Harold Stassen

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Harold Edward Stassen
Harold Edward Stassen
25^th Governor of Minnesota
Term of office: January 2, 1939 – April 27, 1943
Lieutenant Governor:	C. Elmer Anderson, Edward John Thye
Predecessor:	Elmer Austin Benson
Successor:	Edward John Thye
Born:	April 13, 1907 St. Paul, Minnesota
Died:	March 4, 2001 Bloomington, Minnesota
Political party:	Republican
Profession:	lawyer, politician, candidate
Spouse:	Esther G. Glewwe
Religion:	Baptist

Harold Edward Stassen (April 13, 1907 – March 4, 2001) was the 25th Governor of Minnesota from 1939 to 1943 and a later perennial candidate for other offices, most notably and frequently President of the United States.

Born in West St. Paul, Minnesota, he graduated from high school at age 14 and the University of Minnesota Law School in 1929. At 32 he was (and as of 2006 remains) the youngest governor to serve in Minnesota and was seen as an "up and comer" after delivering the keynote address at the 1940 Republican National Convention. At that convention, he helped secure the GOP nomination for Wendell Willkie.

Against the advice of some of his political advisors, Stassen resigned from office in 1943 to serve as an officer in the United States Navy during World War II. Stassen did indeed lose some of his political base while overseas, whereas Republican candidates such as Thomas Dewey had a chance to increase theirs. Stassen was a delegate at the San Francisco Conference that established the United Nations, and president of the University of Pennsylvania from 1948 to 1953. His attempt to establish big-time college football at the university was unpopular and soon abandoned.

Stassen was later best known for being a perennial candidate for the Republican Party nomination for President, seeking it nine times between 1948 and 1992 but never winning it or, after 1952, even coming close. He did receive votes at the Republican National Convention as late as 1968 when he won two votes for president (one from Minnesota and the other from Ohio).

Stassen also ran for:

governor of Minnesota on four occasions (the only elected office he ever won, in his first two attempts),
governor of Pennsylvania twice,
United States Senate twice, and
mayor of Philadelphia once.

Stassen's strongest bid for the presidential nomination was in 1948, when he won a series of upset victories in early primaries. Polls showed that he would beat Harry S. Truman if nominated. He lost the nomination to Thomas Dewey, however, who had already lost in the presidential election of 1944 to Franklin D. Roosevelt. There is some sense that Stassen never got over failing to have the chance to reach what he considered his potential.

Stassen played a key role in the 1952 Republican contest when he released his delegates to Dwight David Eisenhower. This helped Eisenhower to defeat Robert Taft on the first ballot. He served in the Eisenhower Administration, filling posts including director of the Mutual Security Administration (foreign aid) and Special Assistant to the President for Disarmament. During this period he held cabinet rank and led a quixotic effort (perhaps covertly encouraged by Eisenhower, who had serious reservations about Richard Nixon's qualifications for the presidency) to "dump Nixon" at the 1956 Republican Convention. When he left the Eisenhower Administration in 1958, he became a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor of Pennsylvania. His defeat in this race — which was not close — generally was seen as marking the end of his importance as a political figure, although he became a candidate on many occasions in the ensuing years. Though he maintained a successful law practice in Philadelphia and was a major figure of the World War II and immediate post-war eras, he nonetheless became a political laughingstock, even wearing a wig in an apparent effort to look younger and hence presumably more electable.

Stassen gained a reputation as a liberal, particularly when, as president of the American Baptist Convention in 1963, he joined Martin Luther King in his march on Washington, D.C.. He was a prime representative of the liberal stream of American Republicanism. Much of his political thought came from his religious beliefs. An active American (or Northern) Baptist, he held important positions in his denomination and in local and national councils of churches. Many remembered him as much as a church figure as a political candidate.

On the death of A. B. "Happy" Chandler, Stassen became the earliest governor of any U.S. state still living. When he died, the title was passed to Charles Poletti, a former governor of New York. Stassen died in 2001 in Bloomington, Minnesota, aged 93, and is buried at the Acacia Park Cemetery in Mendota Heights, Minnesota.

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Preceded by: Elmer Austin Benson	25th Governor of Minnesota 1939 – 1943	Succeeded by: Edward John Thye
Preceded by: Albert B. Chandler	Earliest living US governor 1991–2001	Succeeded by: Charles Poletti