Byron Gilchrist Allen was a Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

 and Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

 politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 who was the first nominee for governor of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party

Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party

The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party is a major political party in the state of Minnesota and the state affiliate of the Democratic Party. It was created on April 15, 1944, with the merger of the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Farmer–Labor Party...

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Born in Laurens, Iowa

Laurens, Iowa

Laurens is a city in Pocahontas County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,476 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Laurens is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land....

, Allen was a newspaper editor by trade, and served in the Iowa House of Representatives

Iowa House of Representatives

The Iowa House of Representatives is the lower house of the Iowa General Assembly. There are 100 members of the House of Representatives, representing 100 single-member districts across the state with populations of approximately 29,750 for each constituency...

 from 1927 to 1932. He unsuccessfully sought election to the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa in 1940.

In 1944, Allen was the first nominee for governor of Minnesota's newly formed Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, a merger of the state's Democratic Party and Farmer-Labor Party

Farmer-Labor Party

The first modern Farmer–Labor Party in the United States emerged in Minnesota in 1918. Economic dislocation caused by American entry into World War I put agricultural prices and workers' wages into imbalance with rapidly escalating retail prices during the war years, and farmers and workers sought...

. He lost to incumbent Republican Governor Edward John Thye

Edward John Thye

Edward John Thye was an American politician. He was the 26th Governor of Minnesota and a United States Senator from Minnesota.-Background:...

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Allen later served as Minnesota Commissioner of Agriculture from 1955 to 1961 under Governor Orville Freeman

Orville Freeman

Orville Lothrop Freeman was an American Democratic politician who served as the 29th Governor of Minnesota from January 5, 1955 to January 2, 1961, and as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from 1961 to 1969 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson...

, and as assistant U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from 1961 to 1969, also under Freeman, who was appointed Secretary of Agriculture by President John F. Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

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Allen was married to Elsa Ellanora Erickson.