View source for Ernest Lundeen

{{Short description|American politician with Nazi affiliations (1878–1940)}}
{{redirect|Senator Lundeen|the Colorado State Senate member|Paul Lundeen}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Ernest Lundeen
| image name          = Ernest Lundeen 1929 Trim Crop.jpg
| caption             = Lundeen in 1929
| jr/sr               = United States Senator
| state               = [[Minnesota]]
| term_start          = January 3, 1937
| term_end            = August 31, 1940
| predecessor         = [[Guy V. Howard]]
| succeeded           = [[Joseph H. Ball]]
| office1             = Member of the<br />[[United States House of Representatives|U.S. House of Representatives]]<br />from [[Minnesota]]
| term_start1         = March 4, 1933
| term_end1           = January 3, 1937
| predecessor1        = ''[[General ticket]] adopted''
| successor1          = [[Henry Teigan]]
| constituency1       = [[Minnesota's at-large congressional district|General Ticket Seat Eight]] {{small|(1933-1935)}}<br>{{ushr|MN|3|3rd district}} {{small|(1935-1937)}}
| term_start2         = March 4, 1917
| term_end2           = March 3, 1919
| predecessor2        = [[George Ross Smith]]
| succeeded2          = [[Walter Newton]]
| constituency2       = {{ushr|MN|5|5th district}}
| state_house5        = Minnesota
| district5           = 42nd
| term_start5         = January 3, 1911
| term_end5           = January 4, 1915
| predecessor5        = William Campbell and John Godspeed
| successor5          = [[John B. Sanborn Jr.]] and George Sudheimer
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1878|8|4}}
| birth_place         = [[Beresford, South Dakota|Beresford]], [[Dakota Territory]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1940|8|31|1878|8|4}}
| death_place         = [[Lovettsville, Virginia]], U.S.
| death_cause         = [[Lovettsville air disaster|Plane crash]]
| party               = [[United States Republican Party|Republican]] {{small|(before 1925)}}<br/>[[Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party|Farmer-Labor]] {{small|(after 1925)}}
| alma_mater          = [[Carleton College]]<br>[[University of Minnesota Law School]]
| spouse              = {{marriage|Norma Lundeen|1919}}
| children            = 2
| occupation          = Lawyer
| allegiance          = {{flag|United States|1898}}
| branch              = {{Army|United States}}
| unit                = Company B, 12th Minnesota Volunteer Regiment
| rank                = Private
| serviceyears        = 1898
| battles             = [[Spanish–American War]]
}}
'''Ernest Lundeen''' (August 4, 1878{{spaced ndash}}August 31, 1940) was an American lawyer and politician who represented [[Minnesota]] in the [[United States House of Representatives]] from 1917 to 1919 and 1933 to 1937, and in the [[United States Senate]] from 1937 until his death in 1940. He was a member of the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] before joining the [[Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party]]. He opposed American involvement in both [[World War I]] and [[World War II]]. At the end of his life, he became controversial for his close ties with [[George Sylvester Viereck]], a Nazi agent in the U.S.<ref>{{cite news |title=Did a Nazi sympathizer once represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate? |url=https://www.lrl.mn.gov/LegDB/Articles/13717Bio.pdf |last=Duchschere |first=Kevin |newspaper=[[Minnesota Star Tribune]] |date=17 February 2023}}</ref>

A veteran of the [[Spanish–American War]], Lundeen got his start in politics when he served in the [[Minnesota House of Representatives]] between 1911 and 1914. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1916 as the representative from [[Minnesota's 5th congressional district]]. However, when seeking reelection in 1918, he was defeated in the Republican primary due to his unpopular opposition to American entry into World War I.

On August 31, 1940, Senator Lundeen and 24 other passengers died in a plane crash near [[Lovettsville, Virginia]]. At the time, he was the subject of a probe by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] for his alleged links to [[Nazi Germany]]. Investigations into the cause of the crash turned up nothing conclusive.

