What Can We Learn From a Legendary Perennial Candidate?
Harold Stassen’s Unconsidered Success
Nine.
This was the number of times U.S. political leader and WWII veteran Harold Stassen launched a bid for U.S. president.
1944, 1948, 1952, 1964, 1968, 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992.
These were the years Stassen ran.
Let that sink in — Stassen held nine bids for one of the highest offices in the land over 48 years.
Based on these facts, it might be easy to assume that Stassen’s political career was a failure. Perhaps one might even think a great part of Stassen’s life was a joke or a waste of time and energy. How off base this would be.
Harold Stassen started as a young political star after being elected Governor of Minnesota in 1938. He was just 31 years old. He landed a second successful reelection in 1940 and was again reelected in 1942. During his tenure as leader of the Land of 10000 Lakes, Stassen held a high approval rating of 81–91%. He resigned from the office in 1943 for the sole purpose of serving active duty after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Serving in Europe, he was awarded the Legion of Merit and rose to the rank of Captain.
Upon returning from his military service, Stassen began campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination in 1944. He would run many more presidential campaigns. Although some campaigns brought many small victories, he would never gain the Republican nomination or make it to the White House.
It would be easy for a brief biographical summary to mark Stassen’s numerous unsuccessful bids for the Republican nomination and miss his exceptional successes and unmatched wins.
Two of Stassen’s presidential bids held many unmatched successes in their own right. In 1948, Stassen ran toe to toe with the eventual Republican nominee Thomas Dewey. In fact, Dewey challenged Stassen to the first televised presidential debate in U.S. history. Stassen returned to the Republican stage in 1952 to closely trail Dwight Eisenhower. Stassen’s influence on Eisenhower’s eventual Republican nomination was so pivotal that Eisenhower appointed Stassen to numerous roles in his presidential administration.
Stassen held multiple other leadership positions and monumental international roles throughout his life. He served as President at the University of Pennsylvania and was one of the founders of the United Nations. Even though he never gained the desired office of POTUS, his countless other roles and accomplishments were equally honorable.
Still, many questions remain. Why did Stassen run for president so many times? Why put his family through the pressure of numerous campaigns? Why keep pushing what certainly was a heavy stone uphill?
Perhaps the reasons Stassen kept launching bid after bid for the White House are best offered in a response he gave to PBS’s Jim Lehrer during a 1979 interview. At the time, the then 72-year-old pointed to his career successes, set records, priorities, and his overarching vision:
You expect that in public life, Jim. When I first started to run for governor, they said I was ten million to one, and of course I won and it still stands as the record of the youngest governor in the history of the country, and I think everybody will agree that we did a great job and carried on programs that are still carried forward in Minnesota — rather basic programs, with compassion for the people, but with balanced budgets and with sound finance. So that this is the record — and of course it goes on through the United Nations and the Eisenhower years, and right up to now the kind of things I`m carrying on are really what the people need to have carried forward for them.
For Stassen, running for president was about service, giving back, and compassion. And so, those familiar titans of fame, fortune, power, or ego were entirely absent. There was not even a small trace of self-serving or grandiose desires.
Many might still wonder why Stassen didn’t aim for other heights. Perhaps some others may have been more… let’s say … reasonable?
If he was in the business of political greatness and public leadership, could he not have pursued a career as a diplomat or consultant? Why keep pursuing a path where the final destination seemed most unreachable?
Let’s keep in mind that most presidential candidates never make it to the White House. There have only been 45 men who landed the highly coveted job. Is this different from other amazing pursuits? Some of the highest all-time scorers have also missed the most shots in basketball. The same is true for baseball — remember Babe Ruth struck out over 1300 times in his career. Famous historical legends like Walt Disney and Alexander Graham Bell faced numerous failures and obstacles before they brought us wonders like Mickey Mouse and the telephone. If the odds for success are against you, accepting or embracing failures is the only path to victory.
And if the final victory is not reached, then perhaps it is the journey that brings immeasurable riches and unmatched successes. Maybe winning the final prize was not what kept driving Stassen(though the Oval Office would have been nice). Instead, it was the drive to keep running the race itself. To quote from a 1978 Washington Post article:
Like an old vaudevillian, Harold Stassen kept on. He would have to be blind and mute to be unaware of the ridicule. He is neither. Ridicule isn’t important, Harold Stassen says. Playing a part “in the process” is. Working to get your chance.
Life is all about running the race.
