Joseph Lafayette Rawlins was born 28 March 1850 near Millcreek in Salt Lake City. He was the son of Joseph Sharp Rawlins and Mary Frost Rawlins, who were among those following Brigham Young on the trek to Utah in 1849. Rawlins was one of the early students to attend the University of Deseret and was an excellent student. He also attended Indiana University, where he was a charter member of Beta Theta Pi and president of the debating society. It was while studying law that Rawlins first had thoughts about drawing Utah into the national mainstream. He knew that polygamy would need to be eliminated and political parties drawn along national party lines rather than the religious lines of the anti-Mormon Liberal party and the pro-Mormon Peoples party. He organized the Democratic Club of Utah in 1884, but its existence was short-lived.
The issuance of the Manifesto in 1890 discouraging future polygamy greatly affected Utah's party system. Leaders in the two opposing political camps realized that local parties stood in the way of the territory's progress toward statehood. In 1891 both the Democratic and Republican parties were organized in Utah; Rawlins was an active Democrat.