Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party

Former American political party (1918–1944)

Farmer–Labor Party of Minnesota

Founded| 1918 (1918)
Dissolved| 1944 (1944)
Merger of| Nonpartisan League[3]
Duluth Union Labor Party
Succeeded by| Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party[7]
Ideology| Co-operative commonwealth[11]
Left-wing populism[12]
Progressivism[13]
Social democracy[17]
Laborism[20]
Anti-capitalism[21]
Factions:
Socialism[24]
Isolationism[23]
Communism (From 1936)[27]
Political position| Left-wing[28]
National affiliation| None (1918–1919)
Labor Party of the United States (1919–1920)
Farmer–Labor Party of the United States (1920–1923)
Federated Farmer–Labor Party (1923–1924)
Farmer–Labor Party of the United States (1924–1936)
None (1936–1944)

* Politics of the United States
* Political parties
* Elections

The Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party (FLP), officially known as the Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota,[29][30] was a left-wing American political party in Minnesota between 1918 and 1944. The FLP largely dominated Minnesota politics during the Great Depression. It was one of the most successful statewide third party movements in United States history[31] and the longest-lasting and most fruitful affiliate of the national Farmer–Labor movement.[32][33] At its height in the 1920s and 1930s, FLP members included three Minnesota governors, four United States senators, eight United States representatives and a majority in the Minnesota legislature.

In 1944, Hubert H. Humphrey and Elmer Benson worked to merge the party with the state's Democratic Party, forming the contemporary Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party.[34]

## History

[edit]

Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party political banner atop a car, circa 1925

The Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party emerged from the Non-Partisan League (NPL), which had expanded from North Dakota into Minnesota in 1918,[35] and the Union Labor Party (ULP) of Duluth, Minnesota, which was founded in February 1918.[35] In 1919, the NPL reorganized as the Working People's Non-Partisan League (WPNPL). In February 1920, the ULP joined the WPNPL.

The FLP ran on a platform of farmer and labor union protection, government ownership of certain industries, and social security laws.[35]

In 1936, the FLP was informally allied with the New Deal coalition and supported the reelection of President Franklin Roosevelt.[36] Roosevelt was building a national coalition and wanted a solid base in Minnesota, where the Democrats were a weak third party.[37] Roosevelt had a deal with Governor Olson whereby the FLP would get federal patronage, and in turn the FLP would work to block a third-party ticket against Roosevelt in 1936.[38]

One of the primary obstacles of the party, besides constant vilification on the pages of local and state newspapers, was the difficulty of uniting the party's divergent base and maintaining political union between rural farmers and urban laborers who often had little in common other than the populist perception that they were an oppressed class of hardworking producers exploited by a small elite. A powerful pro-Communist element wanted fusion during World War II to ensure solidarity between the USSR and the USA, as partners against the Nazis.[39]

According to political scientist George Mayer:[40]

> The farmer approached problems as a proprietor or petty capitalist. Relief to him meant a mitigation of conditions that interfered with successful farming. It involved such things as tax reduction, easier access to credit, and a floor under farm prices. His individualist psychology did not create scruples against government aid, but he welcomed it only as long as it improved agricultural conditions. When official paternalism took the form of public works or the dole, he openly opposed it because assistance on such terms forced him to abandon his chosen profession, to submerge his individuality in the labor crew, and to suffer the humiliation of the bread line. Besides, a public works program required increased revenue, and since the state relied heavily on the property tax, the cost of the program seemed likely to fall primarily on him.

>  At the opposite end of the seesaw sat the city worker, who sought relief from the hunger, exposure, and disease that followed the wake of unemployment. Dependent on an impersonal industrial machine, he had sloughed off the frontier tradition of individualism for the more serviceable doctrine of cooperation through trade unionism. Unlike the depressed farmer, the unemployed worker often had no property or economic stake to protect. He was largely immune to taxation and had nothing to lose by backing proposals to dilute property rights or redistribute the wealth. Driven by the primitive instinct to survive, the worker demanded financial relief measures from the state.

