Elmer Austin Benson

Elmer Austin Benson (September 22, 1895 March 13, 1985) was an American lawyer and politician from Minnesota. 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 in the 1938 gubernatorial election.

Early life & education Benson was born in 1895 in Appleton, Minnesota. His father, Tom Benson, was a member of the Non-Partisan League. His maternal grandfather was a signer of the Norwegian Declaration of Independence. He 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.

Entry into politics

While working as a banker, Benson also organized the Farmer-Labor Party in his native Swift County. He was a close ally of Governor Floyd B. Olson, another Farmer-Laborite, who helped orchestrate Benson's political rise. Olson appointed Benson state Commissioner of Securities in 1932. On April 30, 1933, Olson appointed Benson as Commissioner of Banking. On October 9, 1936, Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered an address at the Minnesota State Capitol in which he endorsed Benson for governor. Benson called Roosevelt a "man who has done more for industrial workers, small business men, and farmers than any other man in this generation". Like previous Farmer-Laborite candidates, Benson faced regular accusations of communism. Specifically, he was accused of being a supporter of Earl Browder. Benson said these accusations were created to distract from real issues. He did not treat them seriously, mostly ignoring them.

Benson's ambitious legislative agenda struggled against a conservative Minnesota Senate. His administration had to rely heavily on his executive power, which he used to protect workers to an unprecedented degree, providing food and shelter for striking timber workers, refusing to renew the license for the Pinkertons operation in the state, sending the Minnesota National Guard to protect striking newspaper workers, ordering the release of arrested striking workers in Albert Lea, and personally conducting labor negotiations.

While running for reelection in 1938, Benson faced serious primary opposition from Hjalmar Petersen, leader of the party's more moderate wing. Benson was renominated, but with only 51.91% of the primary vote. Roosevelt did not endorse him for a second term.

Post-Governor

In 1940, Benson 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. Benson 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—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 A. Wallace. After Wallace's defeat, Benson served as national chair of the Progressive Party until August 1951, when he was forced to retire due to encephalitis. Benson died in 1985 in Minneapolis, and is buried at the Appleton Cemetery in the town of his birth, Appleton, Minnesota.