==Early life and education==
Ernest Lundeen was born on August 4, 1878, on his father's homestead in [[Brooklyn Township, Lincoln County, South Dakota|Brooklyn Township]] near [[Beresford, South Dakota|Beresford]], [[Lincoln County, South Dakota|Lincoln County]], [[Dakota Territory]]. His father, C. H. Lundeen, was an early pioneer who was credited with the naming of Brooklyn Township and the establishment of the school and other local institutions.{{Citation needed|date=May 2024}}

Most of Ernest Lundeen's siblings died during a [[diphtheria]] epidemic during the 1880s. In 1896, Lundeen and his family moved from their Brooklyn homestead to [[Harcourt, Iowa]], and then to Minnesota. Lundeen served in the [[United States Army]] in the 12th Minnesota Volunteer Regiment during the [[Spanish–American War]].<ref name=Minn_Legislator>{{cite web |title=Lundeen, Ernest - Legislator Record |series=Minnesota Legislators Past & Present |publisher=Minnesota Legislative Reference Library |url=https://www.lrl.mn.gov/legdb/fulldetail?id=13717 |access-date=5 March 2025}}</ref>

In 1901, Lundeen graduated from [[Carleton College]] and studied law at the [[University of Minnesota Law School]]. In May 1906, he was admitted to the Minnesota [[Bar (law)|bar]].<ref name=Minn_Legislator />

==Early political career (1911{{Endash}}36)==
Lundeen served in the [[Minnesota House of Representatives]] from 1911 to 1915. He represented the 42nd district, which served [[Hennepin County, Minnesota|Hennepin County]].<ref name=Minn_Legislator />

=== United States House of Representatives (1917{{Endash}}19) ===
[[File:LUNDEEN, ERNEST. HONORABLE LCCN2016859573 (3x4).jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Portrait by [[Harris & Ewing]] {{circa}} 1917–1919]]
Lundeen first ran for United States Congress in 1914 but was unsuccessful. Then, in 1916, he was elected to the 65th U.S. Congress, representing [[Minnesota's 5th congressional district]] based in [[Minneapolis]]. On April 6, 1917, he was one of 50 congressmen to vote against the American [[American entry into World War I|declaration of war against Germany]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Current Biography 1940 |page=527 |year=1968 |isbn=978-0824204778 |oclc=999510827 |publisher=H.W. Wilson Co. |location=[[The Bronx|Bronx]], N.Y.}}</ref> He continued to oppose the war while it was being fought.<ref>{{cite book |last=Maddow |first=Rachel |year=2023 |title=Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism |publisher=Crown |location=New York |page=195 |isbn=978-0-593-44451-1}}</ref> Owing to the unpopularity of his [[Isolationism|isolationist]], anti-war stance, he lost renomination in the 1918 Republican primary to the eventual election winner, [[Walter Newton]]. Once, while Lundeen was making a speech in 1918 about foreign policy, an angry crowd in [[Ortonville, Minnesota]] carried him off the speaker's platform and forced him into the refrigerated rail car of a departing train.<ref name=MinnPost_article />

=== Unsuccessful bids for office ===
In the 1920s, Lundeen was repeatedly unsuccessful in his runs for political office:<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=University of Minnesota Libraries |first=University of Minnesota |title=1930 Minnesota U.S. Senate Farmer-Labor Primary |url=https://mn.electionarchives.lib.umn.edu/election/2319303032411600/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210824161609/https://mn.electionarchives.lib.umn.edu/election/2319303032411600/ |archive-date=2021-08-24 |access-date=2021-08-24 |website=Minnesota Historical Election Archive |language=en}}</ref>

* Lundeen ran for the same seat again in 1920 but failed to win the Republican nomination. He ran in the general election as an independent candidate but finished third with 10.0% of the total vote.
* In 1922, Lundeen challenged incumbent United States Senator [[Frank B. Kellogg]] for the Republican nomination for Senate. He received 123,765 votes in the Republican primary (33.54% of the total).
* In 1923, Lundeen ran in the [[1923 United States Senate special election in Minnesota|special election for United States Senate]] but finished seventh out of nine candidates in the Republican primary, winning only 5,851 votes (3.40% of the total).
* In 1924, Lundeen ran unsuccessfully for Chief Justice of the [[Minnesota Supreme Court]].
* By 1926, Lundeen had switched his affiliation to the [[Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party]] and ran in that year's election for [[Minnesota's 10th congressional district]]. As the Farmer–Labor nominee in this more rural and exurban district, he finished a distant second to incumbent Republican [[Godfrey G. Goodwin]] with 34.5% of the total vote.
* In 1930, Lundeen was the Farmer–Labor nominee for United States Senate, challenging incumbent Republican [[Thomas D. Schall]]. He finished third behind Schall and Democratic nominee [[Einar Hoidale]] with 22.89% of the vote.

=== United States House of Representatives (1933{{Endash}}37) ===
Lundeen was elected to the U.S. House again in 1932 and served in the [[73rd United States Congress|73rd]] and [[74th United States Congress|74th Congresses]].

