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	style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading"| Henry Hastings Sibley (D)
1859	George Loomis Becker	17,582	45.18	rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading"| Alexander Ramsey (R)
1861	Edward O. Hamblin	10,448	39.1
1863	Henry T. Welles	12,739	39.36	style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading"| Stephen Miller (R)
1865	Henry Mower Rice	13,842	44.42	rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading"| William Rainey Marshall (R)
1867	Charles Eugene Flandrau	29,502	45.83
1869	George L. Otis	25,401	46.6	rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading"| Horace Austin (R)
1871	Winthrop Young	30,376	38.86
1873	Asa Barton	35,245	47.56	style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading"| Cushman Kellogg Davis (R)
1875	David L. Buell	35,275	42.03	rowspan=3 style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading"| John S. Pillsbury (R)
1877	William L. Banning	39,147	39.13
1879	Edmund Rice	41,524	39.11
1881	Richard W. Johnson	37,168	35.21	rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading"| Lucius Frederick Hubbard (R)
1883	Adolph Biermann	58,251	42.95
1886	A. A. Ames	104,464	47.36	style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading"| Andrew Ryan McGill (R)
1888	Eugene McLanahan Wilson	110,251	42.14	rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading"| William Rush Merriam (R)
1890	Thomas Wilson	85,844	35.63
1892	Daniel W. Lawler	94,600	36.96	rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading"| Knute Nelson (R)
1894	George Loomis Becker	53,584	18.09
1896	John LindTemplate:Efn	162,254	48.11	style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading"| David Marston Clough (R)
1898		131,980	52.26	style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading"| John Lind (P/DSR)
1900		150,651	47.95	rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading"| Samuel Rinnah Van Sant (R)
1902	Leonard A. Rosing	99,362	36.68
1904	John Albert Johnson	147,992	48.71	rowspan=3 style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading"| John Albert Johnson (D)
1906		168,480	60.93
1908		175,136	51.93
1910	James Gray	103,779	35.23	rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading"| Adolph Olson Eberhart (R)
1912	Peter M. Ringdahl	99,659	31.3
1914	Winfield S. Hammond	156,304	45.54	style="color:black;background-color:Template:Democratic Party (US)/meta/shading"| Winfield S. Hammond (D)
1916	Thomas P. Dwyer	93,112	23.84	rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading"| J. A. A. Burnquist (R)
1918	Fred Wheaton	76,793	19.71
1920	Laurence C. Hodgson	81,293	10.37	rowspan=2 style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading"| J. A. O. Preus (R)
1922	Edward Indrehus	79,903	11.66
1924	Carlos Avery	49,353	5.91	rowspan=3 style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading"| Theodore Christianson (R)
1926	Alfred Jacques	38,008	5.42
1928	Andrew Nelson	213,734	21.38
1930	Edward Indrehus	29,109	3.65	rowspan=3 Template:Party shading/Farmer-Labor| Floyd B. Olson (F-L)
1932	John E. Regan	169,859	16.44
1934		176,928	16.84
1936	No candidateTemplate:Efn			Template:Party shading/Farmer-Labor| Elmer Austin Benson (F-L)
1938	Thomas F. Gallagher	65,875	5.81	rowspan=3 style="background-color:Template:Republican Party (US)/meta/shading"| Harold Stassen (R)
1940	Edward Murphy	140,021	11.21
1942	John D. Sullivan	75,151	9.46

See also

• Democratic Party (United States)
• Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party
• Politics of Minnesota
• Political party strength in Minnesota