- Elmer Austin Benson
Infobox Governor
name=Elmer Austin Benson
caption=Elmer Austin Benson
order= 24th
office= Governor of Minnesota
term_start=January 4 ,1937
term_end=January 2 ,1939
lieutenant=Gottfrid Lindsten
predecessor=Hjalmar Petersen
successor=Harold Stassen
birth_date= birth date|1895|9|22|mf=y
birth_place=Appleton, Minnesota
death_date= death date and age|1985|3|13|1895|9|22|mf=y
death_place=Appleton, Minnesota
party=Farmer-Labor
profession=politician
spouse=Francis Lillian Miller
religion=
footnotes=Elmer Austin Benson (
September 22 ,1895 ndashMarch 13 ,1985 ) was an Americanpolitician fromMinnesota . Born in 1895 inAppleton, Minnesota , he was appointed to theUnited States Senate onDecember 27 ,1935 after the death ofThomas D. Schall and served untilNovember 3 ,1936 in the 74th congress.He was elected the 24th
Governor of Minnesota in 1936, by the largest margin in Minnesota history. He served as governor fromJanuary 4 ,1937 toJanuary 2 ,1939 . He lost his bid for reelection in 1938. He was a member of the Farmer-Labor Party. His defeat by a record margin in 1938 is seen as 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 againstHenrik 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, and was defeated by RepublicanJoseph H. Ball in a 4-way race.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 . This was the last hurrah of an outspoken statesman who lived to see many of his once-radical ideas enacted into law. He died in 1985 inMinneapolis, Minnesota and is buried at the Appleton Cemetery in the town of his birth,Appleton, Minnesota .
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