This was the last election for two-year terms following the passage of a constitutional amendement in 1958 that provided for four-year terms for state constitutional officers for terms beginning in 1963.
Mondale was a Minneapolis attorney and former special assistant Attorney General who was appointed to the seat by Governor Orville Freeman on May 5, 1960 after the resignation of Attorney General Miles Lord on May 4, 1960 to enter private practice in Minneapolis.
Saetre, a Moorhead attorney and former FBI special agent, was also an unsuccessful GOP nominee for attorney general in 1958. In 1962, he became a District Judge in the Seventh Judicial District.