed off.
• Although The Outer Limits (1963) episode "The Hundred Days of the Dragon" revolves around a Presidential election, we never learn the party of either candidate. Also, only one of the candidates is important to the story, so the other one is The Ghost.
• The mayor in Spin City. Some of his properties were those of a strawman Liberal, while others were that of a strawman Conservative.
• Throughout season one of Heroes, Nathan Petrelli is running for Congress. His party and political views are never discussed. The show also makes a much bigger deal out of a congressional election than is typical of real life.
  • He's like Senator Kelly; his main opinions are to do with Differently Powered Individual. Except, unlike Kelly, he's in a world with The Masquerade in force, so he can't have official policies based on that...
  • Subtle hints indicate that he is a Republican, particularly the fact that his campaign is based on "family values", which at the time was a phrase more vocally used by Republicans.
  • Tracy Strauss, a political consultant and Blonde Maybe Republican Sex Kitten would also fit this trope. She says that her boss, the governor of New York, has trouble with the far right but that does not rule out him being a Republican. The fact that he bothers trying to appeal to the far right at all may indicate that he is a Republican. She is likely of the same party as Nathan Petrelli as she helped him become a Senator.
• The party the main characters of The Hollowmen belong to is referred to merely as "The Party". Its leader is "The Prime Minister" and is never shown on camera.
• In Stargate SG-1, the political party that Robert Kinsey and Henry Hayes belong to is never specified, but can kinda be guessed to be Republican: President Hayes's costume includes a red necktie, the Republican color, and Kinsey, who is briefly Hayes's vice president, sometimes expresses Christian Fundamentalist views (not common for Democrats). In addition, a comment by Mitchell in the tenth season^note He makes a crack about a possible "vice presidential hunting accident" when teaming up with the sheriff's department and local hunters to track a monster in the woods outside Colorado Springs. suggests that Kinsey, forced to resign during "Lost City", was replaced by Dick Cheney, a Republican and the real life VP when the episode first aired. However, politicians in Stargate sometimes seem to be on both sides of the political spectrum. This also applies to the nameless president of the first seven seasons.
• Pretty much every politician in Law & Order, regardless of which series. While there is the occasional snide comment about certain political groups (usually, but not always, aimed at conservative groups/issues), rarely is a specific political party mentioned. There are, however, plenty of obvious knock-offs of famous politicians and pundits, thus allowing the viewer to draw what conclusions they will.
  • Although it has to be said that during Fred Thompson's run as the DA, he expressed plenty of conservative points that are not unlike his actual party (GOP). For example, he parroted Scalia's view that there is no ingrained constitutional right to privacy, a very GOP/originalist view. (For those who are not American, the actor was actually in his last year as a Republican Senator from Tennessee when he was cast and left the show to run for President.) Jack McCoy is more or less ambiguous and would do anything to win his case (one time he succeeded to nullify all gay marriages to try to break spousal confidentiality of a suspect, mirroring the time when the mayor of a small town upstate was issuing licenses for same sex marriage). On the other hand, Jack McCoy has, at the end of the day, expressed liberal positions on most issues not relating directly to criminal justice (and even some that do).

