Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party
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Farmer–Labor Party of Minnesota
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|---|---|
| Founded | 1918 |
| Dissolved | 1944 |
| Preceded by | Nonpartisan League |
| Succeeded by | Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party |
| Ideology |
Populism Progressivism Democratic socialism Cooperative economics |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| National affiliation |
Labor Party of the United States (1919–20) Farmer–Labor Party of the United States (1920–23; 1924–36) Federated Farmer–Labor Party (1923–24) None (1918–19; 1936–44) |
The Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party (FL) was a left-wing American political party in Minnesota between 1918 and 1944. Largely dominating Minnesota politics during the Great Depression, it was one of the most successful statewide third party movements in United States history and the longest-lasting affiliate of the national Farmer–Labor movement. At its height in the 1920s and 1930s, party members included three Minnesota Governors, four United States Senators, eight United States Representatives and a majority in the Minnesota legislature.
In 1944, Hubert H. Humphrey and Elmer Benson worked to merge the party with the state's Democratic Party, forming the contemporary Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party.
The Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party emerged from the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota and the Union Labor Party in Duluth, Minnesota, on a platform of farmer and labor union protection, government ownership of certain industries, and social security laws. One of the primary obstacles of the party, besides constant vilification on the pages of local and state newspapers, was the difficulty of uniting the party's divergent base and maintaining political union between rural farmers and urban laborers who often had little in common other than the populist perception that they were an oppressed class of hardworking producers exploited by a small elite. According to political scientist George Mayer:
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