Philip Nelson

Philip Emanuel Nelson (September 1, 1891 – September 24, 1973) was an American farmer, businessman, and Progressive politician from Douglas County, Wisconsin. He served 12 years in the Wisconsin Senate (1931–1943) and four years in the State Assembly (1927–1931), and was floor leader of the Senate Progressives during the 1937, 1939, and 1941 sessions. He also ran for Governor and Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin and later served as a political appointee under presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, serving in roles at the War Production Board, the United States Department of Commerce, and the United States Department of Agriculture.

Early life Philip Nelson was born in Curtiss, Wisconsin, and graduated from Colby High School in nearby Colby, Wisconsin. He went on to attend Williams Business School in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. As a young man, he went to work as an accountant for the Oakland Motor Car Company in Pontiac, Michigan, but later returned to Wisconsin, operating a cheese factory and working as a general merchant in Rusk County. He ultimately settled in Maple, Wisconsin, in Douglas County, where he established a farm.

He served in the United States Army with the American Expeditionary Forces in .

Nelson ultimately prevailed in the primary, receiving 33% of the vote in the four-way race. There was no Democratic nominee in the district, but Charles Peacock entered the general election race as an independent progressive candidate. Nelson went on to win the general election with 60% of the vote. He continued to serve as Progressive Floor Leader for the remainder of his time in the Senate.

During his third term, in 1940, he ran for the Progressive Party nomination for Governor of Wisconsin. Ultimately five candidates sought the nomination in 1940, Nelson came in a distant 3rd behind Orland Steen Loomis and Harold E. Stafford. Loomis lost the election in 1940 but ran again in 1942.

In 1942, rather than running for re-election in the Senate, Nelson entered the Progressive Party primary race for Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin. He defeated Henry J. Berquist in the primary, but ultimately decided to withdraw from the race a month before the election to accept a federal appointment as deputy chief of the municipal government section of the War Production Board in Washington, D.C. The Progressives replaced him with Berquist as their nominee for Lieutenant Governor, who went on to lose the general election to incumbent Republican Lieutenant Governor Walter Samuel Goodland.

After the end of World War II, Nelson received another federal appointment at the United States Department of Commerce, and was then appointed head of the dairy branch of the Production and Marketing Administration in the United States Department of Agriculture. Nelson ultimately returned to Wisconsin after Truman left office. Like many former Progressives, Nelson became aligned with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and considered a return to elected office, but ultimately did not run again. He died at his home in Superior, Wisconsin, on September 24, 1973.

Electoral history Wisconsin Senate (1930, 1934, 1938)

Year Election Date Elected Defeated Total Plurality 1930 Primary Republican 12,125 42.79% Prog. 10,094 35.62% 28,335 2,031 Dem. 5,667 20.00% Soc. 449 1.58% 1938 Primary Progressive 6,789 43.20% Prog. 5,662 36.03% 15,716 1,127 Prog. 3,265 20.78% General Progressive 13,207 43.10% Rep. 9,526 31.08% 30,646 3,681 Dem. 5,601 18.28% Ind. 2,312 7.54%

Wisconsin Governor (1940)

Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor (1942)