The Reagans Built the Modern Political Con That Handed Donald Trump the Presidency Ronald Reagan's parents were Democrats in a Republican-leaning part of Illinois, Dixon, a small river town in Lee County where the Reagan family settled in December 1920, when Reagan was nine. Jack and Nelle Reagan's Democratic loyalty ran deeper than just voting. Jack Reagan had a grade-school education and worked as a shoe salesman, and after FDR's 1932 election, he was rewarded for his Democ