In 1934, during the 73rd Congress, Lundeen sponsored the Workers' Unemployment Insurance Bill. The bill embodied a far-reaching unemployment insurance and social insurance program formulated by the [[Communist Party USA|Communist Party]] in 1930 and openly and vigorously advocated by the Party for the next several years.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Collins |editor-first1=Sheila D. |editor-last2=Goldberg |editor-first2=Gertrude Schaffner |title=When Government Helped: Learning from the Successes and Failures of the New Deal |isbn=978-0199990696 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2013 |page=91 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LNhBAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA91}}</ref> Despite the bill's Communist origins, the Party mustered considerable support for it, including from union locals, international unions, and state labor federations.{{sfn|Collins|Goldberg|2013|p=92}} The bill attracted support from liberals dissatisfied with the less generous and much less radical Wagner-Lewis Bill (which became the [[Social Security Act]]). With Lundeen's help, a subcommittee of the Labor Committee heard testimony from 80 witnesses on the benefits of the bill and the suffering of the unemployed. Many were Communists, including Party chairman [[Earl Browder]]. The bill was narrowly voted out of the Labor Committee, but it was killed by House leadership, which wanted no competition for Wagner-Lewis.<ref>{{cite book |last=Klehr |first=Harvey |title=The Heyday of American Communism: The Depression Decade |pages=283–284 |year=1984 |location=New York |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0465029457}}</ref>

==U.S. Senator (1937{{Endash}}40)==

=== 1936 election ===
{{Main|1936 United States Senate election in Minnesota}}
In 1936, the Farmer–Labor Party nominated [[Floyd B. Olson]], the popular incumbent Governor of Minnesota, for the open United States Senate seat vacated by Schall's death. However, Olson died of stomach cancer at the age of 44 on August 22. The state central committee of the Farmer–Labor Party selected Lundeen to run in his place, and he won a landslide election over Republican former Governor [[Theodore Christianson]].

=== Term in office ===
[[File:Informal photo of Sen. Ernest Lundeen, Farmer-Labor, from Minn., April 1940 LCCN2016877382.jpg|thumb|right|Portrait by [[Harris & Ewing]], April 1940]]
Senator Lundeen served in the [[75th United States Congress|75th U.S. Congress]] starting on January 3, 1937, and then in the [[76th United States Congress|76th Congress]] until his death. Initially, he displayed sympathies with the Communist Party. For example, in late 1936, Senator-elect Lundeen addressed a meeting of the "Friends of the Soviet Union" at [[Madison Square Garden]] as ''Tovarishchi'' ("Comrades"). But he remained strongly isolationist and was later denounced by Earl Browder as a [[reactionary]].{{sfn|Klehr|1984|p=289}}

It was Lundeen's "passionate embrace of isolationism" that began to align him more with Americans who backed [[Nazi Germany]].<ref name=MinnPost_article /> He had frequent contact with [[George Sylvester Viereck]], a leading Nazi agent in the U.S. During his first term in the House of Representatives, Lundeen had contributed to ''[[The Fatherland|Viereck's American Weekly]]''.{{sfn|Maddow|2023|p=195}} After giving Sen. Lundeen millions of dollars in bribes, Viereck often used the Senator's office and "sometimes dictated speeches for Lundeen, openly using the Senator's telephones to obtain material from [[Hans Thomsen]] at the [German] embassy."<ref>{{cite book |last=Frye |first=Alton| title=Nazi Germany and the American Hemisphere 1933–1941 |url=https://archive.org/details/nazigermanyameri0000frye |url-access=registration |year=1967 |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven, CT. |page=[https://archive.org/details/nazigermanyameri0000frye/page/161 161]}}</ref> Some of these speeches were markedly pro-German and pro-isolationist. Viereck would have Lundeen's staff print thousands, and in certain cases, millions of copies of the speeches, which would then be distributed to the public.<ref name=MinnPost_article>{{Cite news |date=11 January 2023 |title=How a U.S. Senator from Minnesota became a key player in a Nazi plot |url=https://www.minnpost.com/national/2023/01/how-a-u-s-senator-from-minnesota-became-a-key-player-in-a-nazi-plot/ |access-date=14 February 2023 |newspaper=[[MinnPost]] |last=Radelat |first=Ana |language=en-US}}</ref>{{sfn|Frye|1967|p=161}}

Lundeen was the [[Chairperson|chair]] and founder of the Make Europe Pay War Debts Committee (later dubbed the Islands for War Debts Committee), which urged the seizure of [[British Empire|British]] territories in the [[West Indies]] as a means of settling Britain's debts to the United States from [[World War I|WWI]].{{sfn|Maddow|2023|pp=194–195, 231}} It was likely an isolationist [[public relations]] tactic, reminding Americans that the U.S. should not lend more assistance to a country that was already in debt to them.{{sfn|Maddow|2023|p=195}}

