Of all the unlikely places for the Communist Party to have strongholds, perhaps none is more surprising today than Sheridan County, Montana. Getting around 20% of the vote among the largely Scandinavian farmers in the 1920s and 30s, the Party elected town and county officials, including the sheriff. Below are photos and biographies of the leading local Communist candidates for the 1932 election.

Meet the Montana Communists: Election Biographies from Producers News (Plentywood). October, 1932.

ALFRED HJELM Communist Candidate for CLERK OF COURT

Alfred Hjelm was born in Sweden in 1882. Nineteen years old he landed in United States, and settled in Alexandria, Minn. In the spring of 1910 he moved to Montana and took up a homestead in the Westby territory. Alfred Hjelm has an exceptionally good education from his home country, where he attended the Naval Academy for several years. He is a good mixer, with a pleasing personality. When he is elected to the office of Clerk of court the people of the county can be assured that they will have an official who will serve their interests. As long as Alfred Hjelm has lived in the country he has always been at the front and among the best fighters, taking a leading part in farmer movements. That he was nominated at the convention shows the farmers had confidence in him, when elected the farmers and workers will have a friend in that office on whom they can depend and who they will enjoy meeting.

JOHN LIEN Communist Candidate for COUNTY ASSESSOR

John Lein, the candidate for Assessor on the Communist ticket is a popular young farmer of Outlook country. Two years ago he ran on the Farmer-Labor ticket for the same office and is well-known all over the county. John Lein was born in Ringsage Norway, in 1892, where he graduated from the public school, which is equivalent of two years high school in this country. He can to the U.S. in 1914 and went work on a farm in Minnesota. In 1915 he worked as a carpenter in North Dakota. From 1916 to 1918 he worked as a fireman the Duluth and Mesaba railroad. He was then called into the army. In April he left for France with the 82nd Division where he took part in the drive at St. Michel Argonne. After the armistice signed his duty as a soldier over with and he again arrived in the U.S. where he found that the railroad job, which they had promised to hold for him, was given to somebody else, so he again went to work on farms in North Dakota where he married Corra Ross and in 1920 moved to Montana where he rented a farm in the Outlook precinct. Mr. and Mrs. Lein have two children. Besides being a farmer John Lein has been driving a school bus to the Outlook school for a number of years. He is a member of the Outlook Post of American Legion, is highly respected in community, and it was only after his many friends insisted that should run that he finally gave his consent. When the farmers picked John Lien for their assessor, it was no mere accident. They know John had always fought on their side, that he was a man who they could depend on, who would at all times be looking after their interests, and that he was fully capable to the work connected with that office. John meets everybody with a smile and the farmers want him in that office.

GONIUS LAURSEN Communist Candidate for State Representative

Gonius Laursen was nominated by the farmers to run on the Communist ticket and represent them at the state capitol as their State Representative. Gonius Laursen was born in 1885 and grew to manhood on his fathers farm in Wisconsin. He was among the first settlers in the Dagmar community, taking up a homestead there in 1906 where he is still living. In 1912 he married and they have four children, all living at home. He has always taken an active part in community affairs and many affairs and many a job of trust rave been bestowed upon him in the course of time by his fellow farmers. At present time he is a director of the Dagmar Burial Association, director of the Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance Co., on the Advisory board of the First State Bank of Medicine Lake in behalf of said Fire Insurance Co., and president of the Farmers Elevator Co. of Reserve. He is a member of the Lutheran church and at the time they had the high school in Dagmar he was it’s treasurer. Gonius Laursen is at present time the owner of 430 acres of land, just how long he can hang on to it is a question with him as well as it is with all the rest of us. He knows where the shoe pinches. When he goes to Helena he will represent the class of the farmers of which he is one, represent those who are facing fore closure, sheriffs sales and eviction. And he has the nerve and ability to stick up and fight for them; he has proven this on more than one occasion. In the last few years Gonius Laursen has gotten to be known all over the county. In the fights the farmers have put up against the county agent and for relief, he has been among the most aggressive and active ones. He is a good speaker and has a lot of ability, so when the farmers send him to Helena they will have a farmer there who will be able to tell the rest of them about the conditions on the farm and will not be afraid to spit it out.

ERNEST GARRICK Communist Candidate for CLERK and RECORDER

Ernest Garrick was born in Grundy county, Iowa, in 1878. Hel grew to manhood in Buchanan county, Iowa, where he graduated from school and learned the blacksmith trade. He married in 1896 and moved to Montana in 1909, where he settled on a homestead near Outlook. They have several boys. Since 1928 he has been making his living at blacksmithing and at present is located at Raymond where he is running a garage and blacksmith shop. Ernest Garrick was recommended for the office of Clerk and Recorder by his many friends in the Outlook community. He has the highest respect of everyone who knows him. Through the many years he has been here, the farmers have learned that he is a man on whom they can depend, will stand up squarely for their interests at all times. When he is elected to the important office, the office will be conducted in the interest of the farmers and workers of Sheridan county.

