Minnesota

The two major political parties are the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) and the Republican Party (until 1995 called the Independent-Republican Party). The Republican Party dominated Minnesota politics from the 1860s through the 1920s, except for a period around the turn of the century. The DFL, formed in 1944 by merger between the Democratic Party and the populist Farmer-Labor Party, rose to prominence in the 1950s under US Senator Hubert Humphrey.

Minnesota Presidential Vote by Political Parties, 1948–2000

Minnesota Presidential Vote by Political Parties, 1948–2000

The DFL is the heir to a long populist tradition bred during the panic of 1857 and the early days of statehood, a tradition perpetuated by a succession of strong, though transient, third-party movements. The Grange, a farmers' movement committed to the cause of railroad regulation, took root in Minnesota in 1868; it withered in the panic of 1873, but its successors, the Anti-Monopoly Party and the Greenback Party, attracted large followings for some time afterward. They were followed by a new pro-silver group, the Farmers' Alliance, which spread to Minnesota from Nebraska in 1881 and soon became associated with the Minnesota Knights of Labor. The Populist Party also won a foothold in Minnesota, in alliance with the Democratic Party in the late 1890s.

The Farmer-Labor Party, the most successful of Minnesota's third-party movements, grew out of a socialist and isolationist movement known at first as the Non-Partisan League. Founded in North Dakota with the initial aim of gaining control of the Republican Party in that state, the league moved its headquarters to St. Paul and competed in the 1918 elections under the name Farmer-Labor Party, hastily adopted to attract what party leaders hoped would be its two main constituencies. The party scored a major success in 1922 when its candidate, Henrik Shipstead, a Glenwood dentist, defeated a nationally known incumbent, Republican Senator Frank B. Kellogg; Farmer-Labor candidate Floyd B. Olson won the governorship in 1930. The decline of the party in the late 1930s was hastened by the rise of Republican Harold Stassen, an ardent internationalist, who won the governorship in 1938 and twice won reelection.

The first DFL candidate to become governor was Orville Freeman in 1954. The DFL held the governorship from 1963 to 1967 and from 1971 to 1978, when US Representative Al Quie (IR) defeated his DFL opponent, Rudy Perpich; however, Perpich regained the governorship for the DFL in 1982. Perpich served four terms. He lost to Independent-Republican Arne Carlson in 1990, and Carlson was reelected in 1994. The 1998 gubernatorial election in Minnesota made national headlines; it was won by Reform candidate and former World Wrestling Federation personality Jesse Ventura. After gaining office, Ventura switched allegiances to the Independence Party of Minnesota. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, won the governorship in 2002.

Minnesota is famous as a breeding ground for presidential candidates. Governor Harold Stassen contended seriously for the Republican nomination in 1948 and again in 1952. Vice President Hubert Humphrey was the Democratic presidential nominee in 1968, losing by a narrow margin to Richard Nixon. During the same year, US Senator Eugene McCarthy unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination on an antiwar platform; his surprising showings in the early primaries against the incumbent, Lyndon B. Johnson, helped persuade Johnson to withdraw his candidacy. Eight years later, McCarthy ran for the presidency as an independent, drawing 35,490 votes in Minnesota (1.8% of the total votes cast) and 756,631 votes (0.9%) nationwide. Walter Mondale, successor to Hubert Humphrey's seat when Humphrey became Johnson's vice president in 1964, was chosen in 1976 by Jimmy Carter as his vice-presidential running mate; he again ran with Carter in 1980, when the two lost their bid for reelection. In the 1984 election, Minnesota was the only state to favor the Mondale-Ferraro ticket. Minnesotans gave the Republican Party a majority in the state's house of representatives for the first time since 1970, but the Democrats retained control of the state senate.

In 2000, Democrat Al Gore won 48% of the presidential vote; Republican George W. Bush gained 46%; and Green Party candidate Ralph Nader received 5%. In 2002 there were 2,844,428 registered voters; there is no party registration in the state. The state had 10 electoral votes in the 2000 presidential election.

In 1994, US Senator David Durenberger retired, partly a result of having been "denounced" by the Senate in 1990, and Rod Grams, a 46-year-old Republican was elected to the seat. In 2000, Democrat Mark Dayton was elected to the Senate. In 1996 Democrat Paul Wellstone successfully defended his Senate seat against a challenge by Republican Rudy Boschwitz, from whom he had won the seat in 1990. Wellstone died in a plane crash in October 2002, along with his wife and daughter, three staff members, and two pilots. Republican Norm Coleman won Wellstone's Senate seat in 2002, defeating Walter Mondale, who stepped in to run after Wellstone's death. Following the 2002 elections, Minnesota's delegation to the US House was split between four Democrats and four Republicans. In mid-2003, there were 35 Democrats 31 Republicans, and one Independent serving in the Minnesota state senate. Party representation in the state house consisted of 52 Democrats, and 82 Republicans.