Facts about Harold Stassen
Harold Stassen Biography
Harold Stassen ran for U.S. president nine times between 1948 and 1992. Stassen was originally a wunderkind of Minnesota politics, having been elected governor at age 31 in 1938. He resigned the office in 1943 to join the U.S. Navy during World War II. He ran for president in 1948, 1952, 1964, 1968, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992, never winning the office or the nomination of the Republican party. (At the 1952 convention he released Minnesota’s delegates to Dwight Eisenhower, helping him defeat Robert Taft on the first ballot.) Stassen’s later campaigns were considered symbolic, even humorous, and his name became a catch phrase for political futility.
Extra credit
Stassen was married to his wife, Esther, for 70 years… Stassen was part of the U.S. delegation to the original 1945 United Nations Charter meetings in San Francisco… Stassen was president of the University of Pennsylvania from 1948 to 1953.