North Dakota has had a tremendously interesting history as a state, given how although Republican-dominated, the progressive wing of the party, the Non-Partisan League was riding high during the Great Depression. In 1934, Republican Usher Burdick defeated for renomination the already progressive James Sinclair. Burdick had lost a previous effort to get the Republican nomination in 1932 as he openly endorsed FDR.

Congressman Burdick

Burdick was staunchly supportive of most of the New Deal, and was to Roosevelt’s left on agriculture, being an agrarian radical. He arguably was to his left as well on old age insurance, as he was one of the representatives to vote against Social Security on the grounds that it wasn’t sufficient. He preferred the “Townsend Plan”, which was proved to be economically unfeasible. Burdick’s DW-Nominate score was a -0.048, which is very low for a Republican. As a Midwestern Republican, he was of course to FDR’s right on foreign policy, being a staunch non-interventionist. During World War II, he was one of the foremost supporters of price control in the GOP and opposed the House Committee on Un-American Activities as well as the Smith-Connally Labor Disputes Act. Burdick sought the Republican nomination for the Senate, and then after losing that he tried to run for reelection as an Independent, but was defeated in the At-Large election for both of North Dakota’s House seats, with William Lemke and Charles Robertson making the top two. Burdick was down, but not out, and in 1948 Robertson was defeated for renomination, with Burdick again being in the top two. Burdick most notably was one of only two House Republicans to oppose the McCarran Internal Security Act in 1950 (the other was fellow RINO Jacob Javits of New York), which provided for, among other provisions, communist registration with the Attorney General. Burdick’s postwar record reflected a preference for domestic liberalism and against foreign aid, and he would time and again vote against Mutual Security legislation. Burdick consistently backed public over private ownership of power generation, supported price and rent controls during wartime, opposed any legislation curbing the power of organized labor, and opposed transferring the title of the tidelands from the Federal government to State governments. However, his record on domestic issues wasn’t entirely liberal, and in 1955 he supported revoking the Federal Power Commission’s authority to regulate natural gas and he frequently voted against public housing.

Retirement, Securing His Son’s Future

Burdick’s greatest legacy, however, lay in his son, Quentin. In 1958, Burdick, by this time approaching eighty, agreed to not run for reelection if the Democrats selected his son, Quentin, to succeed him (H.W. Wilson Company). The Non-Partisan League had shifted its affiliation from Republican to Democratic as did Quentin. The younger Burdick won the election, and he would be elected to the Senate in 1960 after the death of William Langer. Usher Burdick would die less than two weeks after his son was elected to the Senate, and Quentin would serve in the Senate until his death in 1992.

References

Burdick, Usher Lloyd. Voteview.

Retrieved from

https://voteview.com/person/1254/usher-lloyd-burdick

Current biography yearbook. 27. (1964). New York, NY: H.W. Wilson Company.

Sen. Quentin Burdick, N.D. Democrat. (1992, September 9). The Los Angeles Times.

Retrieved from

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-09-09-mn-155-story.html