• On an episode of Frasier, Marty and his sons appear in television ads for opposing congressional candidates. Though Frasier and Niles' man is a "bleeding-heart" who supports the NEA and protecting the environment, and Marty's is tough on crime and pro-military and family values, the words "Democrat" and "Republican" (or "liberal" or "conservative") are not mentioned. Of course, one or both could be an independent or third-party candidates.
  • Notably, this contrasts Kelsey Grammer's own political affiliation, and that of his most vocally (straw) political character, Sideshow Bob.
• The Thick of It simply has "The Party" and "The Opposition", but it isn't hard to guess who their real-life equivalents are (Labour and the Tories, respectively). The last series added the "Coalition Partners" (partners to the above-mentioned Opposition, who are now in power). They are clearly the Liberal Democrats.
• The party of Selina Meyer, the titular vice president on Veep, is never stated outright but she’s heavily implied to be a Democrat based on her various beliefs and opponents in elections. It also comes from Armando Iannucci’s tendency to riff on the party that is currently in charge (in this case, Obama's Democratic administration). Some examples:
  • She’s pro-choice (Democratic position) and doesn’t know how to react when the president suddenly changes his mind from being pro-choice to not.
  • She's a former senator from Maryland which hasn't had a Republican senator since the 80s.
  • She fights with the party about including universal childcare in her platform when she runs for president, which is a bit of a hobby horse for Democratic women in government. Her opponent in the election is a senator from Arizona (a state that only had Republican senators between 1988-2018) who runs on a platform advocating a border wall which is what Donald Trump ran on in 2016. Though his vice presidential nominee who ends up becoming president (due to the electoral college being tied) is a senator from a blue state, New Mexico.
  • When Selena runs for president, the states she wins are marked in blue and are actual states that would vote for a Democrat for president. The map is basically the 2012 presidential map (last election with an incumbent Democratic president) tweaked around the edges to be tied◊.
  • Selina's rival to be the heir apparent for the presidential nominee is the Asian American (the second most Democratic ethnic group behind only African Americans) governor of the blue state of Minnesota. His schtick of being a veteran is reminiscent of the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, John Kerry (a three-time purple heart recipient), who was urged to run to show that Democrats aren't anti-military in the wake of the invasion of Iraq.
• Irish political sitcom Val Falvey T.D. never mentioned the lead's party. His logo is green, implying Fianna Fáil, but the opening titles are blue, implying Fine Gael.
• The panel show If I Ruled The World had a Blue Team consisting of Graeme Garden and a teammate versus a Red Team consisting of Jeremy Hardy and a teammate, all playing politicians. In theory these did not correspond to the Conservative or Labour parties, and mostly sticking to satirizing the political process in general. In practice, Jeremy couldn't resist his Tony Blair impression, and some female teammates played up to the "Blair Babes" stereotype.
• Commander in Chief had Geena Davis' Vice President run as an Independent with suggested libertarian leanings. When she ends up assuming the presidency after the current president dies, this is brought up as a subject of disquiet more than her gender is. She canonically started out as a moderate, New England-style Republican (flashbacks in the Pilot episode show the Connecticut Republican Party recruiting her to run for Congress and she became the arch-conservative President Bridges's running mate because he needed a moderate Republican to balance the ticket). After this, though, she officially became an Independent.
• The Politician's party that Carrie from Sex and the City dates for a brief period is kept intentionally vague — because, hey, that's not what The Girls are about.
• In an episode of The Monkees, Mike runs for mayor in order to unseat the corrupt incumbent; neither the party of Mike nor the incumbent mayor is ever given (though Mike can possibly be assumed to be running as an Independent). This leads to a slightly awkward bit of dialogue early on where Mike threatens to take his complaint with the mayor and "dump it in the opposing party's lap".
• Sheriff Andy Taylor on The Andy Griffith Show. However, as an elected official in a Southern state during the sixties it's most likely that he's a conservative Democrat.
• both Boss Hogg and Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazzard.
• In JAG the political affiliations of both SECNAVs are unknown. The political affiliation of Congresswoman Bobbie Latham is never explicitly stated, but many of the issues she supports are definitely left-wing (and thus can't be a Republican by any stretch of the imagination).
• A major plot in an early season of Smallville was a Senate race between Jonathan Kent and Lex Luthor. As with DC Comics, care was taken to avoid identifying either one as a Democrat or Republican, to the point where neither party is even mentioned by name. It was so vague that some have speculated that for all we know, they may have been running in the same party, or perhaps one was an independent.
• Jeeves and Wooster provides a very bizarre episode, where a friend of Bertie's has fallen in love with a girl who's a member of what is obviously a group of Communist activists (they preach against the bourgeousie, they dislike the class system, and they even had a hammer and sickle on their flag), but who are never referred to as Communists throughout the entire episode.
• In The Event, President Elias Martinez's party affiliation is never specified. The only thing known is that his VP originally ran against him but was persuaded to switch sides by someone else.
