The 1954 Minnesota gubernatorial election took place on November 2, 1954. In a rematch of the 1952 election, Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) candidate Orville Freeman defeated Republican incumbent C. Elmer Anderson.
Freeman was the first member of the DFLer to win a gubernatorial election. The Republicans had won the previous eight elections. 1954 was their first gubernatorial defeat since 1936.
Republican primary
Anderson was renominated unanimously.
Candidates
Nominated
- C. Elmer Anderson, incumbent
Democratic-Farmer-Labor primary
Fremman was renominated. He was expected by State Chair Ray Hemenway to be renominated unanimously, with Rasmussen's primary campaign being a surprise. Rasmussen was an early supporter of Freeman.
Candidates
Nominated
- Orville Freeman, former DFL party chairman
Eliminated in primary
- Paul A. Rasmussen, railroad and warehouse commissioner
Candidates
- C. Elmer Anderson, incumbent (Republican)
- Orville Freeman, DFL party chairman (DFL)
- Ross Schelin, machine operator (Industrial Government)
Campaigns
Anderson and Freeman, who both already had a disliking for each other, began attacking each other with increasingly personal insults during their campaigns. Anderson called Freeman and the DFLers "a dangerous and ruthless team of self-seeking self-serving candidates and their cronies," while Freeman called the Republicans "The virus of creeping do-nothingism."
Freeman spoke of the Republican administrations as "Promises without Performance," said that the goal of both parties should be to provide good government, and urged Anderson to either deliver good government, or lose the election so Freeman could deliver it.