Willkie was considered a favorite in the Wisconsin primary, but finished a distant fourth, behind General Douglas MacArthur, Dewey, and Stassen, with only 4. 6 %.

With Eisenhower refusing to run, the contest for the Republican nomination was between New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen, Ohio Senator Robert Taft, California Governor Earl Warren, General Douglas MacArthur and Arthur H. Vandenberg of Michigan, the senior Republican in the Senate.

The " surprise " candidate of 1948 was Stassen, a liberal from Minnesota.

Stassen was widely regarded as the most liberal of the Republican candidates, yet during the primaries he was criticized for being vague on many issues.

Even so, Stassen was still leading Dewey in the polls for the upcoming Oregon primary.

Dewey also agreed to debate Stassen in Oregon on national radio-it was the first-ever radio debate between presidential candidates.

At the 1944 Republican Convention, his chief rivals, Ohio governor John W. Bricker and former Minnesota governor Harold Stassen both withdrew and Dewey was nominated almost unanimously.

In 1948, a radio debate was held in Oregon between Thomas E. Dewey and Harold Stassen, Republican primary candidates for president.

Harold Edward Stassen ( April 13, 1907 – March 4, 2001 ) was the 25th Governor of Minnesota from 1939 to 1943.

Stassen, the fourth of five children, was born in West St. Paul, Minnesota, to Elsie Emma ( née Mueller ) and William Andrew Stassen, a farmer and several times mayor of West St. Paul.

At the University of Minnesota Stassen was an intercollegiate debater, captain of the champion university rifle team in 1927, and received bachelor's and law degrees in 1929.

Stassen was seen as an " up and comer " after delivering the keynote address at the 1940 Republican National Convention.

Stassen, who was reelected in 1940 and 1942, supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt's foreign policy and encouraged the state Republican Party to repudiate American isolationism before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Stassen was later best known for being a perennial candidate for the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States, seeking it 12 times between 1944 and 2000 ( 1944, 1948, 1952, 1964, 1968, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000 ), but never winning it or, after 1952, even coming close.

In 1992, the results of an experimental Presidential preference primary in Minnesota should have bound the state's Republican Party Convention to elect one delegate to the Republican National Convention who was pledged to vote for Stassen.

Bush, thus denying Stassen the opportunity to represent himself as a delegate or even to receive the single vote to which he was entitled.

The humor was collective, with the ' Stop Stassen ' movement often attracting more attention than Stassen's bid for the nomination. He made his last attempt at the presidency in 1992.

In the meantime, Stassen was elected Governor of Minnesota.

When Senator Lundeen, an isolationist, was killed in a plane crash, Stassen appointed Ball to fill the remaining two years of Lundeen's term.

Pattison's feat of being elected to a state governorship at the age of 31 was matched in the 20th and 21st Centuries only by Harold Stassen, elected Governor of Minnesota in 1938.

Stassen said that because the Democratic Party was at that time controlled by undemocratic bosses —" by Hague in New Jersey, Pendergast in Missouri and Kelly-Nash in Chicago, should not be called a ' Democratic Party.

The FBI was specifically interested in his March 8, 1953 broadcast during which he interviewed Harold Stassen, then Director for the Mutual Security Agency.

Stassen had been elected governor of Minnesota at the age of 31 ; he resigned as governor in 1943 to serve in the wartime Navy.

Stassen, despite his liberal reputation, argued in favor of outlawing the party, while Dewey forcefully argued against it ; at one point he famously stated that " you can't shoot an idea with a gun ".

Osro Cobb, then the Republican state chairman in Arkansas, made a seconding speech for Stassen at the convention in Philadelphia, having been motivated by Stassen's promise if nominated to campaign actively in the South.

Stassen died in 2001 in Bloomington, Minnesota at the age of 93 and is buried at the Acacia Park Cemetery in Mendota Heights, Minnesota.

Republican leader Harold Stassen stated in 1940, " I emphasized that the party controlled in large measure at that time by Hague in New Jersey, Pendergast in Missouri and Kelly Nash in Chicago should not be called a ' Democratic Party.

In a debate before the Oregon primary with Harold Stassen, Dewey argued against outlawing the Communist Party of the United States of America, saying " you can't shoot an idea with a gun.

During the 1942 campaign he announced that, if reelected, he would resign to serve on active duty with the United States Naval Reserve, which Stassen had joined with the rank of Lieutenant Commander the previous year.

On April 27, 1943, Governor Stassen resigned to serve in the United States Navy and Thye succeeded him as the 26th Governor of Minnesota.

* Harold Stassen, former governor, presidential candidate, statesman, and university president

Stassen gained a reputation as a liberal, particularly when, as president of the American Baptist Convention in 1963, he joined Martin Luther King in his march on Washington, D. C. Much of Stassen's political thought came from his religious beliefs.

* In Colonization: Aftershocks by Harry Turtledove, part of an alternate history series, Stassen is successful with his ambitions, first elected Vice President under Earl Warren, then succeeding him as president upon Warren's suicide in 1965.

Ironically, Stassen would move to Pennsylvania and be defeated as the Republican nominee for Mayor of Philadelphia in 1959, and as a candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor in 1958 and 1966.

* In 1948, Harold Stassen won the Republican Pennsylvania presidential primary with 81, 242 write-ins.

* In 1978, incoming U. S. senator from Alabama, Howell Heflin referred to a political rival, James D. Martin, as " the Harold Stassen of Alabama.

In Philadelphia he was nominated on the third ballot over the opposition from die-hard conservative Ohio Senator Robert A. Taft, the future " minister of peace " Stassen, Michigan Senator Arthur Vandenberg, and California Governor Earl Warren.

The winner in New Hampshire has not always gone on to win their party's nomination, as demonstrated by Republicans Harold Stassen in 1948, Henry Cabot Lodge in 1964, Pat Buchanan in 1996, and John McCain in 2000 and Democrats Estes Kefauver in 1952 and 1956, Paul Tsongas in 1992, and Hillary Clinton in 2008.

While Stassen was considered a serious candidate in 1944, 1948 and 1952, his persistent attempts were increasingly met with derision and then amusement as the decades progressed.

* 2001 – Harold Stassen, American politician ( b. 1907 )

At the convention, Governor Harold Stassen of Minnesota, the keynote speaker, announced for Willkie and became his official floor manager.

* April 13 – Harold Stassen, American politician ( d. 2001 )

File: Harold Stassen. jpg | Former Governor of Minnesota Harold Stassen

At the 1940 Republican National Convention itself, keynote speaker Harold Stassen, the Governor of Minnesota, announced his support for Willkie and became his official floor manager.

Image: Harold E. Stassen. jpg | Former Governor Harold Stassen of Minnesota

As 1944 began the frontrunners for the Republican nomination appeared to be Wendell Willkie, the party's 1940 candidate, Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, the leader of the party's conservatives, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, the leader of the party's powerful, moderate eastern establishment, General Douglas MacArthur, then serving as an Allied commander in the Pacific theater of the war, and former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen, then serving as a U. S. naval officer in the Pacific.

The Wisconsin primary proved to be the key contest, as Dewey won by a surprisingly wide margin ; he took 14 delegates to four for Harold Stassen, while MacArthur won the three remaining delegates.

File: HaroldStassenOfficialOil. jpg | Former Governor Harold Stassen of Minnesota

Stassen stunned Dewey and MacArthur in the Wisconsin primary ; Stassen's surprise victory virtually eliminated General MacArthur, whose supporters had made a major effort on his behalf.

Stassen defeated Dewey again in the Nebraska primary, thus making him the new frontrunner.