Minnesota Democratic Party Explained

Merged:	Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
National:	Democratic Party
Colors:	Blue
State:	Minnesota

The Minnesota Democratic Party was a political party in Minnesota that existed from the formation of Minnesota Territory in 1849 until 1944, when the party merged with the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party to form the modern Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

In the first two years after Minnesota's admission into the Union in 1858, the Minnesota Democratic Party was briefly the dominant party in the state; however, the 1860 presidential election and the Civil War dealt a devastating blow to the party from which it never really recovered. Between 1860 and 1918, the Minnesota Democratic Party was a distant second party to the dominant Republican Party. During that period, Democrats held the office of Governor of Minnesota for a grand total of seven years, never controlled either chamber of the Minnesota Legislature, and Minnesota never cast a single electoral vote in favor of a Democratic presidential nominee.

Following the establishment of the Farmer-Labor Party in 1918, the Minnesota Democratic Party was relegated to third party status, as the Farmer-Laborites became the primary opposition to the Republicans. During the 1930s, a political alliance between Minnesota Governor Floyd B. Olson and President Franklin D. Roosevelt bred closer cooperation between the Farmer-Laborites and the Democrats. With a large backing from Farmer-Laborites, Roosevelt became the first Democrat ever to win Minnesota's electoral votes in 1932, and went on to win the state in each of his re-election bids. In the 1936 gubernatorial election the Democratic Party opted not to run its own candidate for Governor, endorsing Farmer-Labor candidate Elmer Austin Benson instead.

After the Farmer-Laborites' spectacular fall from power in the 1938 general election, there was increasing pressure from the national Democratic Party for a merger between the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Farmer-Labor Party. In spite of substantial minorities in both parties continuing to oppose merging, the majority in the Farmer-Labor Party led by former Governor Benson and the slim majority of the Minnesota Democratic Party led by future Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey ultimately concluded such a merger in 1944, creating the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Gubernatorial nominees

Year	Nominee	Votes	Percent	Elected Governor
1857	Henry Hastings Sibley	17,790	50.34		Henry Hastings Sibley (D)
1859	George Loomis Becker	17,582	45.18	Alexander Ramsey (R)
1861	Edward O. Hamblin	10,448	39.1
1863	Henry T. Welles	12,739	39.36		Stephen Miller (R)
1865	Henry Mower Rice	13,842	44.42	William Rainey Marshall (R)
1867	Charles Eugene Flandrau	29,502	45.83
1869	George L. Otis	25,401	46.6	Horace Austin (R)
1871	Winthrop Young	30,376	38.86
1873	Asa Barton	35,245	47.56		Cushman Kellogg Davis (R)
1875	David L. Buell	35,275	42.03	John S. Pillsbury (R)
1877	William L. Banning	39,147	39.13
1879	Edmund Rice	41,524	39.11
1881	Richard W. Johnson	37,168	35.21	Lucius Frederick Hubbard (R)
1883	Adolph Biermann	58,251	42.95
1886	A. A. Ames	104,464	47.36		Andrew Ryan McGill (R)
1888	Eugene McLanahan Wilson	110,251	42.14	William Rush Merriam (R)
1890	Thomas Wilson	85,844	35.63
1892	Daniel W. Lawler	94,600	36.96	Knute Nelson (R)
1894	George Loomis Becker	53,584	18.09
1896	John Lind	162,254	48.11		David Marston Clough (R)
1898		131,980	52.26		John Lind (P/DSR)
1900		150,651	47.95	Samuel Rinnah Van Sant (R)
1902	Leonard A. Rosing	99,362	36.68
1904	John Albert Johnson	147,992	48.71	John Albert Johnson (D)
1906		168,480	60.93
1908		175,136	51.93
1910	James Gray	103,779	35.23	Adolph Olson Eberhart (R)
1912	Peter M. Ringdahl	99,659	31.3
1914	Winfield S. Hammond	156,304	45.54		Winfield S. Hammond (D)
1916	Thomas P. Dwyer	93,112	23.84	J. A. A. Burnquist (R)
1918	Fred Wheaton	76,793	19.71
1920	Laurence C. Hodgson	81,293	10.37	J. A. O. Preus (R)
1922	Edward Indrehus	79,903	11.66
1924	Carlos Avery	49,353	5.91	Theodore Christianson (R)
1926	Alfred Jacques	38,008	5.42
1928	Andrew Nelson	213,734	21.38
1930	Edward Indrehus	29,109	3.65	Floyd B. Olson (F-L)
1932	John E. Regan	169,859	16.44
1934		176,928	16.84
1936	No candidate				Elmer Austin Benson (F-L)
1938	Thomas F. Gallagher	65,875	5.81	Harold Stassen (R)
1940	Edward Murphy	140,021	11.21
1942	John D. Sullivan	75,151	9.46

See also

• Democratic Party (United States)
• Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
• Politics of Minnesota
• Political party strength in Minnesota