Comprehensive information and links about Harold Stassen

Harold Stassen (April 13, 1907 – March 4, 2001) was the 25th Governor of Minnesota from 1939 to 1943 and a perennial candidate for the president of the United States.

Born in West St. Paul, Minnesota, at 32 he was 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 Wilkie.

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. The advisors were correct, in that he lost 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 football at the university was unpopular.

He was later best known for having been a perennial candidate for the Republican Party nomination for President, seeking it nine times between 1948 and 1992. However, he never won the nomination.

He also ran for:

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 Nixon's qualifications for the presidnecy) 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. 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, a major figure of the World War II and immediate post-war eras became a political laughing stock, wearing even a wig in an apparent effort to look younger and more electible.

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 Cemetery in Mendota Heights, Minnesota.