Farmer-Labor nominee Floyd Olson died on August 22, 1936 and the party nominated Ernest Lundeen to replace him on the ballot. This election is one of four in Minnesota history without a Democratic candidate (1918, 1928, 1936-special).
Lundeen was an attorney from Minneapolis, former state Representative (HD 42, 1911-1915), former U.S. Representative (CD 05, 1917-1919), Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in 1922 and 1923, candidate for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1924, Farmer-Laborite nominee for U.S. Senate in 1930, and Farmer-Laborite U.S. Representative (AL, 1933-1935; CD 03, 1935-1937). Lundeen died in an airplane crash on August 31, 1940. Republican Joseph H. Ball was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Governor Harold Stassen on October 14, 1940 to fill the vacancy. Ball served until November 17, 1942.
Christianson was an attorney from Dawson, owner and publisher of the Dawson Sentinel, former president of the Dawson Village Council (1910-1911), state Representative (1915-1925), Governor (1925-1931), candidate for U.S. Senate in 1930, and sitting U.S. Representative (CD 05, 1933-1937).