The New Deal farm programs made the American Farm Bureau Federation the main organization for farmers. It was hostile to the FLP, leaving the FLP without power regarding farm economics.[41]

The Minnesota Democratic Party, led by Hubert Humphrey, was able to absorb the Farmer–Labor Party on April 15, 1944, creating the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party. Humphrey and his team expelled the Communist element from the new organization.[42]

## Notable members

[edit]

The 1922 Farmer–Labor Convention, held in Minneapolis

### Governors of Minnesota

[edit]

* Floyd B. Olson (1931–1936)
* Hjalmar Petersen (1936–1937)
* Elmer Austin Benson (1937–1939)

### Lieutenant Governors of Minnesota

[edit]

* Henry M. Arens (1931–1933)
* Konrad K. Solberg (1933–1935)
* Hjalmar Petersen (1935–1936)
* Gottfrid Lindsten (1937–1939)

### Attorneys General of Minnesota

[edit]

* Harry H. Peterson (1933–1936)
* William S. Ervin (1936–1939)

### Minnesota State Treasurers

[edit]

* C. A. Halverson (1937–1939)

### United States Senators

[edit]

* Henrik Shipstead (1923–1941); later became a Republican
* Magnus Johnson (1923–1925)
* Elmer Austin Benson (1935–1937)
* Ernest Lundeen (1937–1940)

### United States Representatives

[edit]

* Charles August Lindbergh (1907–1917) (elected as a Republican)
* William Leighton Carss (1919–1921, 1925–1929)
* Ole J. Kvale (1923–1929)
* Knud Wefald (1923–1927)
* Paul John Kvale (1929–1939)
* Henry M. Arens (1933–1935)
* Magnus Johnson (1933–1935)
* Ernest Lundeen (1933–1937); had previously served as a Republican Representative (1915–1917), also served in the Senate
* Francis Shoemaker (1933–1935)
* Rich T. Buckler (1935–1943)
* John T. Bernard (1937–1939)
* Dewey Johnson (1937–1939)
* Henry Teigan (1937–1939)
* Harold Hagen (1943–1955); served as a Republican after 1945

See also: United States congressional delegations from Minnesota

### Speakers of the Minnesota House of Representatives

[edit]

* Charles Munn (1933–1935)
* Harold H. Barker (1937–1939)

### Minnesota State Legislators

[edit]

* Samuel H. Bellman (1935–1938)
* Willard F. Bennett (1933–1943)
* Myrtle Cain (1923–1924)
* John W. Cox (1935–1938)
* Andrew Olaf Devold (1915–1918, 1919–1926, 1931–1939)

### Local Politicians

[edit]

* William A. Anderson, Mayor of Minneapolis (1931–1933)
* Thomas E. Latimer, Mayor of Minneapolis (1935–1937)
* William Mahoney, Mayor of St. Paul (1932–1934)

### Other members

[edit]

* Nellie Stone Johnson, civil rights activist
* Thomas Van Lear, former mayor of Minneapolis
* Walter Liggett, journalist
* Willard Munger, future state legislator
* Susie Williamson Stageberg, called the "Mother of Farmer-Labor"

## Electoral history

[edit]

### Federal offices

[edit]

U.S. Senate  | U.S. House of Representatives

|

Year  | Nominee  | # votes  | % votes  | Place  | Election  | Leader  | Votes  | Seats  | Position  | Control
1918 | Did Not Contest | 1918 | Did Not Contest |