• Parks and Recreation doesn't divulge what parties the local politicians are in, even though Indiana law requires it. Leslie would surely be a Democrat based on the way she handles issues while her opponent for City Council Bobby Newport would be a Republican. Averted by Ron Swanson, who identifies himself as a Libertarian.
  • Finally averted in the finale, when a character makes an offhand reference to a DNC (Democratic National Committee) official suggesting that Leslie run for Governor of Indiana.
• Played With in Arrow. Neither Sebastian Blood nor Moira Queen ever mention a specific party affiliation, but given their statements (And the statements of the people who bring Moira Queen into the race), it is not a huge leap to assume they are Democrat/Republican. Not stating party allegiances is also a bit normal in local U.S. elections. Municipal elections are actually officially non partisan in many places.
  • When Oliver himself runs for Mayor, he's implicitly Democrat. The character has a diverse team of sidekicks, and seems pretty mainstream liberal himself, much like the comics version. In the Very Special Episode revolving around guns and gun control, he tries to pass a gun control bill and clashes with a pro-gun, implicitly Republican councilwoman...who's played by a Pakistani-Canadian actress. That's not impossible, but it's not exactly likely for a show set in Washington state. All this without any explicitly stated parties.^note He also manages to pass some non-specific form of gun control ordinance that somehow doesn't impede gun sales, ownership, or use in self-defense.
• Madam Secretary: Main character Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord is explicitly stated to be unaffiliated and seems to have economic views typical of center-left Democrats (one episode revolves around a microloans program), but President Dalton loses his party primary at the start of season 3 in part due to confirming in a debate that he accepts the evidence for anthropogenic climate change (Republican officials tend to be moderately to strongly in the denial column). On Liz's advice he refuses to concede and successfully runs for reelection as an independent against two candidates of likewise identified parties. Not even election night coverage gives any clues: states Dalton wins are marked in orange, while his opponents to right and left use purple and green, respectively. After his second inauguration, Dalton is said to have established his own party.
• In Black Mirror episode "Black Mirror: The National Anthem", the party of the Prime Minister who has to have sex with a pig, is never mentioned. Probably for obvious reasons, although most people thought it was a Take That! on David Cameron's Piggate (though that happened 5 years later).
• Night Court: In Season 9, when Christine runs for Congress (and is elected in the series finale), they never say exactly which party she's running for. When she is recruited to run, the political operative only identifies himself as being with "the Party". Christine is always depicted a classic "bleeding heart" liberal, and the issue she cares most about is a bill to establish government day care subsidies to help working women, which would seemingly make her a natural choice for the Democratic Party, but the show is careful to never actually say what party she represents..
• Babylon 5: The season 1 premiere episode "Midnight on the Firing Line" takes place with an Earth Alliance presidential election in the background. It's briefly mentioned that the incumbent Luis Santiago has some nativist views (which proves to be foreshadowing in the next season) but no parties are named, or any major election issues for that matter: Ivanova makes a comment to Sinclair that she's voting for the challenger because she's got a better chin. No, that's not a joke:
  Ivanova: I think I'll vote for Marie Crane. I do not like Santiago. A leader should have a strong chin. He has no chin, and his vice president has several. This, to me, is not a good combination.
• The Outer Limits (1995):
  • In "Trial by Fire", the parties of the newly inaugurated U.S. President Charles Halsey and his predecessor President Burns are not given but it is implied that Halsey is a Democrat and Burns is a Republican.
  • In "Decompression", Senator Wyndom Brody has just won the New Hampshire primary and has replaced Governor Stanton as the frontrunner for his unnamed party's presidential nomination.
• In Cory in the House the newly elected President Martinez's party affiliation not only is never mentioned, but he rarely does anything vaguely political from which one could hazard a guess. Hannah Montana takes place in the same universe as Cory, and one episode featured an appearance by President Martinez, but a later episode featured a different president heavily implied to be Barack Obama, implying that Obama defeated Martinez in 2008, making him a Republican.
• Michelle from Shortland Street is both the electorate MP for Ferndale and a backbencher for an unnamed minor party, a situation with no possible counterpart in contemporary New Zealand politics. Intriguingly Jacinda Ardern - and thus presumably both actual major parties - exists in-universe.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Averted with Congressman Ward on, who is identified as a Republican on a news chyron.
  • Daredevil2015: Senator Cherryh's party is never revealed, but being a senator from New York, it's likely he's a Democrat.
• On Yellowjackets, neither Taissa Turner nor her state senate opponent Phil Bathurst are mentioned as being members of a specific political party. However, Bathurst is described as a "wannabe Mitch McConnell," which would make him a Republican, while Taissa Turner's platform and the fact that she's his opposition implies her as a Democrat.
• In The PM's Daughter, The Prime Minister's party is never mentioned. However, judging by her climate action policies in relation to the policies of the (also unspecified) opposition and the views of the climate activist groups, it seems fairly likely she is a Labor Prime Minister.

