"Country Club Republican" also known as a "Country Club Conservative" or "Establishment Republican" is an expression employed, usually pejoratively, to describe certain members of the Republican Party in the United States. Some of the characteristics attributed to country club Republicans are higher than average income or inherited wealth, hailing from politically or socially prominent families, fiscally conservative opinions but with liberal, moderate or indifferent views on social issues such as abortion, censorship, and gay rights.[1][2] They are more likely to have attended prestigious colleges and universities than other Republican Party members.[3]
Politicians said to be country club Republicans include: President George H. W. Bush, former Secretaries of State Rex Tillerson and Colin Powell, Utah Senator Mitt Romney,[1] former governor of New Jersey Thomas Kean,[4] and former Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.[5]