0 / 10

|  | Republican
1920 | No Seat Up | 1920 | N/A  | 62,332  | 8.34%  |

0 / 10

|  | Republican
1922 | Henrik Shipstead | 325,372  |

47.10 / 100

| Elected | 1922 | N/A  | 35,551  | 5.58%  |

1 / 10

|  1  | Republican
1923 (S)  | Magnus Johnson | 290,165  |

57.48 / 100

| Elected | 1924 | N/A  | 337,035  | 41.48%  |

3 / 10

|  2  | Republican
1924 | Magnus Johnson | 380,646  |

45.50 / 100

| 2nd of 5
1926 | No Seat Up | 1926 | N/A  | 230,758  | 35.03%  |

2 / 10

|  1  | Republican
1928 | Henrik Shipstead | 665,169  |

65.38 / 100

| Re-elected | 1928 | N/A  | 251,126  | 25.84%  |

1 / 10

|  1  | Republican
1930 | Ernest Lundeen | 178,671  |

22.89 / 100

| 3rd of 5  | 1930 | N/A  | 271,599  | 35.75%  |

1 / 10

|  | Republican
1932 | No Seat Up | 1932 | N/A  | 388,616  | 38.75%  |

5 / 9

|  4  | Farmer-Labor
1934 | Henrik Shipstead | 503,379  |

49.87 / 100

| Re-elected | 1934 | N/A  | 376,927  | 37.86%  |

3 / 9

|  2  | Republican
1936 (S)  | Did Not Contest | 1936 | N/A  | 462,714  | 42.40%  |

5 / 9

|  2  | Farmer-Labor
1936 | Ernest Lundeen | 663,363  |

62.24 / 100

| Elected
1938 | No Seat Up | 1938 | N/A  | 338,684  | 31.63%  |

1 / 9

|  4  | Republican
1940 | Elmer Austin Benson | 310,875  |

25.70 / 100

| 2nd of 5  | 1940 | N/A  | 298,250  | 24.74%  |

1 / 9

|  | Republican
1942 | Elmer Austin Benson | 213,965  |

28.21 / 100

| 2nd of 4  | 1942 | N/A  | 151,684  | 19.92%  |

1 / 9

|  | Republican

### Minnesota state offices

[edit]

Governor  | Lieutenant Governor  | Attorney General

|
|

Year  | Nominee  | # votes  | % votes  | Place  | Year  | Nominee  | # votes  | % votes  | Place  | Year  | Nominee  | # votes  | % votes  | Place
1918 | David H. Evans  | 111,948  |

30.28 / 100

| 2nd of 5  | 1918 | Did Not Contest | 1918 | Did Not Contest
1920 | Did Not Contest | 1920 | Did Not Contest | 1920 | Did Not Contest
1922 | Magnus Johnson | 295,479  |

43.13 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1922 | Arthur A. Siegler  | 267,417  |

39.59 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1922 | Roy C. Smelker  | 254,715  |

39.41 / 100

| 2nd of 3
1924 | Floyd B. Olson | 366,029  |

43.84 / 100

| 2nd of 5  | 1924 | Emil E. Holmes  | 345,633  |

42.86 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1924 | Thomas V. Sullivan  | 342,236  |

42.59 / 100

| 2nd of 3
1926 | Magnus Johnson | 266,845  |

38.09 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1926 | Emil E. Holmes  | 236,307  |

35.62 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1926 | Frank McAllister  | 214,781  |

33.32 / 100

| 2nd of 3
1928 | Ernest Lundeen | 227,193  |

22.72 / 100

| 2nd of 5  | 1928 | Thomas J. Meighen  | 235,133  |

24.96 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1928 | C. F. Gaarenstroom  | 192,472  |

20.87 / 100

| 2nd of 3
1930 | Floyd B. Olson | 473,154  |

59.34 / 100

| Elected | 1930 | Henry M. Arens | 345,225  |

50.32 / 100

| Elected | 1930 | Joseph B. Himsl  | 256,581  |

36.57 / 100

| 2nd of 3
1932 | Floyd B. Olson | 522,438  |

50.57 / 100

| Re-elected | 1932 | Konrad K. Solberg | 429,759  |

45.34 / 100

| Elected | 1932 | Harry H. Peterson | 379,418  |

39.87 / 100

| Elected
1934 | Floyd B. Olson | 468,812  |

44.61 / 100

| Re-elected | 1934 | Hjalmar Petersen | 428,897  |

43.64 / 100

| Elected | 1934 | Harry H. Peterson | 436,140  |

44.89 / 100

| Re-elected
1936 | Elmer Austin Benson | 680,342  |

60.74 / 100

| Elected | 1936 | Gottfrid Lindsten | 502,856  |

47.46 / 100

| Elected | 1936 | Harry H. Peterson | 530,815  |

49.62 / 100

| Re-elected
1938 | Elmer Austin Benson | 387,263  |

34.18 / 100

| 2nd of 4  | 1938 | John J. Kinzer  | 374,577  |

34.73 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1938 | William S. Ervin | 378,385  |