Music

• The music video for Tally Hall's "The Whole World and You" features a US presidential candidate, Andrew Sotry, who uses a cheerful subversion the common convention of identifying party by tie color by changing his tie color in every scene in which he appears. At various points he has not only red and blue ties but also yellow and green (and a white bowtie), running through all the signature tie colors worn by the band members.

Radio

• In The Men from the Ministry the current ruling party of the House of Commons never specified in the show, and "the opposition" is always referred to as just that. That being said, the Prime Minister is clearly a caricature of Wilson in the original BBC run, and in the episodes of the Finnish version recorded in the 80's she's clearly a caricature of Thatcher.

Theatre

• In Both Your Houses, a play about the corruption involved in passing a government appropriations bill, no party in Congress is mentioned. They do mention the Non-Partisans, a small bloc of independent congressmen who form a crucial swing vote.
• Played with in the musical comedy Of Thee I Sing:
  Throttlebottom: Excuse me, gentlemen, but what party are we?
  Wintergreen: We've got plenty of time for that. The important thing is to get elected.
  Jones: You see, we're Republicans in most states.
  Lyons: But the South is Democratic.
  Jones: Oh, sure. We're Democrats down there.

Toys

• Barbie: Barbie has been president multiple times however no actual political parties are ever referenced. In the case of the 2012 doll, she was described as being a part of the B-Party.

Video Games

• Solidus Snake in Metal Gear Solid 2 is the ex-President of the United States, but his party is never brought up. The two swords he uses, incidentally, are called Minshu ("democratic") and Kyowa ("republic"), just in case you thought you were getting any clues.
  • The incumbent President Johnson's party isn't stated either.
  • Senator Armstrong's party isn't stated either, but considering his plans, he'd probably FUCK ALL OF IT once he got into power. Fittingly, his yellow necktie is neither Democratic blue nor Republican red, and his Motive Rant quotes both Martin Luther King Jr. and Ronald Reagan.
• In Grand Theft Auto IV, the parties of Mayor Julio Ochoa, Deputy Mayor Bryce Dawkins and Governor candidates John Hunter and Michael Graves are never given. Judging by their political views, you can make educated guesses.
• In Metal Wolf Chaos, it's never mentioned what party they belong to, but a more important question is why the hell president Michael Wilson thought Richard Hawk would be a good running mate.
• Rival Schools: United By Fate reveals that 20 years after the game's events, Roy Bromwell becomes President of the United States. It is not specified whether he ran as a Democrat, Republican or independent.
• Animal Crossing:
  • The mayor, Tortimer, has no party mentioned.
  • In New Leaf, you are mistaken for the new mayor upon moving to town and end up becoming mayor. As before, there are no references to political parties.
• Political simulation game POWER lets you play as an independent politician.
• Batman: The Telltale Series, Season 1, takes place during Gotham's Mayoral election but gives no indication of party allegiance for either candidate. Granted, nonpartisan elections do exist at the city level in the US, but they're still not very common.

Webcomics

• When Shortpacked!'s Robin DeSanto gets elected to congress, this is lampshaded as a "Non-Partisan Romp!" Later, an unlabelled campaign leaflet blends caricatures of both sides with "Robin DeSanto is out of touch with core American values! Voted yes on CANCER! Voted yes on TERRORISTS!" Voted no on BABIES! Voted no on FREEDOM!
  • Dumbing of Age Robin, on the other hand, is implied to be a conservative Republican in all but name, but with a twist — she admits to very liberal Roz that it's a show for the rural rubes in her district. In fact, it's shown that she's basically a more cynical, sleazier version of her mainline counterpart; she's a closet bisexual (Walkyverse Robin is out, but didn't realize she was bi for a very long time) who doesn't actually seem to care about much of anything - she slept through her own Election Day.
• In Arthur, King of Time and Space President Arthur Pendragon is definitely left-wing, and his predecessor President Lucius Roman was definitely right-wing. However, their parties are only referred to as "the liberal party" and "the conservative party".

