Elmer Austin Benson (September 22, 1895 March 13, 1985) was an American lawyer and politician from
Minnesota
Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
. In 1935, Benson was appointed to the U.S. Senate following the death of
Thomas Schall. He served as the
24th governor of Minnesota, defeating Republican
Martin Nelson in a landslide in
Minnesota's 1936 gubernatorial election. He lost the governorship two years later to Republican
Harold Stassen
Harold Edward Stassen (April 13, 1907 – March 4, 2001) was an American Republican Party (United States), Republican Party politician, military officer, and attorney who was the List of governors of Minnesota, 25th governor of Minnesota from 193 ...
in the
1938 gubernatorial election.[Elmer A. Benson, "Politics in My Lifetime." ''Minnesota History'' 47 (1980): 154–60.]
Education
Born in 1895 in
Appleton, Minnesota
Appleton is a city in Swift County, Minnesota, Swift County, Minnesota, United States. Its population was 1,412 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. The town is home to a vacant medium-security prison, the Prairie Correctional Facili ...
, Benson studied law at
William Mitchell College of Law (then the St. Paul College of Law) and served for a year in the
U.S. Army during World War I. He never practiced law after returning from active duty, choosing instead to pursue a banking and business career.
Olson's ally
Benson was a close ally of Governor
Floyd B. Olson, another member of the
Farmer-Labor Party, who helped orchestrate Benson's political rise. Olson appointed Benson state Commissioner of Securities before choosing him to replace
Thomas D. Schall in the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
after Schall's death in December 1935. Benson served in the
74th congress, until November 3, 1936.
Governor of Minnesota
After Olson's premature death from cancer in 1936 and the interregnum of Lieutenant Governor
Hjalmar Petersen, Benson stepped into the breach and was elected the 24th
governor of Minnesota
The governor of Minnesota is the head of government of the U.S. state of Minnesota, leading the state's executive branch. Forty people have been governor of Minnesota, though historically there were also three governors of Minnesota Territory ...
by the largest margin in state history. He served as the
24th governor of Minnesota from January 4, 1937, to January 2, 1939. His defeat by a record margin in 1938 is seen as the beginning of the end of the Farmer-Labor Party as an independent political force and a setback for progressive politics in Minnesota. In 1940, he ran for the United States Senate against
Henrik Shipstead, an incumbent senator who defected from the Farmer-Labor Party to join the Republicans. Benson took second place, receiving 25% of the vote, in a race that also involved a Democrat, while Shipstead was reelected. He ran for the Senate for the last time in 1942, losing to Republican
Joseph H. Ball in a four-way race.
DFL Party
Benson was also the chief figure behind a schism within the DFL Party in Minnesota between 1946 and 1948. The DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party) had been created in 1944 with the merging of the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Farmer-Labor Party. Benson and his supporters actively took control of the party's main committee in 1946, but were displaced by the supporters of
Hubert H. Humphrey (then the mayor of Minneapolis) in 1948. The influence of Humphrey and his supporters had grown significantly within the party between 1946 and 1948 due to Humphrey's popularity and his work through the
ADA, the state
farm co-ops, and support from the national arm of the
CIO. Humphrey's group of supporters—which included such future DFL political stars as
Arthur Naftalin,
Orville Freeman, and
Walter Mondale
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (January 5, 1928April 19, 2021) was the 42nd vice president of the United States serving from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Minnesota from 1964 to 1976. ...
—wrested control of the DFL from Benson's supporters at a February 1948 party convention. Humphrey's later successful Senate campaign signaled a significant victory for his faction within the fledgling DFL Party and the defeat of Benson's candidates in the DFL primaries. The 1948 schism eventually led Benson and his supporters to leave the DFL.
Death
Before ill health drove him from the public arena, Benson became a force within the short-lived
Progressive Party, managing the 1948 presidential campaign of its candidate,
Henry Wallace. Benson died in 1985 in
Minneapolis
Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...
, and is buried at the Appleton Cemetery in the town of his birth,
Appleton, Minnesota
Appleton is a city in Swift County, Minnesota, Swift County, Minnesota, United States. Its population was 1,412 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. The town is home to a vacant medium-security prison, the Prairie Correctional Facili ...
.
Further reading
* Benson, Elmer A. "Politics in My Lifetime." ''Minnesota History'' 47 (1980): 154–60
Online..
* Darg, Philip Lloyd, "The Farmer-Labor Party In Minnesota Politics: 1918–1948" (2015). (PhD dissertation U of North Dakota, 2015
Online.* Haynes, John Earl. ''Dubious alliance: The making of Minnesota's DFL Party'' (U of Minnesota Press, 1984).
* Lovin, Hugh T. "The Fall of Farmer-Labor Parties, 1936–1938." ''Pacific Northwest Quarterly'' (1971): 16–26
JSTOR.* Sofchalk, Donald G. "Union and Ethnic Group Influence in the 1938 Election on the Minnesota Iron Ranges." ''Journal of the West'' (2003) 42#3 pp: 66–74. Retrieved on 2009-5-18.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benson, Elmer A.
1895 births
1985 deaths
People from Appleton, Minnesota
Lutherans from Minnesota
United States Army soldiers
United States senators from Minnesota
Farmer–Labor Party United States senators
Minnesota Farmer–Laborites
William Mitchell College of Law alumni
Minnesota lawyers
United States Army personnel of World War I
Farmer–Labor Party state governors of the United States
Democratic Party governors of Minnesota
American political party founders
20th-century American lawyers
20th-century Lutherans
20th-century United States senators