35.56 / 100

| 2nd of 3
1940 | Hjalmar Petersen | 459,609  |

36.55 / 100

| 2nd of 4  | 1940 | Howard Y. Williams  | 305,418  |

26.11 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1940 | David J. Erickson  | 284,337  |

24.35 / 100

| 2nd of 3
1942 | Hjalmar Petersen | 299,917  |

37.76 / 100

| 2nd of 5  | 1942 | Juls J. Anderson  | 250,410  |

33.42 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1942 | David J. Erickson  | 187,074  |

25.48 / 100

| 2nd of 3
Secretary of State  | Treasurer  | Auditor
Year  | Nominee  | # votes  | % votes  | Place  | Year  | Nominee  | # votes  | % votes  | Place  | Year  | Nominee  | # votes  | % votes  | Place
1918 | Did Not Contest | 1918 | Did Not Contest | 1918 | Did Not Contest
1920 | Lily J. Anderson  | 193,658  |

26.37 / 100

| 2nd of 5  | 1920 | John P. Wagner  | 191,429  |

26.19 / 100

| 2nd of 4  | 1920 | Seat Not Up
1922 | Susie Williamson Stageberg | 247,757  |

37.37 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1922 | Frank H. Keyes  | 294,102  |

46.39 / 100

| 2nd of 2  | 1922 | Eliza Evans Deming  | 253,913  |

39.60 / 100

| 2nd of 3
1924 | Susie Williamson Stageberg | 288,946  |

35.75 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1924 | Carl M. "C. M." Berg  | 322,585  |

40.67 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1924 | Seat Not Up
1926 | Charles Olson  | 217,424  |

32.60 / 100

| 2nd of 2  | 1926 | Thomas J. Meighen  | 244,861  |

38.89 / 100

| 2nd of 2  | 1926 | S. O. Tjosvold  | 218,074  |

34.52 / 100

| 2nd of 2
1928 | Susie Williamson Stageberg | 178,096  |

18.41 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1928 | Peter J. Seberger  | 205,228  |

21.95 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1928 | Seat Not Up
1930 | Anna Olson Determan  | 209,596  |

27.36 / 100

| 2nd of 4  | 1930 | Frederick B. Miller  | 271,286  |

37.41 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1930 | Henry Teigan | 260,272  |

35.96 / 100

| 2nd of 3
1932 | John T. Lyons  | 342,496  |

34.79 / 100

| 2nd of 4  | 1932 | Albert H. Kleffman  | 360,498  |

37.72 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1932 | Seat Not Up
1934 | Konrad K. Solberg | 359,322  |

35.46 / 100

| 2nd of 4  | 1934 | Albert H. Kleffman  | 377,472  |

38.78 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1934 | John T. Lyons  | 379,654  |

38.69 / 100

| 2nd of 3
1936 | Paul C. Hartig  | 426,668  |

39.16 / 100

| 2nd of 4  | 1936 | C. A. Halverson | 468,713  |

43.79 / 100

| Elected | 1936 | Seat Not Up
1938 | Paul A. Rasmussen  | 328,474  |

29.81 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1938 | C. A. Halverson | 378,160  |

35.27 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1938 | John T. Lyons  | 364,636  |

33.98 / 100

| 2nd of 3
1940 | James I. Heller  | 230,148  |

19.07 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1940 | C. A. Halverson | 296,477  |

25.25 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1940 | Seat Not Up
1942 | Daniel D. Collins  | 146,825  |

19.07 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1942 | Charles J. Johnson  | 183,458  |

24.78 / 100

| 2nd of 3  | 1942 | Did Not Contest

## See also

[edit]

