Polk was a member of the Federalist Party, which was the majority party in Kent and Sussex County, but was nearly matched in popularity statewide by the Democratic-Republican Party because of that party's strength in New Castle County. As a result, statewide elections were usually close and hard-fought. Delaware was the last state in the country to have an effective Federalist Party, it having virtually disappeared everywhere else. By 1827 members of the old Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican Party had split into a Jacksonian, or Democratic faction or an Adams/Clay faction, known initially as the National Republicans, and later as Whigs. The remaining Federalists, which were many in Delaware, did likewise.