Elmer Austin Benson (22 September 1895-13 March 1985) was a Farmer-Laborite US Senator from Minnesota from 27 December 1935 to 3 November 1936 (succeeding Thomas D. Schall and preceding Guy V. Howard) and Governor of Minnesota from 4 January 1937 to 2 January 1939 (succeeding Hjalmar Petersen and preceding Harold Stassen).
Biography[]
Elmer Austin Benson was born in Appleton, Minnesota in 1895, and he served in the US Army during World War I before becoming a banker and businessman. With Floyd B. Olson as his mentor, he rose in the ranks of the Farmer-Labor Party and served as Commissioner of Securities and in the US Senate from 1935 to 1936, when he was elected Governor. He was both elected and defeated by an overwhelming margin, marking the decline of the Farmer-Labor Party as an independent political force. He joined the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in 1944, but Hubert Humphrey eclipsed him in influence in 1948, leading Benson to leave the DFL in 1948. He became a force within the short-lived Progressive Party, and he died in Minneapolis in 1985.