* Non-Partisan League
* New Deal coalition

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Greeley, Patrick (2024-11-11). "The Rise and Fall of Midwest Populism". Jacobin.com. Jacobin. Retrieved 2025-04-15. "However, in 1918, the NPL expanded into neighboring Minnesota, where it joined forces with city worker-focused groups to form the Farmer-Labor Party (FLP)."
2. ^ Savicki, Drew (2020-08-10). "The Road to 270: Minnesota". 270towin.com. Minnesota. Retrieved 2025-04-16. "In the 1920s, members of the national left-wing populist movement called the Nonpartisan League stood for election under a new banner, the Farmer Labor Party."
3. ^ [1][2]
4. ^ "FARMER-LABOR EDUCATION COMMITTEE". farmerlaboreducation.com. Minnesota: FARMER-LABOR EDUCATION COMMITTEE. 2023. Retrieved 2025-02-26. "The Farmer-Labor movement founded the most successful third party in U.S. political history. This progressive movement elected candidates and advanced political change in Minnesota from 1917 until it merged with the Democrats in 1944, to form the DFL, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party."
5. ^ "ABOUT FARMER-LABOR MOVEMENT: A MINNESOTA STORY". Minnesota: Twin Cities PBS. Retrieved 2025-02-26. "Documentary about the history of the progressive Farmer-Labor movement in Minnesota from 1915 to 1944, when the party merged with the Democrats to form the DFL, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party."
6. ^ Staff Writer (2016-10-29). "Answer Man: Historic hotel has link to White House run". Apnews.com. Associated Press. Retrieved 2025-04-28. "In Minnesota, the Farmer-Labor Party joined forces with the Democratic Party to form the DFL in 1944."
7. ^ [4][5][6]
8. ^ O’Connell, Tom. "Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, 1924–1944". mnopedia.org. Minnesota: MNOPEDIA. Retrieved 2025-02-26. "With protest by workers, farmers, and the unemployed rising, the Farmer-Labor convention adopts its Cooperative Commonwealth Platform, outlining a new economic system to replace monopoly capitalism."
9. ^ O’Connell, Tom (2018-09-06). "Minnesota Farmer-Laborism: One hundred years old". Southside Pride. Retrieved 2025-04-21. "At its heart was a belief in a "cooperative commonwealth,""
10. ^ J. Lee, Anders (2023-03-27). "How Hubert H. Humphrey Purged the DFL of Socialists". Racketmn.com. Minnesota: The Racket. Retrieved 2025-04-21. "That would likely be cold comfort to the original Farmer-Laborers and their vision for a "cooperative commonwealth.""
11. ^ [8][9][10]
12. ^ Attributed to multiple sources:

*       * Hudelson, Richard; Ross, Carl (2006). By the ore docks : a working people's history of Duluth. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 978-0-8166-9760-1. OCLC 320324829. Retrieved 2025-02-26.
* Callaghan, Peter (2019-09-18). "As the DFL marks its 75th anniversary, do the party's Farmer-Labor roots still mean anything?". minnpost.com. Minnesota: MinnPost. Retrieved 2025-02-26. "Though the state's dominant political force at the time was the Republican Party, the populist Farmer-Labor Party had managed to do better than the Democrats… But the Farmer-Labor party wasn't formed to represent agricultural interests or rural interests. Rather, it was founded as a populist party with a socialist flavor, one that grew out of the Nonpartisan League, an effort by small farmers to fight the power of the grain conglomerates and the railroads, wrote Augsburg University professor Michael J. Lansing in his history of the movement, "Insurgent Democracy.""
* O’Connell, Tom. "Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, 1924–1944". mnopedia.org. Minnesota: MNOPEDIA. Retrieved 2025-02-26. "The FLP movement continues to influence Minnesota politics. Its progressive populism led to the liberalism of such DFL leaders as Humphrey, Walter Mondale, and Eugene McCarthy."
* "La Follette lost 100 years ago, but his progressivism lives on". The Cap Times. 2024-11-05. Archived from the original on 11 December 2024. Retrieved 2025-01-14. "In fact, the program that La Follette ran on — taxing the rich, cracking down on Wall Street abuses, empowering workers to organize unions, defending small farmers, breaking up corporate trusts, strengthening public utilities — fueled a resurgence of left-wing populist movements across the upper Midwest: the Non-Partisan League of North Dakota, the Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota and the Progressive Party of Wisconsin."
* Greeley, Patrick (2024-11-11). "The Rise and Fall of Midwest Populism". Jacobin.com. Jacobin. Retrieved 2025-03-21. "The story of Minnesota's Farmer-Labor Party in the early 20th century is instructive for the Left, especially in light of this week's election results… The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) is one of only two state-level parties affiliated nationally with the Democratic Party to use a unique name. The other is the North Dakota Democratic–Nonpartisan League Party. These two parties actually share a common history, and this history explains the reasons for the distinction. Now, decades later, these names are all that remains of that history and of the populist movement that once flourished in the upper Midwest… As the party merged into the Democratic machine, its populist energies were chewed up and spat out. As the DFL's star ascended, the populist elements that had made up the Farmer-Labor Party became a distant memory."
* Savicki, Drew (2020-08-10). "The Road to 270: Minnesota". 270towin.com. Minnesota. Retrieved 2025-04-16. "In the 1920s, members of the national left-wing populist movement called the Nonpartisan League stood for election under a new banner, the Farmer Labor Party."