Western Animation

• When Lex Luthor runs for president during the second season of Justice League Unlimited, he is specified as being "within striking distance" of both major parties, thereby not only not associating the villain with the Republicans or Democrats, but shutting out the possibility entirely, defusing any arguments about how Luthor would (obviously, of course) be running for [insert your least favorite of the two here].
• Pinky similarly took up stock with the "Pink Party" when he ran for President. The party's chief adviser had previously worked for Nixon, Kennedy, and Dukakis.
• Mayor Adam West on Family Guy
  • Also Lois Griffin's party was never given when when she ran for mayor of Quahog and defeated Mayor West.
• On Moral Orel, Clay Puppington's the Mayor of Moralton. It has never been mentioned as to which party nominated him but given that he's a Straw Conservative, it's assumed that he's a Republican. However, since the citizens of Moralton are concerned mostly with enforcing social norms, he could have run as the Constitution Party candidate for mayor.
• The Simpsons
  • Mary Bailey, the governor of the state Springfield is in. Her party affiliation has not been stated, but it's implied that she is a Democrat, as Mr. Burns, who ran against her in "Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish" is later revealed to be a prominent member of Springfield's Republican party.
  • "Trash Of The Titans" has Homer running for Springfield's Sanitation Commissioner against incumbent commissioner Ray Patterson, without either being identified as being affiliated with any political party.

Real Life

• In Canada, the Legislative Assemblies of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are non-partisan and all candidates run independently of whatever party they might be a member of (if they hold membership at all).
• In the United States, due to the voting system (First Past The Post) and Electoral College^note The bipartisan media telling people to keep voting either major party doesn't help either has to prevent any nationwide (and sometimes statewide) third parties from winning Federal and States elections, And because of that most third parties mostly win in local elections with or without their party affiliations.
  • Similarly, Nebraska's unicameral legislature is non-partisan—although usually, everyone knows how the members lean.
  • Many states in the US have elected or partially elected judiciaries—i.e. judges on at least some state courts have fixed terms and must seek election/reelection to win/keep office. In some states these elections are partisan, and in other states these elections are "retention" elections (i.e. "should we keep this judge who has been appointed" rather than "who should be judge"), but 10-20 states (depending on which kind of court we're talking about) have officially nonpartisan contested elections—but again, usually everyone knows which way the members lean and in some states (e.g. Michigan and Ohio), parties actively endorse the nonpartisan judicial candidates.
  • The first President of the United States of America, George Washington, is the only president not to belong to any political party. In fact, he was strongly against political parties and used his farewell address to warn against introducing factions into government. Of course, this didn't stop the very next presidential election to be waged against the first American political parties, the Federalists and Antifederalists.
  • Candidates for American legislative offices occasionally do get elected without party backing, in which case their affiliation is listed as "Independent". This is complicated by the fact there actually is a political party called the Independent party which does try to have influence in local politics.
  • In some states, local offices like Mayors, City Council, and Park District are officially non-partisan. However, in some cases, the party affiliation is an open secret.
• Averted in Mexico: While legally anyone can be elected in any elective office position, in practice only members of a political party can be elected in any position. Many NGOs have asked for years to change the laws to similar ones used in the U.S., even though Washington was the only American president that was not a member of a political party.
• Averted in Costa Rica to an extreme; the electoral law actually forbids independent candidates. By law no one can be elected to any office without the nomination from a political party. This however is since 1949, between 1821 (the independence from Spain) and 1889 all Costa Rican presidents were independents as the first political parties were founded in 1889.
• Also averted to the extreme in Israel. To start, Israel's political system is a parliamentary one, basically copy-pasted from Britain with all the kinks worked out.^note For example, the Israeli Supreme Court can cancel unconstitutional (un-basic-law-al?) laws, and the President is legally the exact same powerless symbolic figurehead he is in reality. The unicameral legislature, the Knesset, is elected by proportional representation taken to its logical conclusion: each party gets seats strictly based off its share of the nationwide popular vote, no ifs, buts, and congressional districts, and voters vote for party tickets both figuratively and literally. How each party selects its Knesset candidate varies by party, ranging from open primaries across the party membership (e.g. Labor) to being hand-picked by a council of Rabbis (the Ultra-orthodox parties). So you can't run for MK - much less Prime Minister - without going through the parties first.

