National Affairs: Minnesota Miracle

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In early winter, when Estes Kefauver announced his candidacy, few politicians or political reporters were listening carefully enough to catch the threat in his tone. To almost every question, the Tennessee Senator's answer was a capsule of political skill, and his comment about the Minnesota primary was perhaps the best of all. Would he go into Minnesota, asked a reporter, and face Adlai Stevenson?

"Well, I concede that things are pretty well stacked against me, apparently," said Estes modestly, "but I have been receiving an awful lot of requests from rankand-file people to enter. I will have to evaluate whether I have enough rank-and-file strength to offset the big bloc of political strength which has gotten behind Mr. Stevenson."

After Estes evaluated and entered, the cards indeed seemed to be stacked against him. While Adlai Stevenson whisked across Minnesota on the wings of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor organization headed by U.S. Senator Hubert Humphrey and Governor Orville Freeman, Kefauver slogged through the state with a collection of political paupers. Adlai made elegant speeches at elaborately arranged meetings; Estes went about shaking hands and chucking chins. Stevenson's supporters began to believe the slaughter would be even greater than their wildest dreams.

"Absolutely No Alibi." Not until a few days before the primary did either side sense that Kefauver was gaining. Only two days before the primary, Governor Freeman predicted that Stevenson would win by "somewhere between a two-to-one and a three-to-one majority." A day before the vote, Stevenson-lining Columnist Doris Fleeson wrote: "If Stevenson loses or is badly damaged, he has absolutely no alibi."

From Candidate Stevenson himself, there was an estimate that he would win 55% to 60% of the vote. At his country home in Libertyville, Ill., he scheduled a victory party on primary night. It was to be just the kind of political gathering Stevenson likes: a black tie dinner (he wore a red tartan dinner jacket), with only his really good friends in politics invited—the wealthy, intellectual, aristocratic amateurs. Among the guests were Washington Lawyer George Ball, Louisville Editor (Courier-Journal) Barry Bingham. Chicago Industrialist (duplicating machines) Edison Dick. By the time that Stevenson's sister and biographer (My Brother Adlai), Elizabeth Ives, arrived, Stevenson was beginning to get the news from Minnesota. "It's lousy," he said. "It's just awful."

It was. In a state where Stevenson had every reason to win, he went down to crushing defeat. Estes Kefauver swept the state 238,885 to 182,549, won 26 of the state's 30 delegate seats at the Democratic National Convention, leaving only four district delegates for Stevenson. The day before Minnesota, Stevenson had been considered almost a sure bet to get the Democratic nomination; the day after, there was doubt whether he could stay in the race. At a grim news conference the next afternoon, he tried to dispel the doubt. "I will try even harder," he said. "I have just begun."