13. ^ Attributed to multiple sources:

*       * O’Connell, Tom. "Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, 1924–1944". mnopedia.org. Minnesota: MNOPEDIA. Retrieved 2025-02-26. "Minnesota's Farmer-Labor Party (FLP) represents one of the most successful progressive third-party coalitions in American history."
* "FARMER-LABOR EDUCATION COMMITTEE". farmerlaboreducation.com. Minnesota: FARMER-LABOR EDUCATION COMMITTEE. 2023. Retrieved 2025-02-26. "The Farmer-Labor movement founded the most successful third party in U.S. political history. This progressive movement elected candidates and advanced political change in Minnesota from 1917 until it merged with the Democrats in 1944, to form the DFL, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party."
* "ABOUT FARMER-LABOR MOVEMENT: A MINNESOTA STORY". Minnesota: Twin Cities PBS. Retrieved 2025-02-26. "Documentary about the history of the progressive Farmer-Labor movement in Minnesota from 1915 to 1944, when the party merged with the Democrats to form the DFL, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party."
* Dreier, Peter (2011-04-11). "La Follette's Wisconsin Idea". Dissent. University of Pennsylvania Press. Retrieved 2025-04-16. "Though he died of a heart attack less than a year after the election, La Follette's success inspired other progressive movements and campaigns around the country, including farmer-labor parties in Minnesota and North Dakota, the Progressive Party in Wisconsin, and the American Labor Party in New York City."
* Staff Writer (2016-10-29). "Answer Man: Historic hotel has link to White House run". Apnews.com. Associated Press. Retrieved 2025-04-28. "The Farmer-Labor Party was the progressive, some would say radical party that was founded as a national organization in 1920 and dissolved in 1936."

