Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party
political party in Minnesota, United States
The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) is a political party in the U.S. state of Minnesota affiliated with the national Democratic Party. It was formed by a merger between the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party in 1944. The DFL is one of two state Democratic Party affiliates with a different name than the national party, the other being the neighboring North Dakota Democratic–Nonpartisan League Party.
The DFL controls four of Minnesota's eight United States House of Representatives seats, both of its United States Senate seats, the Minnesota Senate, and all other statewide offices, including the governor of Minnesota, making it the dominant party in the state. In the Minnesota House of Representatives, it has a power-sharing agreement with its main political rival, the Republican Party of Minnesota, following a tie in the 2024 Minnesota House of Representatives election.
History
Background
The progressive movement in Minnesota following the American Civil War was initially contained within the Minnesota Republican Party. However, by the 1880s, the Republican party became less receptive to progressive reform. The Farmer's Alliance and Knights of Labor, rising in political power, initially attempted to bring progressivism to the Minnesota Democratic party during the 1886 gubernatorial campaign of A. A. Ames. After his defeat, the Farmer's Alliance and Knights of Labor failed to regain influence within either the Republican or Democratic parties. In 1890, the Farmer's Alliance organized the campaign of Sidney M. Owen as a third-party candidate.
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This entry incorporates text from “Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.