8/28/2009:
The gubernatorial election of 1924 featured a hard fought battle between the Nonpartisan League and the Independent Voters Association, leaving Arthur Sorlie the victor.
A native of Freeborn County, Minnesota, Arthur G. Sorlie first moved to North Dakota following graduation from Luther Academy in 1893. Settling in Buxton, Sorlie began work at the town bank. But his banking career proved short-lived, and after a brief stint as a traveling shoe salesman, Sorlie went into business for himself. In 1903 he opened a bread and cracker factory in Grand Forks, eventually expanding his operations throughout North Dakota and Minnesota. As Sorlie developed his North Dakota roots he became more active in local politics. While a conservative businessman, he joined the ranks of the Nonpartisan League; a powerful and progressive wing of the Republican Party.
The Nonpartisan League, or NPL, was established in 1915 by a group of progressives who were distressed by the large sums of money out-of-state businesses were taking out of North Dakota as well as their influence on local government. The League wrested away control of the Republican Party, won elections across North Dakota and utilized the governmental apparatus to combat out-of-state interests. Under their watch, North Dakota established state-run businesses to compete with private companies; including a state run mill, elevator and bank. The Nonpartisan League's efforts did not go unchallenged; opposing them was the more business-orientated branch of the Republican Party, the Independent Voters Association, or IVA. The IVA sowed disunity within the Nonpartisan membership and worked to undermine the state industries. The Independent Voters Association's efforts yielded their greatest victory in 1921 with the recall of the NPL governor Lynn Frazier, and the election of the IVA's own governor, Ragnvold Nestos. But in 1924, the NPL returned from the political wilderness and elected their own candidate to the governor's mansion, Arthur Sorlie.
While Sorlie was able to defeat the two-term Governor Nestos, his nomination as the NPL gubernatorial candidate was not popular among the more radical members of the Nonpartisan League. Suspicious of the conservative businessman, members of the Governor's party, including his own lieutenant governor, Walter Maddock, worked diligently to undermine his authority and limit his influence over the state-run businesses. They investigated Sorlie's handling of the State Mill and Elevator, and questioned Sorlie's executive abilities.
Despite the discord within Sorlie's government and the animosity between himself and the more radical fringe of his own party, the Governor was reelected to a second term. However, during the waning months of his fourth year in office, Arthur G. Sorlie passed away on this day, August 28, 1928.
While Sorlie's political enemy, Lieutenant Governor Walter Maddock, succeeded him in the governorship, Sorlie's allies could at least take solace in the fact that Maddock would only be governor for a short while, and then quickly voted out of office.
Dakota Datebook written by Lane Sunwall
Sources
"Arthur G. Sorlie Papers." Grand Forks, ND: University of North Dakota.
Dyson, Lowell K. "The Red Peasant International in America." The Journal of American History 58, no. 4 (1972): 958-973.
"North Dakota Governors Online Exhibit," State Historical Society of North Dakota http://history.nd.gov/exhibits/governors/ (accessed August 14, 2009).
Remele, Larry, "North Dakota History: Overview and Summary," State Historical Society of North Dakota https://www.state.nd.us/hist/ndhist.htm (accessed July 3, 2009).