TheNonpartisan League (NPL) was aleft-wingpolitical party founded in 1915 inNorth Dakota byArthur C. Townley, a formerorganizer for theSocialist Party of America. On behalf of small farmers and merchants, the Nonpartisan League advocated state control of mills, grain elevators, banks, and other farm-related industries in order to reduce the power of corporate and political interests fromMinneapolis andChicago.^[22]

The League adopted the goat as a mascot; it was known as "The Goat that Can't be Got".^[23]

By the 1910s, the growth of left-wing sympathies was on the rise in North Dakota. TheSocialist Party of North Dakota had considerable success. They brought in many outside speakers, includingEugene V. Debs, who spoke at a largeantiwar rally atGarrison in 1915. By 1912, there were 175 Socialist politicians in the state.Rugby andHillsboro elected Socialist mayors. The party had also established a weekly newspaper, theIconoclast, in Minot.^[24]

In 1914,Arthur C. Townley, aflax farmer fromBeach, North Dakota, andorganizer for theSocialist Party of America, attended a meeting of theAmerican Society of Equity. Afterwards, Townley and a friend, Frank B. Wood, drew up a radical political platform that addressed many of the farmers' concerns, and created the Farmers Non-Party League Organization, which later evolved into the Nonpartisan League. Soon, Townley was traveling the state in a borrowedFord Model T, signing up members for a payment of $6 in dues. Farmers were receptive to Townley's ideas and joined in droves.^{[citation needed]} However, Townley was soon expelled from the Socialist Party due to this method of rogue operating.^[24]

The League grew in 1915. At that time, small farmers in North Dakota felt exploited by out-of-state companies. One author later described the wheat-growing state as "a tributary province ofMinneapolis-St. Paul."Minnesota banks made its loans, Minnesota millers handled its grain, andAlexander McKenzie, North Dakota'spolitical boss, lived inSaint Paul, Minnesota.^[25] Rumors spread at a Society of Equity meeting inBismarck that astate representative namedTreadwell Twichell had told a group of farmers to "go home and slop the hogs." Twichell later said that his statement was misinterpreted. He had been instrumental in previous legislative reforms to rescue the state from boss rule by McKenzie and theNorthern Pacific Railroad around the start of the 20th century.^{[citation needed]}

Proposing that the state of North Dakota create its own bank, warehouses, and factories,^[25] the League was supported by a populist groundswell. It ran its slate asRepublican Party candidates in the 1916 elections. In thegubernatorial election, farmerLynn Frazier won with 79% of the vote. In 1917,John Miller Baer won aspecial election for theUnited States House of Representatives.^{[citation needed]} In the 1918 elections, the NPL won full control of both houses of thestate legislature.^[26]

The League politicians enacted a significant portion of its previous election platform. It established state-run agricultural enterprises such as theNorth Dakota Mill and Elevator, theBank of North Dakota, and astate-owned railroad.^{[citation needed]} The legislature also passed a statewidegraduated income tax, which distinguished between earned andunearned income, authorized a state hail insurance fund, and established aworkmen's compensation fund that assessed employers.^{[citation needed]} The NPL also set up a Home Building Association, to aid people in financing and building houses.^{[citation needed]}

DuringWorld War I, Townley demanded the "conscription of wealth", blaming "big-bellied, red-neckedplutocrats" for the war. He and fellow party leaderWilliam Lemke received support for the League fromisolationistGerman-Americans.^[25]

The NPL's success was short-lived. After the war ended, commodity prices dropped and the West was struck by adrought. This caused an agricultural depression.^{[citation needed]} As a result of the depression, the new state-owned industries ran into financial trouble, and the private banking industry, smarting from the loss of its influence in Bismarck, rebuffed the NPL when it tried to raise money through state-issued bonds.^{[citation needed]} The industry said that the state bank and elevator were "theoretical experiments" that might easily fail. Moreover, the NPL's lack of governing experience led to perceived infighting and corruption. Newspapers and business groups portrayed the NPL as inept and disastrous for the state's future.^{[citation needed]}

In 1918, opponents of the NPL formed theIndependent Voters Association (IVA). In 1921, the IVA organized arecall election which successfully recalled Frazier as governor. Frazier lost the recall election by a margin of 1.8%, becoming the first U.S. state governor to be recalled. However, a year later he was elected in the1922 United States Senate election in North Dakota, serving until 1940.^{[citation needed]}

