Governor, 1879 Election
General
| Candidate | Gender | Party | Votes | Percent | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John S. Pillsbury Incumbent | Man | Republican | 57,514 | 53.99 | +14.71 |
| Edmund Rice | Man | Democrat | 41,844 | 39.28 | |
| William Meighen | Man | Greenback-Labor | 4,264 | 4.00 | |
| William (W.W.) Satterlee | Man | Temperance | 2,896 | 2.72 |
The official canvass did not include the results of Watonwan County due to the county auditor mislabeling the envelope when submitting county and state election results to the Secretary of State. The results above include the tally from Watonwan.
Governor Pillsbury was reelected to a third term. This was the first Minnesota gubernatorial election with four candidates on the ballot.
Rice was an attorney from St. Paul who served in the territorial House (HD 03, 1851), state Senate (SD 01, 1864-1866; SD 03, 1873-1875), and state House (HD 01, 1867-1868; HD 24, 1872-1873, 1877-1879). Rice was the brother of 1865 Democratic gubernatorial nominee Henry Rice and would later get elected Mayor of Minneapolis (1885-1887) and to the U.S. House (1887-1889).
Meighen was a farmer from Forestville, former state Representative (HD 09, 1859-1861; HD 14, 1868-1870), former state Senator (SD 03, 1873-1877), Greenback nominee for Lieutenant Governor in 1877, and Democratic-Greenback U.S. House nominee for the 1st CD in 1878.
Satterlee was a Methodist minister from Minneapolis and official in the Minnesota Temperance Union.
Sources
- The Rochester Post, December 5, 1879 (p. 2).