US Elections 2024: Why Democrats are donkeys and Republicans elephants

The US will see Donald Trump and Kamala Harris face off as the Republican and Democratic candidates in the 2024 polls.

The US is headed to polls as the world watches Donald Trump -- the Republican seeking a second term in office -- go up against Kamala Harris, the Democrat who could become the first female president of the country.

As Americans all over cast their votes for either the Republican or Democratic party, here is why the former is characterized by an elephant symbol while the latter is characterized by a donkey.

Why Republicans have the elephant symbol

The Republicans became associated with the elephant symbol thanks to Thomas Nast, who arguably went on to become America's first great political cartoonist.

Nast worked at Harper's Weekly between 1862 and 1886.

His cartoon Third Term Panic from 1874 is widely credited for the Republican Party to be associated with the elephant symbol.

Ahead of the midterms, the New York Herald, which was at the time backing many Democratic candidates had reportedly spread the rumour that President Ulysses Grant -- a Republican, was mulling a third term in office, a concept frowned upon but not exactly illegal before the the 22nd Amendment came into being.

Nast portrayed the Herald as a donkey wrapped in a lion's skin, frightening other animals. Among them was an elephant titled 'The Republican Vote', which seemed as if it would fall off a cliff.

Nast's cartoon

Why Democrats have the donkey symbol

While Nast had portrayed the Democratic party as a donkey earlier, in the 1874 cartoon, he portrayed it as a fox. However, the Democratic party has been linked to the donkey symbol from the time of the Andrew Jackson administration, and the presidential election of 1828.

Jackson was reportedly mocked by his opponents who called him a 'jackass', but the 1812 war hero actually incorporated the donkey into his campaign and went on to beat John Quincy Adams and become America's first Democratic President.