14. ^ Stec, Andy (2018-12-06). "A new Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party". hamlineoracle.com. The Oracle. Retrieved 2025-05-06. "Out of Duluth the social democratic Farmer-Labor Party had emerged in 1918 with the express purpose of uniting rural farmers with urban laborers as an oppressed class under the thumb of business and industry elites."
15. ^ Erlandson, Henry (2020-01-25). "Why is Minnesota's Democratic Party called the DFL?". Startribune.com. Minnesota, US: Star Tribune. Retrieved 2025-03-21. "However, poor economic conditions for farmers and workers led to the emergence of the Farmer-Labor Party in 1918, one of many parties with socialist influences in the United States."
16. ^ Callaghan, Peter (2019-09-18). "As the DFL marks its 75th anniversary, do the party's Farmer-Labor roots still mean anything?". minnpost.com. Minnesota: MinnPost. Retrieved 2025-02-26. "But the Farmer-Labor party wasn't formed to represent agricultural interests or rural interests. Rather, it was founded as a populist party with a socialist flavor, one that grew out of the Nonpartisan League, an effort by small farmers to fight the power of the grain conglomerates and the railroads, wrote Augsburg University professor Michael J. Lansing in his history of the movement, "Insurgent Democracy.""
17. ^ [14][15][16]
18. ^ Mucaj, Rudin (May 2022). THE GOSPEL OF LABOR: HOW EVANGELICALISM SHAPED IMMIGRANT WORKERS’ UNIONISM, AND BECAME THE FOUNDATION OF THE MINNESOTA FARMER-LABOR PARTY, 1800 TO 1917 (Master of Arts thesis). Ohio, US: Kent State University. Retrieved 2025-05-06. "Even fewer scholars have looked into the history of laborism in the Midwest and the Minnesota Farmer Labor Party, the most successful labor union movement that still exists to this day as the Minnesota Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, or simply the Minnesota Democratic Party."
19. ^ Greeley, Patrick (2024-11-11). "The Rise and Fall of Midwest Populism". Jacobin.com. Jacobin. Retrieved 2025-03-21. "The FLP carried on the NPL's mission while adding labor union protection to its platform, creating a broad, working-class movement statewide."
20. ^ [18][19]
21. ^ Starr, Joseph R. (June 1936). "Labor and Farmer Groups and Three-Party System". The Southwestern Social Science Quarterly. 17. JSTOR: 15. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
22. ^ Lubotina, Paul (2016). "The Minnesota Farm-Labor Party: The Role of Third Parties in the Americanization of European Labor Radicals in the Great Lakes Region Region". Upper Country: A Journal of the Lake Superior Region. 4 (2). Northern Michigan University's Center for Upper Peninsula Studies: 33. Retrieved 2025-02-28. "However, the cooperation alienated some of the more radical elements in the coalition, such as the Socialists."
23. ^ a b Wright, Scott (2022). "Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota". Ebsco.com. Ebsco. Retrieved 2025-04-21. "The Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota was established in 1918 as a coalition of farmers and workers advocating for moderate political and economic reforms, alongside more radical elements like socialists and isolationists."
24. ^ [22][23]
25. ^ Youngdale, James M. (1986). "Populism, Democracy and Paradigm Shift". American Studies in Scandinavia. 18: 42. Retrieved 2025-03-21. "By and large, neither faction among the Finns became involved with the Nonpartisan Leagues or the forming Farmer-Labor Party until the Popular Front period beginning in 1936. At this time, the communists began to play an active role in Farmer-Labor politics and in the election of John Bernard to Congress, who won immediate fame for his lone vote against the Neutrality Act of 1937, an act which hamstrung aid to Republican Spain to the advantage of Francisco Franco."
26. ^ Delton, Jennifer Alice (2002). Making Minnesota Liberal: Civil Rights and the Transformation of the Democratic Party. MN: University of Minnesota Press. p. 9\. ISBN 0816639221. Retrieved 2025-05-14. "Real communists, however, Communist party-type communists, were a fact of life in 1930s politics. Olson dealt with them as other labor leaders had; that is, he allowed them into the party as part of the "Popular Front" against fascism, and used their organizational skills and zealotry to further his own agenda."
27. ^ [25][26]
28. ^ Attributed to multiple sources:

*       * O’Connell, Tom. "Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, 1924–1944". mnopedia.org. Minnesota: MNOPEDIA. Retrieved 2025-02-26. "The FLP developed a political viewpoint that was to the left of both the New Deal of the 1930s and the Democratic Party of the early 2000s."
* Youngdale, James M. (1986). "Populism, Democracy and Paradigm Shift". American Studies in Scandinavia. 18: 42. Retrieved 2025-03-21. "[…], but still radicalism remained implicit in their planks as they gravitated toward being a left wing of the New Deal."
* Greeley, Patrick (2024-11-11). "The Rise and Fall of Midwest Populism". Jacobin.com. Jacobin. Retrieved 2025-04-15. "Leaders reasoned that it made little sense for two left-leaning minority parties to continue struggling with one another with little chance of overcoming their Republican opponents in the near term."
* Haala, Cory (2020). The Progressive Center: Midwestern Liberalism in the Age of Reagan, 1978-1992 (Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) thesis). Wisconsin: Marquette University. Retrieved 2025-04-16. "In the majority of these states, during either the 1890s or interwar years, left-wing third-party movements—the Populist Party, Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, North Dakota Nonpartisan League, and Wisconsin Progressive Party"
* Maisano, Chris (2020-06-12). "Labor Party in the USA". Jacobin.com. Jacobin. Retrieved 2025-04-28.