SELMER ESPELAND COMMUNIST CANDIDATE for Treasurer

Two years ago Seimer Espeland ran on the Farmer-Labor ticket for the office for which he has again been nominated on the Communist ticket, the office of county treasurer. Through his campaign two years ago he is well known all over the county and made friends wherever he went. He is cool-headed and courteous and enjoys the very highest reputation as a citizen and man in the territory where he lives. He is in every way qualified both by education and natural ability for the office of treasurer. Selmer Espelund was born in Hancock county, Iowa, in 1896. At the age of six he with his parents moved to Granville, N. Dak. where his father took up a homestead and where Selmer graduated from the public school later on. In 1911 his father died and his widowed mother moved to Montana with her children and took up a homestead near McElroy which passed to Selmer when she died in 1923, and is now his present home. Between the age of fifteen and twenty-one years, Selmer did not stay at home all of the time, but traveled and worked at different activities and went to school, taking a business course in Omaha, and going to night school at other times. In September 1917, he went into the army, saw no oversea service but was in the Student Army training camp at the time the war ended. He is a member of the Westby Post of the American Legion. In 1925 he married, but five years later his wife died in a North Dakota hospital, leaving him with three small children, two boys and one girl. Lately he has again married. Selmer Espelund has always identified himself with the working class side in politics. He has taken an active part in Farmers Cooperatives and other organizations of interest to his class When he is elected county treasurer we will have a man in that office who is not only able to do the work but at all times can be depended on looking after the farmers’ and workers’ interests.

HANS HARDERSEN Communist Candidate for SHERIFF

Two years ago Hans Hardersen run on the Farmer-Labor ticket for State Representative. This year he was nominated for sheriff on the Communist ticket. Hans Hardersen was born in Schlevie-Holstein, Germany, in 1882. When Hans was six months old his parents emigrated to the U.S. and settled down in Clinton, Iowa, where the father worked as a harness maker and upholsterer. After graduating from school Hans went to work as a carpenter, cement worker and farmer in Towa and Nebraska. In 1911 he came to Montana and filed on the homestead near Archer where he is now living. Later he married Grace Morgan, the daughter of J.J. Morgan who was one of his neighbors. To them have been born three children, two girls and a boy. Hans Hardersen understands the problems of the farmers and the workers. He has been both. Although he is a good farmer and hard worker he is now facing the same conditions as practically all of us, where he can no longer pay his taxes and interest, and it is only a matter of time when somebody will try to also take his land and home away from him and his family. With foreclosure, sheriff sales, and evictions facing practically all of us, the election of a sheriff is at this time of the greatest importance to the farmers. Hans Hardersen is known all over the county, known as a man who has always stood in the front ranks in the farmers fights. He is known by the farmers as being fearless and a man they can depend on at all times. That’s the reason they picked him for their sheriff. Hans goes into the campaign with the full understanding and determination that he will protect the farmers’ and workers’ interest first of all. He is fully in harmony with the United Farmers League’s slogan: “That there shall be no more sheriff sales and evictions of poor farmers.” And he has the guts to go thru with it. Hans Hardersen was one of the leaders who took a leading part in the county agent fight and the feed and seed loan racket. He has always taken a leading part whenever the farmers’ interests were at stake. The farmers and workers know this and are going to rally around him. He is going to be their sheriff.

MAGNUS DANIELSEN Communist Candidate for County Commissioner

Magnus Danielsen is 46 years old. As one of the early settlers he homesteaded in the northeast of Medicine Lake country in 1907 on that homestead he is still living. In 1924 his wife died and he is now a widower, they had no children. Out of many good men in that part of the county Magnus Danielsen was the one who was chosen at the convention to run for County Commissioner on the Communist ticket. Magnus Danielsen is very well known in the commissioners district in which he is living and will carry practically all the votes in that part of the county. He is one of the directors of the Dagmar Cooperative store, is a member of the Taxpayers Association and has for many years been one of the trustees of the local Lutheran church and has held many other jobs of trust from time to time. He is recognized by everybody as having the ability and the makings of being as good a county commissioner as could be picked from that part of the county. Magnus Danielsen is not a well-to-do farmer. He has gone thru the mill of hard times with all the rest of us; he knows the farmers are struggling for their very existence, and knows what the struggle is all about because he is one of us. When he goes into the commissioners chair the farmers and working people of Sheridan county will have one more of their men in that important office who will look after their interests first of all. Magnus Danielsen is going to go over with a land slide.

