While it certainly is true that we have been living in an increasingly divided America for at least the last ten years, where countless have lost friends and become estranged from family members over differing political beliefs, some still manage to make political differences work in their relationship.
Though people like George W. Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger , and James Carville are part of a political system that is now hard to remember, two of the three today remain married to spouses that once were or still are part of a different political party.
Read on to see more such couples, their cross-party love stories, and how politics impacted their marriage.
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© InstagramMaria Shriver & Arnold Schwarzenegger
Maria is famously part of one of the most famous members of the Democratic Party, the Kennedy family, via her mother Eunice Kennedy Shriver, one of John F. Kennedy's eight siblings. She married Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1986, and supported him throughout his successful campaign and eventual two terms as the (Republican) governor of California, from 2003 to 2011. They divorced in his final year in office, after he infamously welcomed a son with the family's former nanny.
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© Getty ImagesLaura Bush & George W. Bush
Though Laura, of course, was a Republican first lady for two terms, from 2000 to 2008, prior to marrying the deeply Republican Bush family, she was raised in a Democratic household and was reportedly a registered Democrat, though she has been a Republican since marrying Bush in 1977. Moreover, their daughter Barbara Bush endorsed and voted for Kamala Harris in 2024, while her father stayed mum throughout the contentious election cycle.
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© Getty ImagesUsha Vance & J.D. Vance
The current second lady, whose parents are Indian immigrants, was a registered Democrat until at least 2014, but since her husband, who was previously outspokenly anti-Trump, became the president's vice presidential nominee, she has at least publicly espoused the party's views, despite among those being strong anti-immigrant sentiment.
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© Getty ImagesMary Matalin & James Carville
One of the Democratic party's most well-known strategists and consultants has been married to one of the Republican party's most well-known strategists and consultants since 1993. They share two daughters, and in 2014, they released a joint memoir, Love & War: Twenty Years, Three Presidents, Two Daughters and One Louisiana Home, in which they dive into their differing political views.
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© Getty ImagesKellyanne Conway and George Conway
Kellyanne and George were one of the most notable figures of the 2016 election cycle. Though both Republicans at the time, Kellyanne became a steadfast ally of Trump and a Senior Counselor during his first term, while her ex-husband (they divorced in 2023), became outspokenly anti-Trump around 2018, and later on co-founded the Lincoln Project, a coalition of former Republicans who are against the president.