The 1920s were economically difficult for farmers, and the NPL's popularity receded.^{[citation needed]} By 1922, the NPL had retreated from all other states to just North Dakota.^{[citation needed]}

However, the populist undercurrent that fueled the NPL's meteoric growth revived with the coming of theGreat Depression andDust Bowl conditions of the 1930s. The NPL'sWilliam "Wild Bill" Langer was elected to the governorship in1932 and1936. Langer was later elected to the U.S. Senate, serving from1940 until his death in 1959.^{[citation needed]}

By 1950, two factions divided the traditionally left-wing NPL; on one side were the Insurgents, and on the other were the Old Guard.^[24] The Insurgents alignedliberally with pro-farmers' union,organized labor, andDemocratic Party groups. The Insurgents wanted to merge the NPL with theNorth Dakota Democratic Party. In1952, the Insurgents formed the Volunteers for Stevenson Committee, to help electAdlai Stevenson II, thegovernor ofIllinois and Democratic nominee forpresident. The Old Guard, also known as theCapitol Crowd, were moreconservative, anti-farmers' union, anti-labor, and pro-Republican segment of the league, these members wanted to keep the Nonpartisan League aligned with the Republican Party; they supported GeneralDwight D. Eisenhower in the 1952 presidential race. Over the following four years, legislative polarization grew and the Nonpartisan League eventually split in two. In 1956, the Nonpartisan League formally merged with the state Democratic Party, creating theNorth Dakota Democratic-Nonpartisan League Party, while much of the League's base joined theNorth Dakota Republican Party. The Democratic-Nonpartisan League Party introduced a unified slate of candidates for statewide offices and adopted a liberal platform that included the repeal of theTaft–Hartley Act, creation of aminimum wage of $1.25 an hour, and a graduated land tax on property worth $20,000 or more. In May 1956, the Democratic Convention accepted the Nonpartisan League's candidates and adopted its platform, fully unifying the two parties into one.^[24]

Although the Democrats were still in the minority in the state government, the number of Democrats in the state legislature increased greatly. Before the league moved into the Democratic Party, there were only five Democrats among the 162 members of both houses of the legislature in 1955. By 1957, the number grew to 28, and in 1959 the numbers continued to grow, reaching 67.^[24]

• United States Senators:
  • Edwin F. Ladd (1921–1925)
  • Lynn Frazier (1923–1941)
  • Gerald Nye (1925–1945)
  • William Langer (1941–1959)
• United States Representatives:
  • George M. Young^[a] (1913–1924)
  • John M. Baer (1917–1921)
  • James H. Sinclair (1919–1933)
  • Thomas Hall (1924–1933)
  • William Lemke (1933–1941, 1943–1950)
  • Usher L. Burdick (1935–1945, 1949–1959)
• Governors of North Dakota:
  • Lynn Frazier (1917–1921)
  • Arthur G. Sorlie (1925–1928)
  • Walter Maddock (1928–1929)
  • William Langer (1933–1934, 1937–1939)
  • Ole H. Olson (1934–1935)
  • Walter Welford (1935–1937)
• Lieutenant Governors of North Dakota:
  • Howard R. Wood (1919–1923)
  • Walter Maddock (1925–1928)
  • Ole H. Olson (1933–1934)
  • Walter Welford (1935)
  • Thorstein H. H. Thoresen (1937–1939)
  • Jack A. Patterson (1939–1941)
  • Oscar W. Hagen (1941–1943)
• North Dakota Attorneys General:
  • William Langer (1917–1920)
  • William Lemke (1921)
  • Arthur J. Gronna (1933)
  • Peter O. Sathre (1933–1937)
  • Alvin C. Strutz (1937–1944)
• North Dakota Secretaries of State:
  • Thomas Hall (1913–1924, 1943–1954)
  • James D. Gronna (1935–1940)
• North Dakota Public Service Commissioner:
  • Ben C. Larkin (1941–1949)
• North Dakota State Treasurers:
  • Obert A. Olson (1919–1920)
  • Berta E. Baker (1929–1932)
  • Alfred S. Dale (1933–1934)
  • John R. Omland (1939–1940)
• North Dakota State Auditors:
  • Carl R. Kositzky (1917–1920)
  • David C. Poindexter (1921–1924)
  • Berta E. Baker (1935–1956)
• North Dakota Superintendent of Public Instruction:
  • Neil C. Macdonald (1917–1918)
• North Dakota Insurance Commissioners:
  • Sveinung A. Olsness (1917–1934)
  • Harold Hopton (1935–1936)
  • Oscar E. Erickson (1937–1945)
• North Dakota Commissioners of Agriculture and Labor:
  • John N. Hagan (1917–1921, 1937–1938)
  • Theodore Martell (1935–1936)
  • Math Dahl (1939–1964)
• North Dakota Tax Commissioners:
  • George E. Wallace (1919–1921)
  • Thorstein H. H. Thoresen (1925–1929)
  • Frank A. Vogel (1933)
  • J J. Weeks (1933–1935)
  • John Kenneth Murray (1937)
  • Owen T. Owen (1937–1938)
  • Claude P. Stone (1938–1939)
• North Dakota State Examiners:
  • O. E. Lofthus (1919–1921)
• North Dakota State Representatives:
  • A. C. Miller (1925–1927)