HANS RASMUSSEN Communist Candidate FOR SURVEYOR

Hans Rasmussen was born in Denmark in 1871, where he received his education, going thru high school and graduating from architectural college. He also learned the trade of bricklaying and plastering. In Europe and America he has traveled more than any man in the county. In 1893 he landed in U.S., has crossed the pond seven times since then. He has worked as draftsman, superintendent, contractor and bricklayer in many big cities here and in Europe. At times he has worked as a farm hand. In 1906 he worked for Uncle Sam at the Panama Canal. In 1908 he came here from Seattle, Wash., and homesteaded southeast of Dagmar. He was one of the first tractor farmers in the county and lost his homestead in order to pay for the tractor. He then married a girl with another homestead which the Federal Land Bank is now threatening to foreclose on at any minute. They have two children. Hans is well known to the people in the county. Twenty years ago he was nominated for county commissioner by the old Socialist party and run on their ticket. In 1922 he was elected by the farmers for county surveyor and held the job for six years. Together with the rest of them at that time he went a long ways towards putting the county out of the hole Hans is not a traitor. When he had the choice between selling out or go without pay, he stayed on the job for about two years without pay. When the convention wanted to nominate him for some more honorable job, Hans refused to take it, the surveyor job is good enough for him, he is not looking for honors. When Hans again steps into the campaign with the rest of the radicals he knows, that with the present deplorable conditions of the county the task of the Communist candidates when elected is not going to be a funny one. And the farmers and working people in the county know that in him they have a man they can depend on, he never turned traitor, and there is a lot of fight left in him yet.

HARRY WILLIAMS Communist Candidate for COUNTY CORONER

Harry Williams was born in the state of Illinois in 1877, in 1884 he moved to Missouri with his parents and resided there until 1907 when he moved to what is now Sheridan county and homesteaded east of Reserve, where he is still farming. Harry Williams has gone thru good and hard times with the rest of the farmers, has always taken an active part in all progressive movements and fought for the interest of the farmers. The office of Coroner, to which he was nominated at the Communist convention, is a more important office than most people realize. Besides many other important duties, he is the only man in the county who has the authority to arrest the sheriff. In order to complete our Communist ticket it is very important that we also elect our County Coroner.

ANNA U. LUTNES Communist Candidate for County Supt. of Schools

Mrs. Anna U. Lutnes was born in Callendar, Iowa. When seven years old the family moved to Edgely, N.D. After graduating from the country school she then went to the University of North Dakota at Grand Forks. There she completed the preparatory course, which was equivalent to high school. Afterwards graduated twice, first from the Normal department, and later from the College of Arts, receiving the Bachelor’s Degree. Was in school rooms either as student or teacher up to the spring of 1910. Mostly teaching in country schools. Mrs. Lutnes came to Montana in 1910 and homesteaded near what is now McElroy, where her brothers also were located. In 1914 she was postmistress in the town of Outlook. In the fall of the same year she was married to Odin Lutnes and settled down on the homestead at McElroy. They have three children, all boys, two of whom are now in high school and one in the grades. Mrs. Lutnes is highly respected by everybody who knows her. She has acted in the capacity of school clerk and trustee, and is looked upon as being remarkably bright and dependable by the people in her community. Mrs. Lutnes knows the farm and school problems, she has brought up children and brought them up well. Sheridan county is fortunate in having a woman with her education, ability and experience, willing to conduct the education of our children as Supt. of Schools. There should be no question of her election, as everybody who knows her feels that here is a woman who can safely trust our children’s education with.

CHAS. E. TAYLOR Communist Candidate for State Representative

Chas. E. Taylor needs no introduction to the people of Sheridan county. In 1918 he came to Sheridan county as an organizer for the Nonpartisan League, and shortly after was appointed editor of the Producers News, which paper he has edited most of the time ever since. In 1922 he was first elected by the farmers to the State Senate and was reelected again in 1926. His record as a State Senator is one that any man could be proud of. Almost single handed he fought the Anaconda Copper Co., and the other big interests and stood up for the interest of the farmers and workers. He is regarded, even by his enemies, as being one of the best speakers and one of the best posted politicians in the state of Montana. In 1930 Chas. E. Taylor ran for the office of United States Senator, but was defeated by the money power behind his opponent. This year he was nominated b the Communist convention together with Gonius Laursen to represent the farmers and workers in Helena at the next legislature. No man in Sheridan county has stood the abuse and criticism that Chas. E. Taylor has in the fourteen years of fight he has put up in the interest of the farmers And still Charley is taking the same stand he took fourteen year ago. He never sold out to big business, although a man with his ability and education could have had many chances. He is one of the most able men of the northwest and the farmers are lucky to be represented at Helena by a man o his ability, who is looked upon b everybody as a political heavy weight.

