Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party
The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL ) is a political party in the US state of Minnesota . It was created in 1944 from the merger of the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Farmer-Labor Party and is affiliated with the national Democratic Party . In common parlance, the term “DFLer” developed into a synonym for a democrat - regardless of whether or not you belong to the DFL.
history
The DFL was created on April 15, 1944 under the leadership of Hubert H. Humphrey from the merger of the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Farmer-Labor Party , which was particularly successful in the 1930s . It is an independent federal party, but affiliated with the Democratic Party at the national level.
In 1954 Orville Freeman became a member of the DFL governor of Minnesota for the first time. In 1968, Hubert H. Humphrey was the DFL's presidential candidate. After he had failed eight years earlier in the primary elections against John F. Kennedy and had become Vice President under Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 , Humphrey lost in the presidential elections on November 6, 1968 to the Republican Richard Nixon . With Walter Mondale , the DFL provided the US Vice President for a second time between 1977 and 1981 under Jimmy Carter . In 1984 Mondale was also the Democratic candidate for president, but he lost significantly to incumbent Reagan.
organization structure
The DFL is divided into four levels:
- District level ( Precinct Unit )
- County Unit ( Senate Districts )
- Congressional District
- State level
The county level is the lowest level and can be found within any Minnesota town or city. This is where the delegates for the county units are elected. These are divided according to the individual geographic counties . Exceptions to this are nine counties in the metropolitan region of the Twin Cities : here they are divided into the different Senate electoral districts. The Congressional District represents the third stage. This is divided into the eight electoral districts of the US House of Representatives elections. The main task is to coordinate the activities of the individual county units and to support their candidates in elections.
The State DFL Party is the top party branch within Minnesota. The party convention takes place every two years with around 1,200 delegates from all over Minnesota. The DFL has six members on the Democratic National Committee .
The youth and university organization of the DFL for members between the ages of 15 and 30 is the Minnesota Young Democratic-Farmer-Labor Organization / College Democrats .
The party headquarters are in St. Paul , and the party chairman has been Ken Martin since 2011 .
Governors of the DFL
- Orville Freeman (1955-1961)
- Karl Rolvaag (1963-1967)
- Wendell Anderson (1971-1976)
- Rudy Perpich (1976–1979, 1983–1991)
- Mark Dayton (2011-2019)
- Tim Walz (since 2019)
US Senators of the DFL
- Hubert H. Humphrey (1949–1964, 1971–1978)
- Eugene McCarthy (1959-1971)
- Walter Mondale (1964–1976)
- Wendell Anderson (1976-1978)
- Muriel Humphrey (1978)
- Paul Wellstone (1991-2002)
- Mark Dayton (2001-2007)
- Amy Klobuchar (since 2007)
- Al Franken (2009-2018)
- Tina Smith (since 2018)
