GCPL Fall 2026 Seminar: Where Does the Republican Party Go From Here?
James A. Garfield biographer CW Goodyear examines the party’s past in order to consider its future, via his analysis of “A Cause Which the Ethical Would Not Let Sleep: James Garfield and the Transformation of the Republican Party, 1865 — 1881”
Thursday, October 29
Kennedy Center Ballroom | 5-7 p.m.
Registration is required.
The presidency of Donald Trump appears to have marked a turning point in the history of the Republican Party. Long-held positions of the party — regarding free trade, relations with certain allies, issues pertaining to the size of government, etc. — have evidently undergone a shift during his tenure. As we now enter the final phase of the Trump presidency, therefore, many people are wondering what lies in store for the party in terms of its position on policy issues, its leadership, and its future in general.
In order to address these topics in a meaningful manner, and in a manner which also ties into the core mission of Hiram College’s Garfield Center for Public Leadership, the Center will be hosting CW Goodyear, author of the excellent recent biography President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier. Through his study of Garfield, and via his more recent research into the political parties’ evolution in the 20th and 21st Centuries, Mr. Goodyear has gained valuable insights into the history and hence the “meaning” of the Republican Party, and thus will help us think in a well-informed fashion about what the future might hold for the GOP.