Exceptions/Subversions

Comic Books

• Dylan/USA Patriot Act and Jenny/American Eagle, two of the pupils at the PS238 School for meta-prodigies, are candidates from opposing parties to replace the aging Freedom Fighter (the PS238-verse's Captain America Expy). While their parties are never named in-comic, and their first appearance had them both sprout the same patriotic platitudes, it was initially difficult to tell who is who. However:
  • Dylan's favorite color is red and Jenny's is blue.
  • The other time you can actually tell their politics apart is when they light directly into each other, when Dylan will call Jenny a pinko commie and she responds by calling him a backwards neanderthal (or something of the sort). Their positions on firefighting services also align with a Dem Jenny and Rep Dylan.
  • Dylan's code name might also be telling.
  • The RPG supplement later confirmed that Jenny is the Democratic candidate and Dylan the Republican one.
• In Y: The Last Man, after the plague that takes out men, there are very few Republicans left in government because of the gender discrepancy of the parties' representation. Democrats control both chambers after the plague and Yorrick's mom a Senator, who becomes President, is explicitly a democrat as well. This would line up with real life because as of 2019, there are 250 Republicans in both chambers of Congress and only 21 of them are women, compared to 127 of 282 Democrats being women.

Films — Live-Action

• The titular protagonist of The American President, President Andrew Shepherd, is explicitly a Democrat, while his opponent Bob Rumson is expressly a Republican. One of the critical plot points of the story is Shepherd's crime bill, which conservatives do not want and his liberal supporters find too weak, and the movie overall makes no attempt at deploying this trope during its events. Both director Rob Reiner and writer Aaron Sorkin are outspoken Democrats publicly.
• Averted in The Avengers. The politician criticizing the Avengers for damaging Manhattan is a Democrat, though if you blink, you miss it.
• Senator June Finch in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a Democrat.
• The Campaign makes incumbent Congressman Cam Brady a Democrat and challenger Marty Huggins a Republican, but this ends up not mattering much, since neither candidate actually campaigns on the issues. Instead they just spout empty platitudes and make personal attacks against each other, while Corrupt Corporate Executives make all the real decisions. Said executives, however, are clearly based on the Koch Brothers (prominent Republican donors), yet support Brady, the Democrat.
• Bill McKay in The Candidate is expressly stated to be the Democratic son of a Democratic former governor.
• Every character in The Contender has his/her party and general political stances made very explicit.
• The Ides of March is set during the Democratic primaries for President.
• Bob Roberts doesn't explicitly name the title character's affiliation (though as a right-wing populist it's pretty obvious), but his opponent, Senator Paiste, is identified as a Democrat.
• Jean Arthur's Congresswoman in A Foreign Affair is a Republican from Iowa.
• In My Fellow Americans, former President Kramer and incumbent President Haney are Republicans, while former President Douglas is a Democrat.

