Power / Comment

The Rise and Fall of Midwest Populism

When the Minnesota’s Farmer-Labor Party merged into the Democratic machine, its populist energies were chewed up and spat out.

by Patrick Greeley via Jacobin on November 11, 2024

...Dakota Democratic–Nonpartisan League Party. These two parties actually share a common history, and this history explains the reasons for the distinction. Now, decades later, these names are all that remains of that history and of the populist movement that once flourished in the upper Midwest.

The Nonpartisan League

A rise in left-wing sentiment in North Dakota during the 1910s culminated in 1915 when Arthur C. Townley, a farmer and former organizer for the Socialist Party of America, drew up a platform to address farmers’ interests that he felt were ignored by the two-party system. He founded the Farmers Non-Party League Organization, later known as the Nonpartisan League (NPL). The League’s various goals included improved state services, women’s suffrage, and state ownership of banks, mills, and elevators. With a robust grassroots campaign, the NPL quickly grew in numbers, and by the 1916 primaries, it had effectively seized control of the state’s Republican Party, winning both houses of the state legislature as well as the governor’s office.

Its victory, however, proved short-lived. At the close of World War I, a drought and a drop in grain prices caused an agricultural recession. The League’s opponents accused it of opposing the war effort, and soon internal conflicts emerged within the coalition that formed the party’s core. The NPL lost control of the statehouse, resulting in a vote to recall governor Lynn J. Frazier. It seemed the third-party experiment was to be swept out with the prairie winds.

However, in 1918, the NPL expanded into neighboring Minnesota, where it joined forces with city worker-focused groups to form the Farmer-Labor Party (FLP). The FLP carried on the NPL’s mission while adding labor union protection to its platform, creating a broad, working-class movement statewide. The new party was a hit, partially due to the lack of “viable political opposition to the dominant Republican Party in Minnesota during this period.” Over the next twenty years, it produced three governors, four US senators, and eight US representatives, relegating the Democrats to a third party in the state.

American Third-Party Politics

The FLP became a case study in successful third-party politics in the American system. It was a grassroots, regional party that prioritized the needs of Minnesota voters, allowing it to focus its campaigns and tailor messaging effectively. The FLP’s coalition of urban workers and rural farmers proved key to its lasting success, building a strong regional voting bloc with national influence in presidential elections. With a foothold established, the FLP mobilized voters and endorsed candidates, steadily expanding its reach.