He also increased funding for public education, expanded public housing, increased benefits for war veterans, created activities to improve the health of young people, desegregated the state's National Guard, passed anti-discrimination laws in employment, and banned slot machines and strengthened anti-liquor laws, despite the legislature's opposition.

[2] Youngdahl was a popular governor who won reelection easily in 1950, but as early as 1949 he expressed to a friend his desire to return to the judiciary, this time at the federal level.

Believing that Youngdahl would be the strongest candidate the Republicans could run against him when he sought reelection in 1954, upon learning of Judge Thomas Alan Goldsborough's death from a heart attack, Minnesota's junior U.S. senator, Hubert Humphrey, proposed nominating Youngdahl to Goldsborough's now-vacant seat on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in a meeting with President Harry S. Truman on July 2, 1951.

Noting that Youngdahl was the only governor who had written a letter commending him for his recent decision to fire General Douglas MacArthur, Truman agreed to the suggestion.

[1] As a senior judge, Youngdahl advocated education and job training for incarcerated criminals and less crowded programs to rehabilitate drug users, believing that harsh punishments failed to reduce crime.