Following the 1972 election, seats on the Public Service Commission were filled via gubernatorial appointment.
Rolvaag was a former Lieutenant Governor (1955-1963), Governor (1963-1967), and U.S. Ambassador to Iceland (1967-1969).
Peterson was Chair of the Public Service Commission. Peterson's loss was the 14th defeat by a Railroad / Railroad and Warehouse Commissioner / Public Service Commissioner at the ballot box following Anti-Monopolist Alonzo Edgerton in 1875, Republican-turned-Prohibitionist William Marshall in 1881, Democratic-People's nominees Peter Rindal and Thomas Knox in 1900, Republican Christian Laurisch in 1934, Republican Frank Matson in 1936, Farmer-Laborite Harold Atwood in 1938, Farmer-Laborite Charles Munn in 1940, Republican Rollin Johnson in the 1944 GOP primary and 1948 general election, Republican Elling Knutson in the 1952 GOP primary, Clifford Peterson in the 1954 DFL primary, and Republican Wally Lund in 1958.