Jesse Ventura and a Review of Comeback Bids by Minnesota Governors

Ex-Minnesota governors have subsequently appeared on a primary or general election gubernatorial ballot 10 times since statehood

Last week former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura floated the idea of running for the state’s open gubernatorial seat this cycle – more than two decades after leaving office.

A successful Ventura campaign wouldn’t be the longest gap in statehood gubernatorial service in U.S. history, though it would crack the Top Five.

It would also be the 11th bid by a former Minnesota governor to return to their old position.

The first Minnesotan to attempt this feat was Republican J.A.A. Burnquist nearly 100 years ago.

Burnquist, an attorney and State Representative from St. Paul was first elected Lieutenant Governor in 1912 and 1914. However, less than a year into his second term he ascended to the governorship after the death of Democratic Governor Winfield Hammond.

Governor Burnquist was renominated and elected to second and third terms in 1916 and 1918 but did not seek a fourth in 1920.

After failed attempts to win the GOP U.S. Senate nominations in 1923 and 1928, Burnquist sought a return to his old seat in 1930. He placed a distant second in the Republican primary with 26.1 percent behind Auditor Ray Chase in a six-candidate field that also included former state legislator and long-serving Commissioner of Agriculture N.J. Holmberg.

After two failed bids to the U.S. House in 1932 and 1936, Burnquist ended his political career with eight straight terms as Minnesota’s Attorney General (1939-1955).

Another ascended Governor, Hjalmar Petersen was the next former chief executive of the state to make return bids to the office.

Petersen was a newspaper editor and publisher from Askov who served as the town’s mayor and two terms in the state house (1931-1935) before being elected Lieutenant Governor as a Farmer-Laborite in 1934.

Three-term Farmer-Laborite Governor Floyd Olson died a few months after the June 1936 primaries, and Petersen served the last four-plus months of the term. Petersen, however, had already been nominated by the Farmer-Labor Party for a seat on the Railroad and Warehouse Commission, and thus did not seek the governorship as an incumbent.

Petersen served on that commission from 1937 to 1943 and 1955 to 1967, but ran for governor five times during a period of 12 years:

• 1938: Lost the Farmer-Labor primary to Governor Elmer Benson
• 1940: Placed second in the general election as the Farmer-Labor nominee with 36.5 percent – losing by 15.5 points to Governor Harold Stassen
• 1942: Placed second again in the general election as the Farmer-Labor nominee with 37.8 percent – losing to Governor Stassen by 13.8 points
• 1946: Lost the Republican primary to Minnesota Supreme Court Associate Justice Luther Youngdahl
• 1950: Placed third in the DFL primary with 10.9 percent in a race won by Minnesota Supreme Court Associate Justice Harry Peterson

The aforementioned Harold Stassen was the third former governor to make a comeback bid – nearly 40 years after resigning from office during his third term in 1943 to serve in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

After several presidential campaigns and losing the Independent-Republican U.S. Senate nomination in 1978, Stassen ran for the open gubernatorial seat in 1982. Stassen placed a distant third in the three-candidate GOP primary with 5.8 percent in a race won by former Wayzata Mayor Wheelock Whitney.

A third ascended governor, DFLer Rudy Perpich, also launched a comeback campaign during the 1982 cycle.

Perpich, a Hibbing dentist and two-term State Senator, was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1970 in the last cycle as a stand-alone office and in 1974 on Governor Wendy Anderson’s ticket. Perpich became governor at the end of 1976 when Anderson resigned to be appointed (by Perpich) to the U.S. Senate.

Governor Perpich lost the 1978 election by 7.1 points to U.S. Rep. Al Quie, but was narrowly nominated for the office in 1982 and defeated Wheelock Whitney in the 1982 general election by 18.9 points. Perpich won a second full term in 1986 before losing his bid for a third in 1990 to Arne Carlson.

The last former governor to attempt a return to office was Republican Tim Pawlenty.

Pawlenty, an attorney from Eagan and five-term State Representative, won two gubernatorial terms with pluralities of 44.4 percent in 2002 and 46.7 percent in 2006. Pawlenty did not seek a third term but launched a short-lived presidential campaign in 2012.

Six years later, Pawlenty ran for the 2018 GOP gubernatorial nomination, but came up 8.8 points short, losing to sitting Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson.

A 24-year gap in gubernatorial service for Ventura would trail only four others in U.S. history:

• West Virginia Republican Cecil Underwood (1957-1961, 1997-2001): 35 years, 11 months, 28 days
• Kentucky Democrat James McCreary (1875-1879, 1911-1915): 32 years, 3 months, 10 days
• California Democrat Jerry Brown (1975-1983, 2011-2019): 28 years
• New Jersey Republican Walter Edge (1917-1919, 1944-1947): 24 years, 8 months, 3 days

Only two other governors have logged more than 20 years between gubernatorial stints: Alaska Republican Wally Hickel (1966-1969, 1990-1994; 21 years, 10 months, and 4 days) and Oklahoma Republican Henry Bellmon (1963-1967, 1987-1991; 20 years, four days).

Overall, more than 140 statehood governors have served interrupted terms in U.S. history.

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