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The surprising story of how Minnesota politicians helped redirect the course of American politics. How did a largely white state like Minnesota become a springboard for leadership in civil rights? Why did it produce a generation of liberals-Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, Donald Fraser, Orville Freeman, and Eugene McCarthy-whose ideals transformed the Democratic Party? In Making Minnesota Liberal, Jennifer A. Delton delves into the roots of Minnesota politics for the answer, tracing the change from the regional, third-party, class-oriented politics of the Farmer-Labor Party to the national, two-party, pluralistic liberalism of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL). While others have examined how anticommunism and the Cold War shaped this transformation, Delton takes a new approach, showing the key roles played by antiracism and the civil rights movement. In telling this story, Delton contributes to our understanding not only of Minnesota's political history but also of the relationship between antiracism and American politics in the twentieth century. Making Minnesota Liberal combines political history with a discussion of the symbolic role played by race in political battles between whites. Delton recounts the creation of Minnesota's Farmer-Labor Party, its merger with the Democrats, and the acrimonious battle for control of the DFL just after World War II. She argues that the Humphrey liberals won this battle in part because antiracism activities enabled previously antagonistic groups, divided by ethnicity, religion, and class, to unify around a common cause. Delton contends that although liberal Minnesotans' concern for racial justice was genuine, it also provided them with national political relevance and imbued their bid for power with a sense of morality. Ultimately the language of tolerance and diversity that emerged from antiracism prepared Minnesotans for Humphrey's vision of a pluralistic and state-centered liberalism, which eventually became the model for Democratic politics nationwide. Making Minnesota Liberal is an absorbing and trenchant account of a key moment in American history, one that continues to resonate in our time. Jennifer A. Delton is assistant professor of history at Skidmore College.

The surprising story of how Minnesota politicians in the 1950s helped redirect American politics—now in paperback

How did a largely white state like Minnesota become a springboard for leadership in civil rights? Why did it produce a generation of liberals—Hubert Humphrey, Walter Mondale, Donald Fraser, Orville Freeman, and Eugene McCarthy—whose ideals transformed the Democratic party?

In Making Minnesota Liberal, Jennifer A. Delton delves into the roots of Minnesota politics for the answer, tracing the change from the regional, third-party, class-oriented politics of the Farmer-Labor party to the national, two-party, pluralistic liberalism of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party (DFL). While others have examined how anticommunism and the Cold War shaped this transformation, Delton takes a new approach, showing the key roles played by antiracism and the civil rights movement. In telling this story, Delton contributes to our understanding not only of Minnesota’s political history but also of the relationship between antiracism and American politics in the twentieth century.

Making Minnesota Liberal combines political history with a discussion of the symbolic role played by race in political battles between whites. Delton recounts the creation of Minnesota’s Farmer-Labor party, its merger with the Democrats, and the acrimonious battle for control of the DFL just after World War II. She argues that the Humphrey liberals won this battle in part because antiracism activities enabled previously antagonistic groups, divided by ethnicity, religion, and class, to unify around a common cause.

Delton contends that although liberal Minnesotans’s concern for racial justice was genuine, it also provided them with national political relevance and imbued their bid for power with a sense of morality. Ultimately the language of tolerance and diversity that emerged from antiracism prepared Minnesotans for Humphrey’s vision of a pluralistic and state-centered liberalism, which eventually became the model for Democratic politics nationwide. Making Minnesota Liberal is an absorbing and trenchant account of a key moment in American history, one that continues to resonate in our time.

Where Black people live has long been an important determinant of their ability to participate in political processes. The Great Migration significantly changed the way Democratic Party elites interacted with Black communities in northern cities, Detroit, New York, and Chicago. Many white Democratic politicians came to believe the growing pool of Black voters could help them reach their electoral goals—and these politicians often changed their campaign strategies and positions to secure Black support. Furthermore, Black migrants were able to participate in politics because there were fewer barriers to Black political participations outside the South.

The Great Migration and the Democratic Party frames the Great Migration as an important economic and social event that also had serious political consequences. Keneshia Grant created one of the first listings of Black elected officials that classifies them based on their status as participants in the Great Migration. She also describes some of the policy/political concerns of the migrants. The Great Migration and the Democratic Party lays the groundwork for ways of thinking about the contemporary impact of Black migration on American politics.

Nineteen seventy-two marked the end of one era and the beginning of another in the United Auto Workers' involvement in the Michigan Democratic party. Before 1972 the UAW acted as a dominating influence in party activities; after 1972 the UAW simply took over the leadership of the Michigan Democratic party. For years the UAW encouraged participation of its members in the Democratic party. Its members were elected to every level of the party organization. There were, however, other members of the Democratic coalition that had been important components of the party, especially the blacks. The coalition that promised economic benefits was in danger of being destroyed by a social issue — busing. After the 1972 election and with the appointment of a union candidate as party chairman, the UAW had taken control of the party to return it to an emphasis on economic issues. They still did not control the electorate, however, and the state's highest office remained Republican through the 1978 election. Weakened by the schism between the black leadership in Detroit and the white leadership of the party, Michigan Democrats looked to the 1982 gubernatorial election as the unifying event. With the right candidate, party wounds could be healed, for at stake was a greater prize — a democratic governor.

In 1982, Tony Earl stormed into the Wisconsin governorship with a sweeping victory, rallying blue-collar Democrats around a progressive political platform. Four years later, observers were stunned when he was soundly defeated by conservative Republican Tommy Thompson—not because of any failure as governor, but because, as Dave Cieslewicz notes, the Democratic Party and American politics had undergone a dramatic transformation.

Wisconsin Watershed traces Earl’s journey from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the U.S. Navy, through his years in Wisconsin politics and his single, controversial term as Wisconsin’s governor. Earl tackled acid rain, comparable worth, AIDS policy, and tax reform with equal force; he kept American Motors in the state and pulled Wisconsin from a fiscal crisis. Yet voters could not connect his name with his accomplishments. The progressivism that energized new constituencies also alienated the working-class Catholics who had formed the Democratic Party’s backbone. “It’s not the taxes,” one legislator explained. “It’s the desks”—the name for Earl’s symbolic offices to advocate for Native Americans, African Americans, and women.

Earl refused negative campaigning, and he believed that good policy would ultimately prove good politics. His defeat marked the beginning of the end of an era of civility. Through Earl’s story, we witness the Democratic Party’s evolution from New Deal coalition to the emergence of a modern campaign culture that values image and anger over good governance.