Literature

• Jack Ryan, from the Tom Clancy novel series, is explicitly described as an independent, though he clearly holds policies that mark him as a very conservative Author Avatar.
  • Ed Kealty comes close, but it's quite clear that he's nothing more than an amoral, conniving man who's politics only matter in which of Ryan's statements he twists to meet his needs. Durling, while obviously a liberal (as he is Fowler's VP. a character who is clearly in opposition to Ryan's conservatism) is clearly respected by Ryan and returns that respect. Fowler himself is shown as a good man, with very cogent arguments against Ryan's politics and views, his treatment of Ryan bordering on persecution is clearly shown as being caused, not by political differences, but because of misinformation and distortion of the man by Liz Elliot, who maintains a vendetta against him up until her complete breakdown after Denver got nuked. As for Ryan himself, he's very conservative, and something of a Gary Stu, but his views very much resemble real-world ones, if somewhat simplified for plot reasons.
• Rudy Rucker's novel Mathematicians In Love is a rare example of someone bothering to change the names of the parties—"Heritagist" and "Common Ground"—while still making it very, very obvious that he's talking about real-life politics. (The Heritagists are a party of closed-minded conservatives who are rampantly curtailing civil liberties and have just gotten done wrecking the country through a disastrous war in the Middle East. The Common Ground party is a party that's just gotten done running a completely uncharismatic war veteran against the Heritagists and utterly failing to unseat them, causing a wave of despair among liberals determined to abandon the country and move to Canada.)
• A pretty surprising aversion comes from the children's novel My Mother The Mayor, Maybe, where the protagonist's mother is clearly stated to be a Democrat and the race is quite partisan, even though as a small town mayoral election it wouldn't be surprising at all for the election to be non-partisan. This is done primarily to play up the underdog element as the campaign is in a supposedly heavily Republican town, though it also takes a clear stance on the issues discussed as well, not something to be expected in a book for the middle school set.
• The original novel of Advise & Consent very sneakily averts this by keeping the party affiliations of characters ambiguous except for Senator Seab Cooley, who's mentioned in passing to having been first elected to the House of Representatives on the same platform as Woodrow Wilson. This makes him, the Senate Majority members, and the President Democrats and the Senate Minority members Republicans.
• In the Royally ____ series of YA romantic comedies, the main character is an American teenager in a love triangle with a European prince, and the US President's son. Since some of her conflict involves disagreement with that President's conservative politics (regarding LGBT issues and premarital sex), it can be assumed that the President is a republican. (The European prince, on the other hand, has no issues with these things.)
• Near-future military thriller Victoria averts this, yet manages to do it in a generally non-partisan manner. President Cisneros is explicitly identified as a Democrat, while his successor President Warner is a Republican—but both administrations are more or less equally corrupt, without any narrative favoritism either way.
• WWW Trilogy: Averted-the US President is mentioned as being a Democrat. He's also clearly meant to be either Barack Obama or at least an expy of him.

Live-Action TV

• The West Wing where Bartlet is very clearly a Democrat.
  • As was Andrew Shepherd before him in The American President.
  • Pretty much everyone in the West Wing is clearly of one party or the other (or at least could be classed as conservative or liberal). The sole exceptions seem to be people associated with the military or national security: when the West Wing staff are briefly considering replacing John Hoynes with Admiral Fitzwallace, either Ed or Larry asks if Fitzwallace is even a Democrat. Later in the series, Will is shocked to learn that Kate Harper, who had expressed occasional liberal values throughout her run, had voted for Vinick, the Republican candidate. Since both Fitzwallace and Kate got their jobs thanks to their experience in the Navy, their political views on nonmilitary issues are somewhat moot. Nancy McNally is similarly vague in her political persuasion.
• Sneakily averted in the Little Britain sketches featuring Anthony Stewart Head as the Prime Minister. While his party affiliation is never explicitly revealed, there are enough clues given to make it blindingly clear that he's Labour - he wears a red tie while the Leader of the Opposition wears a blue one, and his Chancellor of the Exchequer is very obviously based on Gordon Brown (the Prime Minister himself is more loosely based on Tony Blair).
• Alan B'stard in the The New Statesman just had to be a Conservative.
  • To reflect Truth in Television of several Tory MPs, in the revived 2006 stage show it is revealed he "crossed the floor", joining Labour in 1995.
  • And in a 2011 No2AV advert, he was an obvious parody of Nick Clegg.
• Likewise Francis Urquhart in House of Cards (UK), though not in the original book.
  • Frank Underwood is a Democrat in the US version.
• Averted in Irish drama The Running Mate. Corrupt politician Vincent Flynn is expelled from government party Fianna Fáil, and stands for election as an independent.
• Hybridised in The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, where Ros Pritchard forms the Purple Democratic Alliance out of dissatisfaction with both Labour and the Conservatives after they start a fistfight outside her supermarket (purple = Labour red + Conservative blue, of course), pinching members from both parties in the process. Take That!, Lib Dems! (She persuades a Lib Dem to defect, too.)
• All three Presidents in My Fellow Americans are identified as either Democrat or Republican in the opening scenes.
• Despite being a legal and not a political drama, Rumpole of the Bailey manages to avert this: Guthrie Featherstone is a Labour (implied) MP who later (explicitly) joins the SDP, Rumpole's third client in the series is a Labour backbencher, Charles Hearthstoke self-identifies as a Tory, and Liz Probert...well...let's just say that her father's name is "Red" Ron Probert, shall we? Rumpole himself doesn't clearly have a party affiliation, but, iconoclast and sympathizer with the poor that he is, it would appear that he's somewhere on the left (likely voting Labour at the beginning of the series in 1967 and voting Liberal Democrat by the end in 1992).
• The Good Wife makes no secret that the central characters are all Democrats. The show is set in Chicago/ Cook County, Illinois and getting elected there as anything but a Democrat is practically impossible. To quantify how tough it is to win there as a Republican, Democrats control 48/50 seats in the Chicago city council and 15/17 of Cook County comissioners. There are several exceptions among the recurrers, and the series notably avoids Strawman Politicals in either direction, with people of all viewpoints having about even odds to be sympathetic or corrupt.
  • Carries over to its Sequel Series , The Good Fight where Diane is now the main character. The show was completely rewritten after the 2016 election to show how badly she’s taking it. The firm even competes to represent the DNC in its impeachment case
• Political Animals averts this: the central non-journalist characters are all Democrats. This makes a certain amount of sense, as Elaine is a proud No Celebrities Were Harmed version of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bud Hammond is Bill Clinton with a bit of Lyndon Johnson for flavor, the Hammonds collectively are Camelot, and President Garcetti is Barack Obama as an Italian.
• In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Christian Ward is identified as a Republican from Massachusetts.
• In Black Mirror episode "The Waldo Moment", Waldo itself runs as independent, but the other candidates are outright shown to be Tory, Labour and Lib-Dem.
• In H 2 O, any mention of which party Tom Mc Laughlin is a part of is carefully avoided, even though there is a party leadership election where this would normally come up. It is simply referred to as 'the party'.