29. ^ "FLA 1934 Platform". cooperativecommonwealth.org. Retrieved 2025-04-20.
30. ^ "Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota | EBSCO Research Starters". www.ebsco.com. Retrieved 2025-04-21.
31. ^ "The Rise and Fall of Midwest Populism". jacobin.com. Retrieved 2025-04-20.
32. ^ "Labor Party in the USA". jacobin.com. Retrieved 2025-04-28.
33. ^ "Answer Man: Historic hotel has link to White House run". AP News. 2016-10-29. Retrieved 2025-04-28.
34. ^ "Farmer Labor Party". Spartacus. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
35. ^ a b c Hudelson, Richard; Ross, Carl (2006). By the Ore Docks: A Working People's History of Duluth. University of Minnesota Press. pp. 143–150\. ISBN 0-8166-4636-8.
36. ^ William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1940 (1963) p. 190.
37. ^ James S. Olson, ed. Historical Dictionary of the New Deal (1985) pp 164-165.
38. ^ Clifford Edward Clark, ed. Minnesota in a Century of Change: The State and its People since 1900 (1989). pp 375–379.
39. ^ Arnold A. Offner, Hubert Humphrey: The Conscience of the Country (Yale University Press, 2018) pp. 25, 40–43.
40. ^ George H. Mayer, The Political Career of Floyd B. Olson, (Minneapolis, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1987) 86-87.
41. ^ Richard M Valelly, Radicalism in the states : the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party and the American political economy (1989) p. 15.
42. ^ Hubert H. Humphrey, The Education of a Public Man. My Life and Politics (1976) pp 84-85.

## Further reading

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* Benson, Elmer A. "Politics in My Lifetime." Minnesota History 47 (1980): 154-60. online
* Delton, Jennifer. Making Minnesota Liberal: Civil Rights and the Transformation of the Democratic Party (2002) focus on how Humphrey used race issue to take over FLP..
* Garlid, George W. "The Antiwar Dilemma of the Farmer-Labor Party." Minnesota History (1967): 365-374. in JSTOR
* Gieske, Millard L. Minnesota Farmer-Laborism: The Third-Party Alternative (1979) 389pp
* Haynes, John Earl. Dubious alliance: the making of Minnesota's DFL Party (U of Minnesota Press, 1984)
* Haynes, John Earl. "Farm Coops and the Election of Hubert Humphrey to the Senate." Agricultural History (1983): 201-211. in JSTOR
* Haynes, John Earl. "The new history of the communist party in state politics: The implications for mainstream political history." Labor History (1986) 27#4 pp: 549-563.
* Hyman, Colette A. "Culture as Strategy: Popular Front Politics and the Minneapolis Theatre Union, 1935-39." Minnesota History (1991): 294-306. in JSTOR
* Lovin, Hugh T. "The Fall of Farmer-Labor Parties, 1936-1938." Pacific Northwest Quarterly (1971): 16-26. in JSTOR
* McCoy, Donald R. Angry voices: Left-of-center politics in the New Deal era (1958; reprint 2012)
* Mayer, George H. The Political Career of Floyd B. Olson (1987)
* Mitau, G. Theodore. "The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Schism of 1948." Minnesota History (1955): 187-194. in JSTOR
* Naftalin, Arthur. "The Tradition of Protest and the Roots of the Farmer-Labor Party." Minnesota History 35.2 (1956): 53-63. online
* Rude, Leslie G. "The rhetoric of farmer‐labor agitators." Communication Studies 20.4 (1969): 280-285.
* Sofchalk, Donald G. "Union and Ethnic Group Influence in the 1938 Election on the Minnesota Iron Ranges." Journal of the West (2003) 42#3 pp: 66-74.
* Valelly, Richard M. Radicalism in the States: The Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party and the American Political Economy (University of Chicago Press, 1989)

## External links

[edit]

* Article on the Minnesota Farmer–Labor party from The Progressive Populist
* Minnesota Farmer–Labor
* Farmer–Labor information page
* The Farmer Labor Party 1918–1924 Organizational history of attempts to form a national Farmer–Labor Party. Marxist Internet Archive. Retrieved May 26, 2006.
* TOWARD THE COOPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH: AN INTRODUCTORY HISTORY OF THE FARMER–LABOR MOVEMENT IN MINNESOTA (1917–1948). 232 page online copy of Thomas Gerald O'Connell's 1979 Phd thesis from The Union Institute.
* Luoma, Everett E.: The Farmer Takes A Holiday. Exposition Press, 1967.

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