HARRY JUUL Communist Candidate for U.S. CONGRESS

Harry Juul was born in a sod house south of what is now the town of Outlook, while Culbertson was yet the nearest trading point. His father had worked in the Carnegie Steel Mills in Pennsylvania during the time when Chas. Schwab was a clerk in the office. He was a witness of the Homestead strike in Pennsylvania. As his health was breaking down under the strain in the steel mill, he moved to Montana and settled down on the plains as a homesteader. Thru the experience of his father, Harry Juul has received his first understanding of working class struggle, which he has improved on later by attending the Young Communist school at Plentywood and later in New York City. After completing one year of high school Harry had to go back and work on the farm, where his father’s health was failing, and since the death of his father in 1928 he has run the place. Harry Juul is now touring the state and will no doubt get a lot of votes. Should he be elected to U.S. Congress the farmers and workers will have one man there who they can absolutely depend on something they have never had before.

RODNEY SALISBURY Communist Candidate FOR GOVERNOR

Rodney Salisbury needs no introduction to the people of Sheridan county. He is better known than any one person in the county. For six years he was the sheriff of this county, during that time he got to be known practically all over the United States as the Red sheriff of Sheridan county. During his long term in office no poor people ever applied to him for help in vain, and much property and many homes were saved for them by his protection. He was their friend and adviser. Today, as secretary of the United Farmers League, people come to him from all over the county night and day for help and advise. When they picked Rodney Salisbury for Governor of the state of Montana at the Great Falls convention, they did it because a better man for that job could not be found in the state of Montana. When he gets into that office we will have a governor who is different from anything we ever had before. The burden of taxes will be on those who can afford to pay it and the state militia will not be used against the workers and farmers, but will be used for their protection. Rodney Salisbury was born in North Dakota 44 years ago. He was one of the early settlers in the Raymond county, where he homesteaded. He is married and has five children living.

COMMUNIST TICKET Roosevelt County

The following are the candidate for the offices indicated on the Communist ticket in Roosevelt county, who are making an active and extensive campaign as their limited means will allow.

For STATE SENATOR: J. B. WELLZENBACH, Wolf Point
For STATE REPRESENTATIVE (Vote for both)
JAMES OSTBY, McCabe CARL HARMON, Bainville
For SHERIFF: RUDOLPH HINZ, Culbertson
For COUNTY COMMISSIONER: ROBERT JOHNSON, Froid
For CO. SUPT. OF SCHOOLS: MRS. LUCY JOHNSON, Froid
For TREASURER: FRANCIS ROMO, Bainville
For CLERK OF COURT: MES. JAMES A. CRAIGIE, Brockton
For CLERK & RECORDER: HANS LARSEN, McCabe.

James Ostby, one of the candidates for the legislature was member of the legislature before being elected as a Nonpartisan Leaguer back in 1922 when he made a record in the fight against the exploiters of the state and for legislation for the workers and farmers. His running mate Carl Harmon of Bainville is a very able and energetic young farmer who is a student and a man who is going to be heard more about in the radical movement in the future. Rudolph Heinz, candidate for sheriff, was a topnotch prize-fighter and athlete in his day, is a pioneer homesteader and farmer of the Culbertson section and ha hordes of friends in the county These three and Robert Johnson are the four Communist candidates that are being talked about the most in the county. J.B. Wallzenbach, cigar maker and a farmer of Wolf Point, is the candidate for state senator. He is pioneer of that section of the state and has been identified with the Communist movement for year Lucy Johnson of Froid the candidate for Supt. of Schools, is qualified candidate. She is a Dillon graduate who has taught for several years in the country and village schools of Roosevelt county. Francis Romo, schoolteacher of Bainville, a capable young man is the candidate for treasurer Hans Larsen, pioneer farmer of McCabe, the candidate for Cler and Recorder, is well qualified for the job, as is Mrs. James A Craigie of Brockton, the candidate for Clerk of Court. The Communist county campaign committee is urging all the farmers and workers to vote Communist–the only party of and fighting for the working class–and to vote the ticket “straight.” The Communist have really presented a splendid set of candidates.

Producer’s News was a radical rural voice that became a Communist publication in the late 1920s. First published in Plentywood, Montana in Sheridan County, one of the few places to elect Communists in the 1920s. as the organ of the Montana Non-Partisan League beginning in 1918, took a left turn and passed into the hands of Communist editor Charley Taylor and then the Montana Farmer-Labor Party in 1924. In the late 1920s the paper became the voice of the United Farmers League before becoming the organ of the Communist-dominated Farm Holiday Association in 1935, ending its nearly twenty year run in 1937.