Magnus Johnson

Magnus Johnson

Magnus Johnson (born September 19, 1871 in Karlstad , Sweden , † September 13, 1936 in Litchfield , Minnesota ) was an American politician of the Farmer Labor Party , who represented the state of Minnesota in both chambers of Congress . He is the only native Swede to have served in the United States Senate .

Life

In his Swedish homeland, Värmland , Magnus Johnson attended village schools. From 1888 to 1891 he was trained as a glass blower . In 1891 he moved to the United States, where he first settled in La Crosse ( Wisconsin ). He later found employment in Meeker County , Minnesota, as a factory worker and as a lumberjack before going on to work as a farmer. From 1913 he headed the Minnesota branch of the American Society of Equity , a cooperative association of farmers that increasingly established itself as a political force. He also served as vice president of the association-controlled Grain Exchange and Farmers' Terminal Packing Company . At the local level, he held several positions in the Kingston School Administration .

politics

Johnson's political career began with membership in the Minnesota House of Representatives between 1915 and 1919; subsequently he sat in the state senate until 1923 . In 1922 and 1926 he stood as a candidate for the Farmer-Labor Party in the gubernatorial elections , but failed because of the Republicans J. AO Preus and Theodore Christianson .

After the death of US Senator Knute Nelson on April 28, 1923, Johnson stood in the by-election for his seat and prevailed against the incumbent Governor Preus, whereupon he was able to exercise his seat in Washington, DC from July 16 of the same year . In the following regular election he was defeated by the Republican Thomas David Schall with almost 8,000 votes behind; therefore he had to leave the Senate on March 3, 1925. As a result, he worked again as a farmer near Kimball .

In 1932, Johnson successfully ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives . He spent another term in Congress from March 4, 1933 to January 3, 1935, before he failed again this time when trying to re-elect. He then served as the state inspector for slaughterhouses from 1934 to 1936, before making his last attempt to hold an election post; However, he already lost in the primary of his party for the gubernatorial elections of 1936 against the later victorious Elmer Austin Benson .

On September 13th of the same year Magnus Johnson died in Litchfield, where he had gone for medical treatment. He was buried in Dassel .

Web links

• Magnus Johnson in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Magnus Johnson in the database of Find a Grave (English)