Harold Stassen
Harold Edward Stassen was an American Republican Party politician, military officer, and attorney who was the 25th governor of Minnesota from 1939 to 1943. 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, 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 won election as Governor of Minnesota in 1938. Stassen is the youngest person elected to that office. He gave the keynote address at the 1940 Republican National Convention. 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 debate between presidential candidates for which an audio recording was made.
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.
Early life (1907–1930)
Stassen, the third of five children, was born in West St. Paul, Minnesota, to Elsie Emma and William Andrew Stassen, a farmer and several times mayor of West St. Paul. His mother was German. His father was born in Minnesota to a German father and a Czech mother. At the age of 11 Stassen graduated from elementary school and four years later graduated from high school. 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.Career
Early political career (1930–1938)
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. 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.
Governorship (1939–1943)
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. When New York District Attorney and future Governor Thomas E. Dewey traveled to Minneapolis during the 1940 presidential campaign he was introduced by Stassen. 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.| Year | Approve | Disapprove |
| 1939 | 81% | 19% |
| 1943 | 91% | 5% |
World War II
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.Stassen was re-elected governor in November 1942 and, true to his campaign promise, resigned as governor on April 23, 1943, prior to reporting for active duty with the Navy. Although he would run in 13 more elections in his life, this was the last time he would hold an elected office.
After being promoted to the rank of commander, he joined the staff of Admiral William F. Halsey, Commander of the Third Fleet in the Pacific Theater. He was awarded the Legion of Merit for meritorious service in this position. After almost two and a half years of service, he was promoted to the rank of captain on September 27, 1945, and was released from active duty in November of the same year.
Stassen lost some of his political base while overseas, whereas Republican candidates such as Thomas E. Dewey had a chance to increase theirs. Stassen was a delegate at the San Francisco Conference that established the United Nations and was one of the US signatories of the United Nations Charter. He served as president of the University of Pennsylvania from 1948 to 1953. His attempt to increase the prominence of the university football team was unpopular and soon abandoned. From 1953 to 1955, he was the director of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's short-lived Foreign Operations Administration.
Presidential politics (1944–1964)
Stassen was later best known for being a perennial candidate for the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States, seeking it nine times between 1944 and 1992. He never won the Republican nomination, much less the presidency; in fact, after 1952, he never even came close, but continued to campaign actively and seriously for president until just a year before his death.Due to his victory in the gubernatorial race, status as America's youngest governor and overwhelming approval rating Stassen was touted as a possible future Republican presidential nominee starting in 1940 despite the fact that he would not be constitutionally eligible to serve until 1942 due to the requirement that a President be at least 35 years of age.
Stassen's strongest bid for the Republican presidential nomination was in 1948 when he won a series of upset victories in early primaries. His challenge to the front runner, New York Governor and 1944 G.O.P. presidential nominee Thomas E. Dewey, was serious enough that Dewey challenged Stassen to a debate on the night before the Oregon Republican primary. The May 17 Dewey–Stassen debate was the first recorded modern debate between presidential candidates to take place in the United States. The debate, which concerned the criminalization of the Communist Party of the United States, was broadcast over the radio throughout the nation.
At the convention in Philadelphia, Osro Cobb, the then Republican state chairman in Arkansas, made a seconding speech for Stassen, having been motivated by Stassen's promise if nominated to campaign actively in the South. Cobb described the South as "the last frontier to which we can turn for substantial gains for our party – gains that can be held in the years to come. There is a definite affinity between the southern farmer and the grassroots Midwestern Republicans. …Our party simply cannot indulge the luxury of a Solid South, handed on a silver platter to the opposition every four years...."
In the first two rounds of balloting, Stassen finished third behind Dewey, the front runner, and Robert Taft. After the second round, Stassen and Taft bowed out and Dewey was selected unanimously as the nominee on the next ballot. In all Republican conventions since 1948, the nominee has been selected on the first ballot.
Stassen was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1949. Stassen attended "the notorious State Department Policy Conference of October 1949" which although initially not designated secret was given that moniker which Stassen objected to and insisted his contributions were recorded, which was granted. In later Senate testimony he claimed there was a prevailing bias in opposition to his own view on Asiatic policy and ultimately that they, including Philip Caryl Jessup, Owen Lattimore and Lawrence Kaelter Rosinger, were undermining the free-world by pursuing the communist line.
His home-state delegation played a key role in the 1952 Republican contest when, over his objection, his delegates were released to Dwight D. Eisenhower. This swing helped Eisenhower to defeat Robert A. Taft on the first ballot. Stassen served in the Eisenhower Administration, filling posts including director of the Mutual Security Administration and Special Assistant to the President for Disarmament. During this period, he held cabinet rank and led a quixotic effort to "dump Nixon" at the 1956 Republican National Convention.