Theatre

• Most of the characters in the play and movie State of the Union are Republican politicians and make no bones about it. (Though one of the party hacks explains that the essential difference between the parties is: "They're in—and we're out!")

Video Games

• U.S. Senator Patrick Darcy in Alpha Protocol is revealed in a dossier to be a Virginia Republican. Also averted with President of Taiwan Ronald Sung, who is given explicit party affiliation.
• Liberal Crime Squad has the generically-named conservative and liberal parties (or "The $$ U.S.A. Flag Eagle $$ Conservative Tea Party/Progressive Elite Social Liberal Green Party" if national politics swing their way). It can be inferred that they're stand-ins for the republican and democratic parties respectively.
• PAYDAY 2 specifically names the contractor The Elephant as a "dirty Republican congressman", in case his name didn't make that clear. ^explanation In American politics, the Republicans are represented by an elephant, whereas the Democrats are represented by a donkey. He is acting on behalf of Bob McKendrick, who seeks to unseat Nancy Schwartz as mayor of D.C, whose affiliation is not mentioned, but it's fair to assume that she's a Democrat.
• The Boss in Saints Row IV becomes the President, though their political leanings are never discussed. If they run the nation like they run their gang, they're essentially a Kleptocrat.
• In Splinter Cell: Conviction, background NPC dialogue reveals that Vice President Samson is a Blue Dog Democrat in a bipartisan administration, which makes President Caldwell a Republican.

Webcomics

• In Shortpacked!, Robin's political party is never stated outright, but since she's a bi woman who got into office on the combined toy geek/necrophiliac vote (and her rival is Sarah Palin), she's probably a Democrat, but considering the gag-like nature of the whole thing, it's best not to read too much into it. On the other hand, in the slightly more serious Dumbing of Age, her party isn't named, but the fact that she's campaigning on a "family values" platform, the strongly feminist lesbian Leslie Bean voted against her, and her Ethical Slut sister hates everything she stands for, she's almost certainly Republican. Word of God states that in the former comic, she didn't have a party (or maybe he just meant it was irrelevant), while in the latter she does.

Western Animation

• President Richard Nixon's Head in Futurama is not one bit less Republican than the real Richard Nixon.
• Family Guy: Lois Griffin, elected Mayor of Quahog in "It takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One", is stated to be a Democrat in other episodes. It should be noted that Seth Macfarlane is a Democrat in real life.
• Mayor Quimby from The Simpsons is a member of the Democratic Party. He is also a parody of John F. Kennedy and the Kennedy family.
  • The straw-evil Republican Party, on the other hand, counts Montgomery Burns (obviously), Sideshow Bob (for comic effect) and surprisingly Doctor Hibbert.
  • Even more surprisingly, Krusty the Klown has also been shown to be a member.
• Upper-Class Twit Montana Max in Tiny Toons is explicitly said to be a Republican.

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