GOPer (member of the GOP)

A “GOPer” is a member of the Grand Old Party (or GOP). The term “GOPer” is rarely spoken and mainly appears in newspaper headlines as a shortened way to say “Republican.”
 
“The National Whirligig” syndicated political newspaper columnist Ray Thomas Tucker (1893-1963) used “GOPer” is several columns—starting with July 11, 1935—and probably popularized the term.
 
   
11 July 1935, Big Spring (TX) Daily Herald, “The National Whirligig” by Ray Tucker, pg. 1, col. 1:
GOP-ers and La Follettians will move to broaden the base and tax everybody.
 
Google News Archive
19 August 1935, The Evening Independent (St. Petersburg, FL), “The National Whirligig” by Ray Tucker, pg. 4, col. 4:
“I hope you Republicans will nominate a man I can support in 1936,” he recently told a group of GOPers.
 
Google News Archive
29 July 1937, Nashua (NH) Telegraph, “The National Whirligig” by Ray Tucker, pg. 10, col. 3:
Few months ago certain important GOPers and anti-Roosevelt Democrats conducted serious palavers over the prospects of a midnight marriage.
 
Google News Archive
5 June 1950, Wilmington (NC) News, pg. 3, col. 1:
New York GOPers
Back Up McCarthy
By LYLE C. WILSON
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Early preferences ‘88 presidential race. Kennedy, Hart and Cuomo lead Democrats. Bush, Dole, Baker and Kemp lead GOPers
Author: Mervin D Field
Publisher: San Francisco : California Poll, 1985.
Series: Release, #1296
Edition/Format:  Book : English
 
OCLC WorldCat record
GOPers say Bush is ‘demented’; Dems desert Gore’s sinking ship
Edition/Format:  Article : English
Publication: EXECUTIVE INTELLIGENCE REVIEW, 26, no. 38, (1999): 72-73
Database: British Library Serials
 
OCLC WOrldCat record
EDITORIALS & COMMENT - GAY GOPERS CRASH PARTY
Author: Christopher Lisotta
Publisher: New York, N.Y. : J.H. Richards,
Edition/Format:  Article : English
Publication: The nation. 279, no. 8, (2004): 5
Database: ArticleFirst
Other Databases: British Library Serials
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Swimming with Sharks - In the College Republicans, young GOPers learn to fight hard against Democrats—By practicing on one another.
Author: Franklin Foer
Publisher: New York : The Republic Pub. Co.,
Edition/Format:  Article : English
Publication: The new republic. (October 03, 2005): 20
Database: ArticleFirst
 
Politico.com
Mitt Romney vs. Michigan GOPers on labor
By REID J. EPSTEIN | 2/16/12 2:43 PM EST Updated: 2/17/12 6:12 AM EST
FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. — The endorsements of Michigan’s top Republicans are falling to Mitt Romney despite an uncomfortable divide over a key issue: labor.