• The NPL arose as a faction within theRepublican Party in 1915. By the 1950s, its members felt more affiliation with theDemocratic Party and merged with the North Dakota Democrats. The North Dakota branch of the Democratic Party is therefore known as theNorth Dakota Democratic-Nonpartisan League Party to this day. The Executive Committee of the NPL still formally exists within the party structure of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL. It was at one point headed by former State SenatorBuckshot Hoffner (D-NPL, Esmond), chairman, and former Lt. GovernorLloyd B. Omdahl, Secretary.
• The Nonpartisan League laid a foundation of enriched public ownership and responsibility in such institutions as a state bank. One study has drawn conclusions that publicly operated institutions such as the state bank have helped North Dakota weather these economic storms.^[27]
• TheBank of North Dakota was created to address market failures associated with monopoly power among large financial and business institutions in the early twentieth century. This market power meant that small farming operations had inadequate access to credit. One of the goals of the Nonpartisan League was to remedy limited access to credit by establishing this institution. A measure of the public good brought about by the Bank's establishment that still stands today is what some have identified as the Bank's role in reducing the impact of economic recession. The public-private relationship establishes roles assigned according to what each sector does best, allowing the mutual benefit of public and private banks balancing out inequality and building equality, thus creating an economic safety net for North Dakota citizens. These early roots of the Democratic-Nonpartisan League party have been celebrated for establishing a foundation that rights the state in times of national crisis and provides economic security to generations of the state's farmers.
• The early success of the party in North Dakota spawned Nonpartisan League branches on the Canadian prairies, including theAlberta Non-Partisan League and another inSaskatchewan.^[28] Two Alberta NPL members were elected in the1917 provincial election; the party was absorbed in 1919 by theUnited Farmers of Alberta, who would form government from 1921 until 1935. These groups would later merge into theNew Democratic Party (NDP). No NPL candidates were elected in Saskatchewan, but the party boasted the first woman to run for office in the province: Zoa Haight.^[28]
• As of February 2026^[update], both the North Dakota Mill and Elevator and the Bank of North Dakota continue to operate. The legislature in 1932 prohibitedcorporate farming and corporate ownership of farmland.
• TheFred and Gladys Grady House and theOliver and Gertrude Lundquist House, both inBismarck, North Dakota, are listed on the U.S.National Register of Historic Places as examples of the work of the Nonpartisan League's Home Building Association.^[29]

• Northern Lights (1978), a feature film starringJoe Spano, portrayed early 20th century conditions in North Dakota and the rise of the NPL among immigrant farmers. The film won the 1980Camera d'Or award for best first film at theCannes Film Festival.
• The didactic historical novelHarangue (The Trees Said to the Bramble Come Reign Over Us) (1926) byGaret Garrett tells the story of the Non-Partisan League and its various supporters after the league took control of the North Dakota government in 1919.^[30][31]

• American left
• Agricultural Workers Organization
• Granger movement
• Boll weevil (politics)
• Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party
• Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party
• Socialist Party of North Dakota
• North Dakota Democratic–Nonpartisan League Party
• United Farmers of Canada
• Alice Lorraine Daly

