Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party

The Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party (FLP) 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 and the longest-lasting affiliate of the national Farmer–Labor movement. 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.

History
The Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party emerged from the Non-Partisan League (NPL), which had expanded from North Dakota into Minnesota in 1918, and the Union Labor Party (ULP) of Duluth, Minnesota, which was founded in February 1918. 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.

In 1936, the FLP was informally allied with the New Deal coalition and supported the reelection of President Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt was building a national coalition and wanted a solid base in Minnesota, where the Democrats were a weak third party. 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.

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.

According to political scientist George Mayer: 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.

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.

Governors of Minnesota

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

Lieutenant Governors of Minnesota

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

Attorneys General of Minnesota

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

Minnesota State Treasurers

 * C. A. Halverson (1937–1939)

United States Senators

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

United States Representatives

 * 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

Speakers of the Minnesota House of Representatives

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

Minnesota State Legislators

 * Samuel H. Bellman (1935–1938)
 * Willard F. Bennett (1933–1943)
 * John W. Cox (1935–1938)

Local Politicians

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