# Minnesota Democratic Party

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 | Alexander Ramsey (R) |
| 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 | William Rainey Marshall (R) |
| 1869 | George L. Otis | 25,401 | 46.6 | Horace Austin (R) |
| 1871 | Winthrop Young | 30,376 | 38.86 | Horace Austin (R) |
| 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 | John S. Pillsbury (R) |
| 1879 | Edmund Rice | 41,524 | 39.11 | John S. Pillsbury (R) |
| 1881 | Richard W. Johnson | 37,168 | 35.21 | Lucius Frederick Hubbard (R) |
| 1883 | Adolph Biermann | 58,251 | 42.95 | Lucius Frederick Hubbard (R) |
| 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 | William Rush Merriam (R) |
| 1892 | Daniel W. Lawler | 94,600 | 36.96 | Knute Nelson (R) |
| 1894 | George Loomis Becker | 53,584 | 18.09 | Knute Nelson (R) |
| 1896 | John Lind | 162,254 | 48.11 | David Marston Clough (R) |
| 1898 | John Lind | 131,980 | 52.26 | John Lind (P/DSR) |
| 1900 | John Lind | 150,651 | 47.95 | Samuel Rinnah Van Sant (R) |
| 1902 | Leonard A. Rosing | 99,362 | 36.68 | Samuel Rinnah Van Sant (R) |
| 1904 | John Albert Johnson | 147,992 | 48.71 | John Albert Johnson (D) |
| 1906 | John Albert Johnson | 168,480 | 60.93 | John Albert Johnson (D) |
| 1908 | John Albert Johnson | 175,136 | 51.93 | John Albert Johnson (D) |
| 1910 | James Gray | 103,779 | 35.23 | Adolph Olson Eberhart (R) |
| 1912 | Peter M. Ringdahl | 99,659 | 31.3 | Adolph Olson Eberhart (R) |
| 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 | J. A. A. Burnquist (R) |
| 1920 | Laurence C. Hodgson | 81,293 | 10.37 | J. A. O. Preus (R) |
| 1922 | Edward Indrehus | 79,903 | 11.66 | J. A. O. Preus (R) |
| 1924 | Carlos Avery | 49,353 | 5.91 | Theodore Christianson (R) |
| 1926 | Alfred Jacques | 38,008 | 5.42 | Theodore Christianson (R) |
| 1928 | Andrew Nelson | 213,734 | 21.38 | Theodore Christianson (R) |
| 1930 | Edward Indrehus | 29,109 | 3.65 | Floyd B. Olson (F-L) |
| 1932 | John E. Regan | 169,859 | 16.44 | Floyd B. Olson (F-L) |
| 1934 | John E. Regan | 176,928 | 16.84 | Floyd B. Olson (F-L) |
| 1936 | No candidate | No candidate | 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 | Harold Stassen (R) |
| 1942 | John D. Sullivan | 75,151 | 9.46 | Harold Stassen (R) |
* ↑ In each of his three appearances on the general election ballot for Governor, John Lind ran at the head of a coalition consisting of the Democratic Party, the Silver Republican Party, and the majority faction of the People's Party, and his party affiliation is listed as "P/DSR" (Populist/Democratic Silver Republican) in the list of Minnesota Governors compiled by the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library.
* ↑ In 1936, the Democratic Party did not field a gubernatorial nominee, instead opting to support Farmer-Labor nominee Elmer Austin Benson.