Catalog
March of the Governors #25: Harold Stassen
Paul Nelson with Ken PetersonMarch of the Governors Harold Stassen, Governor #25 March of the Governors Podcast #27 Harold Stassen, Minnesota’s twenty-fifth governor, is among our most intriguing. He sprang to national attention as the state’s “Boy Governor,” elected in 1938 at…
March of the Governors: The Farmer-Labor Party
Paul Nelson with Fred Johnson, Tom O'Connell, Tyler Norris Taylor.March of the Governors The Farmer-Labor Party March of the Governors Podcast #26 Minnesota’s Farmer-Labor Party was the most successful third party in American history. Between 1930 and 1938, the party far outpaced both traditional parties in vote-getting,…
March of the Governors #24: Elmer Benson
Paul Nelson & Tom O'Connell with Steve TrimbleMarch of the Governors, Governor #24 Elmer Austin Benson (Series Podcast #25) We are unlikely to see a politician like Elmer Benson ever again. The small-town, left-wing banker served briefly as a US Senator before becoming governor. He was a genuine political…
March of the Governors #22: Floyd B. Olson
Paul Nelson, Fred Johnson, and Tom BeerMarch of the Governors #22 Floyd Bjornstjerne Olson (Series Podcast #23) By age thirty, Floyd Bjornstjerne Olson (1891-1936) had been a shabbos goy, a college dropout, a stevedore, and a Wobbly. By age forty, he had served ten years as Hennepin County…
March of the Governors #21: Theodore Christianson
Paul Nelson and Matthew WrightMarch of the Governors #21: Theodore Christianson (Series Podcast #22) Theodore Christianson (1883-1948) was a farm boy from Lac Qui Parle County and a progressive Republican who proved eminently successful as a vote-getter and as a government reformer. He was the…
March of the Governors, Governor #17, Adolph Olson Eberhart
Paul Nelson and Ken PetersonAdolph Eberhart Podcast Link Adolph Eberhart (1870-1944) was a penniless, immigrant child from Varmland, Sweden, who embraced the opportunities the United States offered. Despite minimal schooling, he was named valedictorian of his class at Gustavus Adolphus College. He later became…
March of the Governors, Governor #16, John Albert Johnson
Paul Nelson and Ken PetersonJohn Albert Johnson Podcast Link Minnesota’s sixteenth governor, John Albert Johnson, was our fourth from St. Peter. He had a “rags-to-riches Horatio Alger life.” The son of Swedish immigrants, he quit school at age twelve to support his mother and siblings. Self-educated, he eventually became a newspaper…
March of the Governors, Governor #15, Samuel Van Sant
Paul Nelson and Tom O'ConnellSamuel Van Sant was Minnesota’s fifteenth governor—the first to serve in the twentieth century and the first to occupy the current capitol. After three years of combat duty in the Union cavalry (1861-1864), Van Sant joined the family steamboat business in LeClaire, Iowa. In 1883, he moved…
March of the Governors, Governor #14, John Lind
Paul Nelson and Fred JohnsonThree-term US congressman John Lind, a traditional Republican with a stream of populism coursing through his veins, made a major political course change in 1894. Unhappy with Republican policies, Lind, the first Swedish-American elected to Congress, opted not to run for a fourth term and quit the…