For the first 90 years, North Dakota was almost exclusively dominated by the Republican Party. Even though the Nonpartisan League (NPL) was able to flex its muscles at times, for the most part, it was a faction of the Republicans.
In two major political races in 1960, Democratic candidates were victorious. The first was when Quentin Burdick, a Democrat, defeated John Davis in a special election to become a U.S. senator. After William Guy, a Democrat, beat his opponent to become governor in the general election, North Dakota historian, Elwyn Robinson, wrote, “North Dakota had become a two-party state.”
Forum file photo
Following his discharge from the U.S. Navy in October 1945, William Guy returned home to Amenia, N.D., while waiting to resume his 1946 spring semester graduate studies at the University of Minnesota. On Dec. 19, 1945, prior to the resumption of classes, he began correspondence through the mail with the recently appointed U.S. Sen. Milton R. Young. Guy described to Young various ways the U.S. military could be improved. What neither Young nor Guy could have foreseen, was that 29 years later, the two men would become political opponents in the most hotly contested election in North Dakota history.
Guy received his master’s degree in agricultural economics in 1946 and returned to North Dakota where he obtained employment with Balthauser and Moyer, a livestock buying and selling firm at the Union Stockyards in West Fargo. Guy’s job was to visit Red River Valley farmers to see if they wanted to purchase lambs that fall. Guy resigned in 1947 when Hal Stefenson, the county agent for Cass County, asked him to be his assistant. Guy said that it was satisfying to work in the same office where his father had once served as county agent.
Guy enjoyed his work, but being ambitious, he wanted to do more. He wrote, “I also wanted to start farming, so in the spring of 1948 I decided that this was the time for me to try.” Guy inherited a half section of land near Amenia from his father and, after buying and borrowing machinery, he was able to get half of his farmland tilled and seeded. Guy stayed at the farmhouse when he was working on the farm, and his wife and family lived in their home in Fargo.
One of Guy’s Fargo neighbors was Corman Bean. The two men knew each other from attending college at NDAC. Bean had recently completed his master’s degree in chemistry and the two men decided to combine their two areas of expertise; agriculture and chemistry, to form a fertilizer and farm chemical business. The Guy-Bean Farm Supply Company lasted from 1948 to 1952. When the business failed to generate much income, Guy and Bean closed their company and Guy returned to farming full time.
By 1950, Guy began to feel a part of the Amenia community and was persuaded to run for the school board, and was elected. Guy wrote that in that year he “started to feel more interested in politics.” The first political affair Guy attended was the Republican legislative district convention and he was asked to have his name placed on the ballot for Republican precinct committeeman. Guy wrote, “I was troubled because I knew that I did not support the philosophy of the Republican Party.” His wife, Jean, suggested that instead, he should have his name be placed on the ballot for Democratic precinct committeeman, which he did. When the primary election was held, his Republican friends believed that Guy’s name was inadvertently left off the Republican ballot, so they wrote in his name. When most of the Democrats also supported him on the primary ballot, Guy ended up being elected precinct committeeman for both political parties.
Since Guy had a choice, he decided to become the Democratic precinct committeeman. The positions of the Democratic Party that he liked involved world trade, the United Nations, agricultural programs, organized labor, education, civil rights, mental health, and social services, especially aid for dependent children. Guy believed that the reason the Democrats struggled to gain much political traction at that time was because they were competing with the “Insurgent” faction of the NPL on many of the more liberal issues.
In 1954, Guy ran for the position of North Dakota’s commissioner of agriculture and labor. His opponent was 70-year-old Math Dahl, from Hazelton, N.D., who had served as commissioner for 15 years. In the June primary, both candidates ran unopposed with Guy receiving less than 10% of the total votes cast for both parties. In the general election, Dahl received fewer votes than he did in the primary and Guy received more than four times what he received in the primary, but he still lost by over 65,000 votes.
Meanwhile, a political realignment was taking place in North Dakota. In 1956, the NPL, led by the Insurgents, moved into the Democratic Party. In 1956, Guy ran for the state senate in District 11 against the incumbent, Harry Wadeson, from Alice, and Wadeson defeated Guy by only 90 votes. In 1958, Guy ran for the state house in District 11 and won. When the Legislature convened on Jan. 6, 1959, Guy’s colleagues in the house elected him assistant minority leader, where he worked closely with Art Link, the minority leader.
On Nov. 8, 1959, Republican U.S. Sen. William Langer died in office, and the Republican governor, John Davis, decided not to seek reelection and instead ran for Langer’s vacant position in a special election in 1960. In the June special election, over 208,000 votes were cast and Davis lost to Quentin Burdick, the Democratic candidate, by 1,118 votes.
With the office of North Dakota governor now vacant, Guy received the endorsement of the Democratic-NPL party to run for governor. His initial Republican opponents were C.P. Dahl and Orris Nordhaugen, and Dahl defeated Nordhaugen in the June primary. Republicans believed that Clarence P. Dahl would be a formidable opponent against Guy. The 68-year-old Dahl had been elected lieutenant governor six times, far more than anyone else. He had served alongside three different governors: Fred Aandahl, Norman Brunsdale and John Davis.
According to Lloyd Omdahl’s excellent book“Insurgents,” “The Republicans were over-confident with their gubernatorial candidate since his name had appeared on the (state) ballot for many years… Being up in years, Dahl did not conduct a heavy schedule… He restricted himself to rallies and handshaking on the main streets.” He also did not crisscross the state campaigning.
Conversely, Guy visited every county at least twice. Omdahl wrote, “Guy began his daily campaign with a businessmen’s luncheon at noon, coffee parties throughout the afternoon, and a banquet and rally in the evening.”
On the campaign trail, Guy stressed the economic development of the state’s basic industry, which he considered to be agriculture, lignite and oil. This appeared to resonate with smaller business operators and young farmers. The Republicans stoked the fear of higher taxes if a Democrat was in charge, stressed Guy’s lack of administrative experience at the state level, and told the voters that things had been running smoothly and there was no need to change.
Not only did Guy need to worry about Dahl for the upcoming 1960 election, but a new wrinkle threatened to draw votes away from him. Herschel Lashkowitz, the Democratic mayor of Fargo, filed to run as an Independent. Guy later wrote, “Herschel Lashkowitz’s candidacy was suspect as far as I was concerned. From the very beginning, I wondered what it was that motivated Herschel to get into the race… During the campaign, I had several reports that Herschel was seen coming or going from the room of Republican state chairman Arly Bjella.”
The general election was held on Nov. 8, 1960, and Guy won with 136,148 votes and Dahl received 122,436 votes. Lashkowitz trailed far behind with 16,791 votes. For the first time in 20 years, a Democrat would be serving as North Dakota’s chief executive. For the next few decades, North Dakota would not become a purple state, but at least it was a lighter shade of red.
(We will continue the Bill Guy story next week.)
