The Farmers’ Fight for Representation: Third-Party Politics in South Dakota, 1889–1918

According to historian John Donald Hicks, the Populist movement in the Great Plains was an almost inevitable movement to improve life on the newly settled agricultural frontier.¹ But who exactly were these Populists? The answer to this question is complex. On one hand, Richard Hofstadter thought Populism was “an effort on the part of a few important segments of a highly heterogeneous capitalistic agricultural society to restore profits in the face of much exploitation and under unfavorable market and price conditions.”² Hofstadter believed that Populism was only mildly reformist and geared toward commercial farmers. Hicks, on the other hand, believed Populists were poor, struggling farmers with mounting debt.³ Hicks wrote,

Under railway leadership the population came in too rapidly to permit of thoughtful and deliberate readjustments. A society at once so new and so numerous was immediately confronted with problems that it could not comprehend, much less hope to solve. Flight to a new frontier could no longer avail, for the era of free lands was over. The various agrarian movements, particularly the Alliance and the Populist revolts, were but the inevitable attempts of a bewildered people to find relief from a state of economic distress made certain by the unprecedented size and suddenness of their assault upon the West.⁴

In reality, the truth was somewhere in the middle. The Populist movement was a grassroots effort that involved men, women, and entire families in activities such as picnics, barbeques, parades, speeches, and rallies in hopes of improving their rural communities.⁵ The Populist movement laid the foundation for the reform movement of the twentieth century. According to William Pratt, “Populism emerged in the wake of the economic hard times that marked the late nineteenth century. Though it was largely a farmers’ movement, its ranks included workers and reformers of different stripes.”⁶ Jon Lauck noted that Populism was a push back to the industrial progress that American farmers were encouraged to embrace during the late nineteenth century.⁷ Either way, Populism was one of the most important third-party political movements in American history.⁸ John Dibbern noted that Populism was simply rooted in vulnerability. According to Dibbern, “Dakota Populists were the victims of the physical climate of the frontier: farmers who had produced bountiful harvest during the plentiful rainfall of the ‘boom’ period could no longer do so during the inadequate rainfall that characterized the ‘bust.’ Without a successful harvest it was almost impossible for these farmers to … preserve their farms.”⁹ It was the bust period of the 1890s that fueled the Populist movement and established many of the third parities discussed in this essay. Because Populists felt vulnerable, they attempted to gain some control of their surroundings through politics by establishing a party for the people.¹⁰

Andrew E. Lee, the third governor of South Dakota and a member of the People’s Party, stated, “Before the third of November we were candidates of a party. We are now the chosen servants of the entire electorate of the state. Economy in the management of the affairs entrusted to our care will find ready response in the hearts of the people who are now bearing heavy burden.”¹¹ The People’s Party was one of many influential third parties in South Dakota. From 1889 to 1918 in South Dakota, seven third parties had an impact on statewide elections. Certain third parties, such as the Independent Party, People’s Party, and Fusion Party, were more successful than others. These parties differed in name but championed many of the same ideals. The Populist movement brought several different factions of society together with the hope of improving life in rural America.

In this essay I seek to identify where third-party politics was most successful in the first quarter of South Dakota’s history and discuss reasons why South Dakotans supported these parties. In order to determine why third-party candidates were successful, it was necessary to identify the parties’ supporters. To determine where third-party support came from...