On June 14, 1939, Lundeen joined a civilian and press delegation aboard [[USS Hammann (DD-412)|''USS Hammann'']] for its [[sea trial]]s off [[Fire Island]]. The ship reached a maximum speed of 40 knots, came to a complete stop in 58 seconds, and then travelled in reverse at 20&nbsp;knots.<ref>{{cite web|title=Latest in Destroyers|publisher=The Evening Star|date=June 14, 1939|access-date=December 27, 2022 |url=https://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%205/Washington%20DC%20Evening%20Star/Washington%20DC%20Evening%20Star%201939/Washington%20DC%20Evening%20Star%201939%2006-14_0056.pdf|archive-date=December 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227001353/https://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%205/Washington%20DC%20Evening%20Star/Washington%20DC%20Evening%20Star%201939/Washington%20DC%20Evening%20Star%201939%2006-14_0056.pdf}}</ref> He said the experience was "astounding" and it showed that American ship designers "need bow to none."

While in office, Lundeen required his aides to pay him a portion of their paychecks, threatening to fire them if they did not comply.{{sfn|Maddow|2023|p=201}}

He vehemently opposed the [[Selective Training and Service Act of 1940]].{{sfn|Maddow|2023|pp=196–197}}

==Death and investigation==
On the afternoon of August 31, 1940, Lundeen was a passenger on [[Lovettsville Air Disaster|Flight 19]] of [[Capital Airlines (United States)|Pennsylvania Central Airlines]], flying from [[Washington, D.C.]] to [[Detroit]]. The plane crashed near [[Lovettsville, Virginia]], and all 25 persons on board were killed.<ref name=Accident_details>{{cite web|title=Accident Details|access-date=June 23, 2007|url=https://www.planecrashinfo.com/1940/1940-15.htm}}</ref> Lundeen was buried at [[Fort Snelling National Cemetery]].<ref name=Minn_Legislator />

Also on board Flight 19 were "a Special Agent of the [[FBI]], a second FBI employee, and a prosecutor from the Criminal Division of the [[United States Department of Justice|U.S. Department of Justice]]."<ref name="Ultra"/> Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]] denied that the FBI agents on the plane had Lundeen under surveillance.<ref name=Eisele_article/>

The [[Civil Aeronautics Board]] launched a week-long investigation regarding the cause of the crash, but found no definitive answers.{{sfn|Maddow|2023|pp=192–199}} A coroner's inquest in the Virginia county where the crash occurred concluded it was probably weather-related. There was a violent thunderstorm in progress, and the crash may have resulted from a lightning strike on the plane, possibly combined with pilot error while flying into [[wind shear]].<ref name=Accident_details /><ref name=Eisele_article/>

Minnesota Governor [[Harold Stassen]] appointed [[Joseph Hurst Ball|Joseph H. Ball]] to fill Lundeen's Senate seat. Although Ball continued his predecessor's anti-[[New Deal]] stance, he took a different foreign policy position by voting for [[FDR]]'s [[Lend-Lease]] program as "a barrier between us and whatever designs Hitler and his allies may have on this continent."<ref name=Eisele_article>{{cite news |last=Eisele |first=Albert |date=3 September 2009 |title=Death of senator from Minnesota still shrouded in mystery |newspaper=[[MinnPost]] |url=https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2009/09/death-senator-minnesota-still-shrouded-mystery/}}</ref>

In 2022, [[Rachel Maddow]] released a podcast series titled ''Ultra'', which explored Lundeen's complicity in Nazi Germany's intelligence and propaganda operations in the U.S. during the 12 to 18 months immediately preceding America's entry into World War II. At the time of his death, the FBI was investigating Lundeen's ties to George Sylvester Viereck, who was working in the U.S. to spread pro-Hitler and anti-Semitic propaganda.<ref name="Ultra">{{cite web | url=https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-presents-ultra | title=Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra &#124; an MSNBC original podcast | website=[[MSNBC]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The American Jewish World]] |url=https://www.ajwnews.com/minnesota-hitler-senator/ |title=Editorial: Minnesota's pro-Hitler senator |date=November 13, 2022 |last=Specktor |first=Mordecai}}</ref>

