Minnesota Democratic Party | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1849 (1849) |
| Dissolved | 1944 (1944) |
| Merged into | Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party |
| Ideology | Liberalism[1] |
| Political position | Center-left[2] |
| National affiliation | Democratic Party |
TheMinnesota Democratic Party was a political party in Minnesota that existed from the formation ofMinnesota Territory in 1849 until 1944, when the party merged with theMinnesota Farmer-Labor Party to form the modernMinnesota 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, the1860 presidential election and theCivil 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 dominantRepublican Party. During that period, Democrats held the office ofGovernor of Minnesota for a grand total of seven years, never controlled either chamber of theMinnesota 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 tothird party status, as the Farmer-Laborites became the primary opposition to the Republicans. During the 1930s, a political alliance between Minnesota GovernorFloyd B. Olson andPresidentFranklin 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 in1932, and went on to win the state in each of his re-election bids. In the1936 gubernatorial election the Democratic Party opted not to run its own candidate for Governor, endorsing Farmer-Labor candidateElmer 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 futureVice PresidentHubert H. Humphrey ultimately concluded such a merger in 1944, creating the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
The Farmer-Labor party's resolution for amalgamation of the "Liberal Forces" in Minnesota to form the "Farmer-Labor-Democrat party" highlighted concerns about the war and the postwar peace process.
After bitter losses for both parties in 1942, state Democratic chair Elmer Kelm publicly expressed interest in a merger. Early the following year, he drafted a memo to the national committee, suggesting that President Roosevelt's odds of winning Minnesota's electoral votes were at risk without a unified left-of-center front. […] The FLP for was not opposed to the idea. 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.
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