Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party

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The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) is a major political party in the US state of Minnesota. It was created on April 15, 1944 when the Minnesota Democratic Party and Farmer-Labor Party merged. Hubert Humphrey was instrumental in this merger. The party is affiliated with the national Democratic Party. The nickname "DFLers" is often used in Minnesota by both members and non-members of the party as an alternative to "Democrats".

In 1954 Orville Freeman was elected the state's first DFL governor. Minneapolis Mayor Hubert H. Humphrey, and Walter Mondale, who each served as a US Senator and as US vice president, were important members of the party.

Other important party members include Senator Eugene McCarthy, who ran for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in 1968 as the anti-Vietnam War candidate, and Senator Paul Wellstone, known during his years in the Senate (1991-2002) as one of that body's chief voices of populist progressivism. The party's headquarters are in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Two DFLers became Vice President and ran for presidency as the nominees of the national Democratic Party. They were Hubert Humphrey in 1968 and Walter Mondale in 1984. Both were unsuccessful, losing to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan respectively.

Several conservative Democratic candidates and officeholders have now left the party, some of them moving to the Independence Party of Minnesota, which considers itself a centrist party; among them are Tim Penny, Peter Hutchinson and Tammy Lee.

Current elected officials

Constitutional officers

• Secretary of State Mark Ritchie
• Auditor Rebecca Otto
• Attorney General Lori Swanson

State legislative leaders

• President of the Senate James Metzen
• Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives Margaret Anderson Kelliher
• Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller
• Minnesota Senate Asst. Majority Leader Tarryl Clark
• Minnesota House of Representatives Majority Leader Tony Sertich

Members of Congress

• Senator Amy Klobuchar
• U.S. Representative (1st District) - Tim Walz
• U.S. Representative (4th District) - Betty McCollum
• U.S. Representative (5th District) - Keith Ellison
• U.S. Representative (7th District) - Collin Peterson
• U.S. Representative (8th District) - Jim Oberstar

Current leadership

• Chair - Brian Melendez
• Associate Chair - Donna Cassut
• Treasurer - Bill Davis
• Secretary - Sue Rego
• Affirmative Action Officer - Megan Thomas

See also

• Republican Party of Minnesota
• Independence Party of Minnesota
• United States presidential election, 1968
• United States presidential election, 1984

References

External links

• Official Minnesota DFL website
• Official Dodge County DFL website

Further reading

• Delton, Jennifer A. Making Minnesota Liberal: Civil Rights and the Transformation of the Democratic Party. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002.
• Haynes, John Earl. Farm Coops and the Election of Hubert Humphrey to the Senate. Agricultural History 57, no. 2 (Fall 1983).
• Haynes, John Earl. Dubious Alliance: The Making of Minnesota’s DFL Party. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984.
• Henrickson, Gary P. Minnesota in the "McCarthy’ Period": 1946-1954. Ph.D. diss. University of Minnesota, 1981.
• Lebedoff, David. The 21st Ballot: A Political Party Struggle in Minnesota. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1969.
• Lebedoff, David. Ward Number Six. New York: Scribner, 1972. Discusses the entry of radicals into the DFL party in 1968.
• Mitau, G. Theodore. The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Schism of 1948. Minnesota History 34 (Spring 1955).

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