After the plane crash, Lundeen's wife Norma tried to clear his name by covering up his involvement with the Nazi regime. Within two days after the crash, she travelled to his office in the Capitol to retrieve the "Viereck files". Within a year after the tragedy, several journalists started reporting that Lundeen's speeches had been [[ghostwriter|ghostwritten]] by Viereck.<ref name="Ultra-Ep4-Bad-Angle">{{Cite web |title=Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra - Episode 4: A Bad Angle |url=https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-podcast/rachel-maddow-presents-ultra/transcript-bad-angle-n1300107 |website=[[MSNBC]]|date=October 24, 2022 }}</ref> Norma Lundeen sought to block that narrative by claiming that "no one wrote [her] husband's speeches" and by threatening to sue one of the journalists reporting it. When she was called as a defense witness during Viereck's trial for violating the [[Foreign Agents Registration Act]], she falsely testified that while she indeed took the Viereck files, the files had now disappeared due to a burglary at their residence.<ref name="Ultra-Ep5-ShutItdown">{{Cite web | url= https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-podcast/rachel-maddow-presents-ultra/transcript-shut-it-down-n1300316 | title = Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra - Episode 5: Shut It Down| website = [[MSNBC]]| date = October 31, 2022}}</ref> It was later discovered that the files were actually stored in the Lundeen family archives.<ref name="Ultra-Ep5-ShutItdown"/>

==See also==
* [[List of members of the United States Congress who died in office (1900–1949)]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Ernest Lundeen}}
* {{Biographical Directory of Congress|L000514}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-ppo}}
{{s-bef|rows=2|before=[[Magnus Johnson]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party|Farmer–Labor]] nominee for [[Governor of Minnesota]]|years=[[1928 Minnesota gubernatorial election|1928]]}}
{{s-aft|rows=2|after=[[Floyd B. Olson]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party|Farmer–Labor]] nominee for [[United States Senate|U.S. Senator]] from [[Minnesota]]<br />([[Classes of United States senators|Class 2]])|years=[[1930 United States Senate election in Minnesota|1930]]}}
{{s-bef|before=Floyd B. Olson}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Minnesota Farmer–Labor Party|Farmer–Labor]] nominee for [[United States Senate|U.S. Senator]] from [[Minnesota]]<br />([[Classes of United States senators|Class 2]])|years=[[1936 United States Senate election in Minnesota|1936]]}}
{{s-aft|after=Al Hansen}}
{{s-par|us-hs}}
{{succession box
| before=[[George Ross Smith]]
| title=[[United States congressional delegations from Minnesota|U.S. Representative]] from [[Minnesota's 5th congressional district]]
| years=1917–1919
| after=[[Walter Newton]]
}}
{{succession box
| before=[[General ticket]] Adopted
| title=U.S. Representative from [[Minnesota]]<br />[[Minnesota's at-large congressional district|General ticket]] Eighth Seat
| years=1933–1935
| after=[[General ticket]] Abolished
}}
{{succession box
| before=[[General ticket]] Abolished
| title=[[United States congressional delegations from Minnesota|U.S. Representative]] from [[Minnesota's 3rd congressional district]]
| years=1935–1937
| after=[[Henry Teigan]]
}}
{{s-par|us-sen}}
{{US Senator succession box|state=Minnesota|class=2|before=[[Guy V. Howard]]|after=[[Joseph H. Ball]]|years=1937–1940|alongside=[[Henrik Shipstead]]|}}
{{s-end}}
{{United States senators from Minnesota}}
{{Third-party US senators}}
{{United States representatives from Minnesota}}
{{USCongRep-start|congresses= 65th & 73rd–76th [[United States Congress]]es |state=[[Minnesota]]}}
{{USCongRep/MN/65}}
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[[Category:1878 births]]
[[Category:1940 deaths]]
[[Category:Accidental deaths in Virginia]]
[[Category:American anti–World War II activists]]
[[Category:American civilians killed in World War II]]
[[Category:American military personnel of the Spanish–American War]]
[[Category:American Nazi propagandists]]
[[Category:Carleton College alumni]]
[[Category:Farmer–Labor Party United States representatives]]
[[Category:Farmer–Labor Party United States senators]]
[[Category:Methodists from Minnesota]]
[[Category:Minnesota Farmer–Laborites]]
[[Category:People from Beresford, South Dakota]]
[[Category:Republican Party members of the Minnesota House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Minnesota]]
[[Category:United States Army soldiers]]
[[Category:United States senators from Minnesota]]
[[Category:University of Minnesota Law School alumni]]
[[Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1940]]
[[Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in the United States]]
[[Category:20th-century United States senators]]
[[Category:20th-century United States representatives]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the Minnesota Legislature]]