Al Quie

Albert Harold "Al" Quie (/kwiː/ KWEE; September 18, 1923 – August 18, 2023) was an American politician and farmer.

Regarded as a moderate Republican,[1] Quie was considered by Ronald Reagan for his choice of a running mate for the office of Vice President of the United States during the 1980 presidential election.

The third of four children, Quie was born on September 18, 1923, on his family's farm in Wheeling Township near Dennison, Minnesota, in Rice County.

[3] The farm on which he was born and grew up on had been purchased by his grandfather upon returning to Minnesota from fighting in the Civil War.

A third-generation farmer, Quie grew up on the farm learning to ride horses and milk cows.

Quie won the Republican nomination at a party convention and then defeated Democratic-Farmer-Labor nominee Eugene Foley by 655 votes in the February special election.

Minnesota’s fiscal troubles gave Jim Florio, a Democratic politician running for governor in faraway New Jersey, ammunition for attacking supply-side economics, the theory, then growing in popularity among Republicans, which holds that cutting taxes, spending and regulations fosters economic growth.

After having promised not to raise taxes, Quie was finally forced to do so, “causing much of his political support to evaporate,” The Times reported in 1982.

[6] Quie's grandfather joined the newly founded Republican Party and supported Abraham Lincoln for president in the 1860 United States presidential election.

Congressional portrait, 1977