On this date in 167 years ago the Republican Party was founded in Ripon Wisconsin. Chairman of the Republican Party of Fond du Lac County Rohn Bishop says a small group of anti-slavery, former Whig Party members gathered at the Little White School House in Ripon on March 20, 1854 for the founding meeting of the Republican Party. “I think we have a special place in history,” Bishop told WFDL news. “If you talk about any other Republican Party in the country, we’re the only one that can say since 1854.” In 1860, the first Republican president was elected, Abraham Lincoln.