• Ellsworth, Scott.Origins of the Nonpartisan League. PhD dissertation. Duke University, 1982.
• Gaston, Herbert E.The Nonpartisan League. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Howe, 1920.
• Huntington, Samuel P. "The Election Tactics of the Nonpartisan League,Mississippi Valley Historical Review, vol. 36, no. 4 (March 1950), pp. 613–632.in JSTOR
• Lansing, Michael.Insurgent democracy: the Nonpartisan League in North American politics (University of Chicago Press, 2015)
• Lipset, Seymour M. (1971)Agrarian Socialism, (University of California Press, Berkeley)
• Morlan, Robert L.Political Prairie Fire: The Nonpartisan League 1915–1922. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1955.
• Morlan, Robert L. "The Nonpartisan League and the Minnesota Campaign of 1918,"Minnesota History, vol. 34, no. 6 (Summer 1955), pp. 221–232.In JSTOR
• Moum, Kathleen. "The Social Origins of the Nonpartisan League."North Dakota History 53 (Spring 1986): 18–22.
  • Moum, Kathleen Diane.Harvest of Discontent: The Social Origins of the Nonpartisan League, 1880–1922. PhD Dissertation. University of California, Irvine, 1986.
• Nielsen, Kim E. "'We All Leaguers by Our House': Women, Suffrage, and Red-Baiting in the National Nonpartisan League."Journal of Women's History, vol. 6, no. 1 (1994), pp. 31–50.
• Reid, Bill G. "John Miller Baer: Nonpartisan League Cartoonist and Congressman,"North Dakota History, vol. 44, no. 1 (1977), pp. 4–13.
• Remele, Larry. "Power to the People: The Nonpartisan League," in Thomas W. Howard, ed.The North Dakota Political Tradition. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press, 1981.
• Remele, Larry R. "The Lost Years of A.C. Townley (after the Nonpartisan League)."ND Humanities Council Occasional Paper, (1988) no. 1, pages 1–27
• Rude, Leslie G. "The Rhetoric of Farmer‐Labor Agitators."Communication Studies 20.4 (1969): 280–285.
• Saloutos, Theodore. "The Expansion and Decline of the Nonpartisan League in the Western Middle West, 1917–1921,"Agricultural History, vol. 20, no. 4 (Oct. 1946), pp. 235–252.In JSTOR
• Saloutos, Theodore. "The Rise of the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota, 1915–1917,"Agricultural History, vol. 20, no. 1 (Jan. 1946), pp. 43–61.In JSTOR
• Schoeder, Lavern.Women in the Nonpartisan League in Adams and Hettinger Counties. (In "Women on the Move", edited by Pearl Andre, 47–50: Book produced for the International Women's Year for North Dakota Democratic-NPL Women, 1975).
• Starr, Karen. "Fighting for a Future: Farm Women of the Nonpartisan League,"Minnesota History, (Summer 1983), pp. 255–262.
• Vivian, James F. "The Last Round-Up: Theodore Roosevelt Confronts the Nonpartisan League, October 1918,"Montana: The Magazine of Western History, vol. 36, no. 1 (Winter 1986), pp. 36–49.in JSTOR
• Wasson, Stanley Philip.The Nonpartisan League in Minnesota: 1916–1924. (PhD Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1955).
• Wilkins, Robert P. "The Nonpartisan League and Upper Midwest Isolationism,Agricultural History, vol. 39, no. 2 (April 1965), pp. 102–109.In JSTOR

• Nonpartisan League in MNopedia, the Minnesota Encyclopedia
• North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party Website
• North Dakota State University Institute for Regional Studies Nonpartisan League Collection
• Article on the NPL from the Progressive Populist
• Northern Lights – docudrama of the forming of the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota
• The Nonpartisan Leader. The NPL's official organization
• Socialist Herald/The Herald (1915–1916). Seattle newspaper associated with the NPL.
• The Rise and Fall of the Non-Partisan League - PBS Documentary

• Nonpartisan League
• Political parties established in 1915
• History of North Dakota
• Defunct political parties in the United States
• Regional and state political parties in the United States
• Political parties in North Dakota
• 1915 establishments in North Dakota
• Localism (politics)
• State and local socialist parties in the United States
• Socialism in North Dakota

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