Socialist Party of Minnesota
# Socialist Party of Minnesota

The Socialist Party of Minnesota (from 1899 to 1902 the Social Democratic Party of Minnesota; from 1903 to 1913 the Public Ownership Party of Minnesota) was the state affiliate of the Springfield faction of the Social Democratic Party of America, the Socialist Party of America, and finally the Socialist Party USA in the U.S. state of Minnesota.

## History

The state organization was established in 1899, when the Kangaroo faction bolted from the Socialist Labor Party of America in support of the American Federation of Labor and opposition to the internal regime of the SLP under Daniel DeLeon. Its initial electoral appearances were unimpressive, but it began to grow rapidly after 1905, and eventually became, together with the organizations in Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Oregon, North Dakota, Washington, New York, etc., one of the Socialist Party's stronger state organizations—even to the point where, in 1912, half of all of the counties carried by Eugene V. Debs were in Minnesota. But, in spite—or perhaps because—of its rapid growth, the Socialist Party of Minnesota soon also became a heavily contested battlefield for factional disputes within the SPA. This culminated in the period of 1914 though 1919, in which the Socialist Party of Minnesota was decimated by conflicts rooted first in differences of opinion regarding the United States' entry into World War I, and later disagreements over the Bolshevism question following the Russian Revolution. In addition to tearing itself apart, the party was also affected by shifts in public opinion during the First Red Scare, which made it increasingly difficult for the Socialist Party to access an audience.

The Socialist Party of Minnesota continued to exist after 1920, but in a severely weakened state. Many of its former members, such as William Mahoney, Thomas E. Latimer, and Thomas Van Lear, became active in the Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota, which the former Van Lear faction of the Socialist Party helped to solidify after Van Lear was expelled from the Socialist Party. The Socialist Party of Minnesota itself participated in the Farmer-Labor Party's electoral coalition in state politics from the early 1920s into the mid 1930s. Meanwhile, the state organization continued to achieve ballot access for Norman Thomas in 1928, 1932, 1936, 1940, 1944, and 1948, although it was not able to secure ballot access for Darlington Hoopes in 1952 and 1956.

The Minnesota organization continued to send delegates to the national conventions of the Socialist Party through the 1960s, until the Social Democrats, USA were formed in 1972. Afterward, the Socialist Party of Minnesota reorganized as a part of the Socialist Party USA, sending delegates to the SPUSA's reorganizing convention in 1973. As a unit of the SPUSA, the Socialist Party of Minnesota was able to secure presidential ballot access in Minnesota for Frank Zeidler in 1976 and again for David McReynolds in 1980; however, the organization essentially disappeared at some point prior to 1988.

## Nominees for public office

### Presidential tickets

| Year | Results | Results | Candidates | Candidates | Ref. | Notes |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Year | Votes | % | for President | for Vice President | Ref. | Notes |
| 1900 | 3,065 | 0.97 | Eugene V. Debs (IN) | Job Harriman (CA) | | |
| 1904 | 11,692 | 3.99 | Eugene V. Debs (IN) | Benjamin Hanford (NY) | | |
| 1908 | 14,527 | 4.38 | Eugene V. Debs (IN) | Benjamin Hanford (NY) | | |
| 1912 | 27,505 | 8.23 | Eugene V. Debs (IN) | Emil Seidel (WI) | | |
| 1916 | 20,117 | 5.19 | Allan L. Benson (NY) | George Ross Kirkpatrick (NJ) | | |
| 1920 | 56,106 | 7.62 | Eugene V. Debs (IN) | Seymour Stedman (IL) | | |
| 1924 | 339,192 | 41.26 | Robert M. La Follette (WI) | Burton K. Wheeler (MT) | | |
| 1928 | 6,774 | 0.70 | Norman Thomas (NY) | James H. Maurer (PA) | | |
| 1932 | 25,476 | 2.54 | Norman Thomas (NY) | James H. Maurer (PA) | | |
| 1936 | 2,872 | 0.25 | Norman Thomas (NY) | George A. Nelson (WI) | | |
| 1940 | 5,454 | 0.44 | Norman Thomas (NY) | Maynard C. Krueger (IL) | | |
| 1944 | 5,073 | 0.45 | Norman Thomas (NY) | Darlington Hoopes (PA) | | |
| 1948 | 4,646 | 0.38 | Norman Thomas (NY) | Tucker P. Smith (MI) | | |
| 1976 | 354 | 0.02 | Frank Zeidler (WI) | J. Quinn Brisben (IL) | | |
| 1980 | 536 | 0.03 | David McReynolds (NY) | Diane Drufenbrock (IN) | | |

## Other prominent members

* Clarence Hathaway, labor activist; prominent in the Left wing section, Hathaway was certified by State Secretary Dirba as a delegate to the 1919 Emergency National Convention, but became a founding member of the Communist Labor Party of America when the Regulars refused to seat him; later served as an advisory delegate of the Workers Party of America to the Comintern, and eventually a long-time member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party USA
* Algernon Lee, politician, journalist and educator; prominent member of the Kangaroo faction of the SLP, editor of The Tocsin, and one of the founders of the Social Democratic Party of Minnesota; moved to New York City shortly thereafter, running for numerous public offices there
* Anna A. Maley, political activist, journalist and educator; inaugural Secretary of Local Minneapolis; later went on to run for the office of Governor of Washington (becoming the first woman ever to run in a gubernatorial election in Washington), hold office as Chairwoman of the Woman's National Committee, become just the third woman ever to hold a seat on the National Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of America, and serve as an assistant to Minneapolis Mayor Thomas Van Lear
* Yrjö Sirola, Finnish expatriate; served as Finnish Socialist Federation's Work People's College in Smithville from 1910 to 1913; antagonized factional disputes in the Finnish Socialist Federation, which tended to spill over into the Party itself; later returned to Finland where he was a founding member of the Communist Party of Finland
* Carl Skoglund, who was prominent in the Left Section, a founding member of the Communist Party, embraced the views of Leon Trotsky, returned to the SPA after the Trotskyists were driven out of the Communist Party, and eventually became a founding member of the Socialist Workers Party

## State Secretaries (incomplete)

* ?–1904: Spencer M. Holman
* 1904–1912: Jay E. Nash
* 1912–1914: Thomas E. Latimer
* 1914–1915: Fred Miller
* 1915–1919: Abraham L. Sugarman
* 1919: Charles Dirba
* 1919–?: Samuel L. Friedman
* ?–?: Lillian Friedman
