Harold Stassen

Harold Edward Stassen (April 13, 1907 – March 4, 2001) was an American Republican Party politician, military officer, and attorney who was the 25th governor of Minnesota from 1939 to 1943.

At the University of Minnesota, Stassen was an intercollegiate debater and orator, and captain of the champion university rifle team in 1927.

He received his B.A. degree in 1927, and his LL.B. degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1929.

That year, he married his wife, the former Esther Glewwe.

In 1930, after opening a law office with Elmer J. Ryan in South St. Paul, Stassen defeated Alfred Joyce, the incumbent county attorney of Dakota County, and took office on January 5, 1931, months after Joyce was suspended from practicing law.

Three years after taking office Stassen was elected president of the Minnesota County Attorneys' association.

In 1935, Stassen participated in the creation of the Young Republicans committee in Minnesota and was one of three elected to be temporary members of the state committee to carry on pre-convention work and would be elected its chairman later that year.

In 1936 Stassen led an effort by the Young Republicans that demanded greater representation for them at county conventions and for their inclusion in state leadership before his tenure as chairman ended later that year.

Stassen was a delegate to the 1936 Republican National Convention.

On April 24, 1937, he gave the keynote address at the Minnesota Republican state convention.

He won election as Governor of Minnesota in 1938.

Stassen is the youngest person elected to that office.

In October he announced his intention to run for governor in 1938, and formally started his campaign in November.

Despite being a member of the party's executive committee Stassen seconded a motion preventing a gubernatorial endorsement at the convention in December.

On January 2, 1939 Stassen was inaugurated by Chief Justice Henry M. Gallagher.

His first action was to order an audit of expenditures in every state department.

He later signed into law Minnesota's first civil service law.

In September 1939 he organized a farm problems conference, attended by the governors of South Dakota, Wisconsin, Kansas, North Dakota, and Illinois or their representatives.

World War Two's effect on agriculture was the main issue considered.

By the end of 1939 Stassen's approval rating was over 80% and he had the support of over 80% of both Democrats and Farmer-Laborers.

Despite the fact that Stassen was then constitutionally ineligible for the presidency because of the requirement for the president to be at least 35 years of age, some Republicans supported his involvement in presidential politics and Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes commented that Stassen was a political upcomer and was more serious than Dewey.

During his governorship, Stassen created the Interracial Commission, the first civil rights organization of Minnesota and appointed African-American World War I veteran Samuel Ransom as his military aide.

He gave the keynote address at the 1940 Republican National Convention.

When New York District Attorney and future Governor Thomas E. Dewey traveled to Minneapolis during the 1940 presidential campaign he was introduced by Stassen.

Stassen, who was reelected as governor of Minnesota in 1940 and 1942, supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt's foreign policy and encouraged the state Republican Party to repudiate American isolationism before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

During the 1942 campaign, he announced that, if re-elected, he would resign to serve on active duty with the United States Naval Reserve, which Stassen had joined with the rank of lieutenant commander earlier that year.

He was a leading candidate for the Republican nomination for president of the United States in 1948.

Though he was considered for a time to be the front-runner, but he lost the nomination to New York governor Thomas E. Dewey.

He thereafter regularly continued to run for the presidency and other offices, such that his name became most identified with his status as a perennial candidate.

Born in West St. Paul, Minnesota, Stassen was elected as the county attorney of Dakota County, Minnesota after graduating from the University of Minnesota.

He resigned as governor to serve in the United States Navy during World War II, becoming an aide to Admiral William Halsey Jr. After the war, he became president of the University of Pennsylvania, holding that position from 1948 to 1953.

Stassen sought the presidential nomination at the 1948 Republican National Convention, winning a significant share of the delegates on the first two ballots of the convention.

During the Republican primaries preceding the convention, he engaged in the Dewey–Stassen debate, the first recorded debate between presidential candidates.

Stassen sought the presidential nomination again at the 1952 Republican National Convention, and helped Dwight D. Eisenhower win the nomination by shifting his support to Eisenhower.

After serving in the Eisenhower administration, Stassen sought various offices.

Between 1958 and 1990, he campaigned unsuccessfully for the positions of Governor of Pennsylvania, Mayor of Philadelphia, United States Senator, Governor of Minnesota, and United States Representative.

He further sought the Republican nomination for president in 1964, 1968, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992.

Stassen, the third of five children, was born in West St. Paul, Minnesota, to Elsie Emma (née Mueller) and William Andrew Stassen, a farmer and several times mayor of West St. Paul.

His mother was German and his father was born in Minnesota, to German and Czech parents.

At the age of 11 Stassen graduated from elementary school and four years later graduated from high school.