DFL logo used on a
lectern at the 2006 DFL state convention.
The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) is a major political party in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It was created on April 15, 1944 when the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Farmer-Labor Party merged. Hubert Humphrey was instrumental in this merger. The party is affiliated with the national Democratic Party. Both members of the party and non-members in Minnesota often use "DFLer" instead of "Democrat".[1]
Orville Freeman was elected the state's first DFL governor in 1954. 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. Both ran for the presidency as the nominees of the national Democratic Party; Humphrey in 1968 and Mondale in 1984. Both were unsuccessful, losing to Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, respectively. Both also made bids to return to the Senate after their presidential runs, Humphrey successfully in 1970 and Mondale unsuccessfully in 2002.
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.[2] The party's headquarters are in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
[edit] Candidates Endorsed in 2008
[edit] Challengers
[edit] Incumbents
[edit] Current elected officials
[edit] Constitutional officers
[edit] State legislative leaders
[edit] Members of Congress
DFL 2006 state convention registration desk.
[edit] Current leadership
- Chair – Brian Melendez
- Associate Chair – Donna Cassut
- Treasurer – Lori Sellner
- Secretary – Sue Rego
- Affirmative Action Officer – Jamie Edwards
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
[edit] 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).
