Elmer A. 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.

Elmer A. Benson
24th Governor of Minnesota
In office January 4, 1937 – January 2, 1939
Lieutenant	Gottfrid Lindsten
Preceded by	Hjalmar Petersen
Succeeded by	Harold Stassen
United States Senator from Minnesota
In office December 27, 1935 – November 3, 1936
Appointed by	Floyd B. Olson
Preceded by	Thomas D. Schall
Succeeded by	Guy V. Howard
Personal details
Born	(1895-09-22)September 22, 1895 Appleton, Minnesota, U.S.
Died	March 13, 1985(1985-03-13) (aged 89) Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Political party	Democratic-Farmer-Labor (after 1944)
Other political affiliations	Farmer-Labor (before 1944)
Spouse	Francis Miller
Education	William Mitchell College of Law
Military service
Branch/service	United States Army
Years of service	1918–1919
Rank	Private
Battles/wars	World War I

Education

Born in 1895 in Appleton, Minnesota, 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 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 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—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, and is buried at the Appleton Cemetery in the town of his birth, Appleton, Minnesota.

Further reading

• Benson, Elmer A. "Politics in My Lifetime." Minnesota History 47 (1980): 154–60. Online. Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.
• 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.
• United States Congress. "Elmer A. Benson (id: B000389)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved on 2009-5-18.