Harold Edward Stassen (April 13, 1907 – March 4, 2001) was an American Republican Party politician, military officer, and attorney who was the 25th governor of Minnesota from 1939 to 1943.

[15][16] In 1936 Stassen led an effort by the Young Republicans that demanded greater representation for them at county conventions and for their inclusion in state leadership before his tenure as chairman ended later that year.

Despite being a member of the party's executive committee Stassen seconded a motion preventing a gubernatorial endorsement at the convention in December.

[24] When New York District Attorney and future Governor Thomas E. Dewey traveled to Minneapolis during the 1940 presidential campaign he was introduced by Stassen.

[27] During his governorship, Stassen created the Interracial Commission, the first civil rights organization of Minnesota and appointed African-American World War I veteran Samuel Ransom as his military aide.

[28] Stassen, who was reelected as governor of Minnesota in 1940 and 1942, supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt's foreign policy and encouraged the state Republican Party to repudiate American isolationism before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

During the 1942 campaign, he announced that, if re-elected, he would resign to serve on active duty with the United States Naval Reserve, which Stassen had joined with the rank of lieutenant commander earlier that year.

[30] Stassen lost some of his political base while overseas, whereas Republican candidates such as Thomas E. Dewey had a chance to increase theirs.

[31] Stassen was later best known for being a perennial candidate for the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States, seeking it nine times between 1944 and 1992 (1944, 1948, 1952, 1964, 1968, 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992).

Due to his victory in the gubernatorial race, status as America's youngest governor and overwhelming approval rating Stassen was touted as a possible future Republican presidential nominee starting in 1940 despite the fact that he would not be constitutionally eligible to serve until 1942 due to the requirement that a President be at least 35 years of age.

[32] Stassen's strongest bid for the Republican presidential nomination was in 1948 when he won a series of upset victories in early primaries.

…Our party simply cannot indulge the luxury of a Solid South, handed on a silver platter to the opposition every four years...."[33] In the first two rounds of balloting, Stassen finished third behind Dewey, the front runner, and Robert Taft.

[36] In later Senate testimony he claimed there was a prevailing bias in opposition to his own view on Asiatic policy and ultimately that they, including Philip Caryl Jessup, Owen Lattimore and Lawrence Kaelter Rosinger, were undermining the free-world by pursuing the communist line.

During the 1960s, he gained a reputation as a liberal, particularly when, as president of the American Baptist Convention in 1963, he joined Martin Luther King Jr. in his March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

[44] During the 1938 Minnesota gubernatorial campaign Stassen ran against the imposition of a sales tax and later in life supported a form of universal basic income in which unemployed mothers of two or more children would be given $115 per month.

[47] In his 1947 book Where I Stand!, Stassen favored a federal-state government health insurance program that paid only the heaviest hospital and medical bills.

[48] In his failed 1992 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, Stassen proposed expanding the Medicare program for pregnant women and children under 10.

Stassen later participated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, and as president of the American Baptist Convention supervised the raising of funds to support Martin Luther King Jr.'s activities.

[citation needed] Commander Harold E. Stassen, United States Navy, is awarded the Legion of Merit for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States as Assistant Chief of Staff, Administration, and Aide and Flag Secretary on the staff of Commander, THIRD Fleet, from 15 June 1944 to 26 January 1945.

363 (May 1947) Action Date: June 15, 1944 – January 26, 1945 In his political career, Stassen ran many campaigns for public office.

As then-Governor of Minnesota, his 1940 bid was just as a favorite-son candidate and after delivering the keynote address, he endorsed the eventual nominee, Wendell Willkie.

), including speech files, handwritten notes, memoranda, annotated briefings, correspondence, war diaries, working papers, and draft charters for the United Nations.

The entire Harold E. Stassen collection includes campaign and political, naval service, United Nations, Eisenhower administration, and organizational membership files of the Minnesota Governor (1938–1943), Naval Officer (1943–1945), United Nations delegate (April–June 1945), Presidential contender (1948), and Eisenhower cabinet member and Director of the Mutual Security Agency (1953–1958), documenting most aspects of Stassen's six-decade career, including all of his public offices, campaigns, and Republican Party and other non-official activities.

Digital selections from this manuscript collection were made based on user and researcher interest, historic significance, and copyright status.