1952 PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY Looking back . . . Minnesota's primary key to Ike's '52 victory Had Minnesota not had its presidential primary back in 1952, the course of history may have been a lot different. In fact, it's possible that Americans never would have grown familiar with the popular slogan, "We Like Ike." "If it wasn't for the Minnesota primary in '52, Eisenhower never would have been president," said former Minnesota Gov. Harold Stassen, who was perceived as a major player in the presidential sweepstakes in those days. Stassen made the remark this past December when he filed to be placed on the ballot for Minnesota's scheduled primary in April, shortly after the first public calls for its delay until 1996. Although Dwight D. Eisenhower, then serving as supreme commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), was enormously popular, he was stationed in Europe; therefore, he couldn't campaign. In the first electoral test of the 1952 campaign, Eisenhower -- in absentia and as a write-in candidate -- blitzed the competition in the New Hampshire primary, sweeping to an easy win in the Republican contest and finishing a respectable third among the Democrats. But whether he could sustain that momentum while still serving in Europe remained a big question. The next test was the March 18 Minnesota primary. As a write-in candidate, Eisenhower captured 108,000 votes -- second only to favorite son Harold Stassen's 129,076. But Stassen was widely viewed as a "stalking horse" for Eisenhower, so a vote for Stassen could also be considered a vote for Eisenhower. The strength of Eisenhower and Stassen -- his designated stand-in -- established Ike as a national candidate and helped propel him to later wins in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Oregon. And as a result of Stassen's win, the former Minnesota governor picked up 19 delegates to the Republican National Convention in Chicago -- a delegation that later played a key role in securing Eisenhower's nomination. Eisenhower received the remaining nine Minnesota delegates. Eisenhower's main rival for the GOP nomination was Robert Taft, the U.S. senator from Ohio. Taft had finished a close second for the Republican nod in the 1948 race, and saw himself as the party's standard-bearer. Greatly helping Taft's odds was the simple fact that he was on U.S. soil. Taft could go out and press the flesh, kiss a few babies, and grease the tracks with the national party machinery while Eisenhower was stuck in Europe. When the Republican National Convention opened in Chicago, Taft held Eisenhower nine votes shy of a first-ballot victory. Stassen, who still held the 19 delegates from Minnesota, then addressed the convention. He said all 19 of the Minnesota delegates who had voted for him on the first ballot were switching their votes to Eisenhower. The switch by the Minnesota delegation unleased an avalanche of vote-changing into the Eisenhower camp. After finishing the first ballot with a slim 595-500 advantage over Taft, Eisenhower suddenly emerged with an overwhelming 845-280 win. The nomination later was made unanimous by acclamation. The nomination in hand -- thanks in part to events occurring months before in Minnesota -- Eisenhower had an easy time defeating the Democrats' Adlai Stevenson in the November general election Originally printed in 1992 in the Session Weekly, a weekly newsmagazine published by the Minnesota House Public Information Office. ***Last Update 8/5/94 (jtt) Last Review 8/5/94 (jtt) ***