A life of service

Walter Judd is the most important conservative you’ve never heard of

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2026 issue of Thinking Minnesota magazine.

Walter Judd is arguably Minnesota’s most important conservative — and you’ve probably never heard of him. Judd represented Minneapolis in the U.S. Congress from 1943 to 1963 and served as a trusted advisor to presidents from Truman to Reagan. More than 120 members of Congress regularly followed his lead on foreign policy. He quietly removed communists from the U.S. State Department before Sen. Joseph McCarthy sensationalized the effort. He played a leadership role in all major foreign policy issues of the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, including the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and the formation of NATO. He traveled to Europe to persuade Gen. Dwight Eisenhower to return home and run for president. His keynote address at the 1960 Republican National Convention almost won him the vice-presidential nomination. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1981.

How could someone with such accomplishments on the world stage not be a household name in his home state? One theory is that Judd was overshadowed by two other prominent Minnesotans, Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale. Humphrey was Judd’s contemporary, serving in the U.S. Senate from 1949 to 1964, and again from 1971 to 1978. Mondale was younger, reaching the Senate in 1964. As Democrats from Minnesota, Humphrey and Mondale also rose to greater prominence in national politics than Judd, both serving as vice president and as their party’s nominee for president. Humphrey was Lyndon B. Johnson’s vice president from 1965 to 1969 and the Democratic nominee in 1968. Mondale was Jimmy Carter’s vice president from 1977 to 1981 and the Democratic nominee in 1984.

But Judd’s work as a civilian may have contributed to his never rising to the level of either Humphrey or Mondale. According to Judd’s biography, “Missionary for Freedom: The Life and Times of Walter Judd,” Judd was trained as a doctor. This was the beginning of a selfless life, always keeping the focus on his patients, never himself. Every time he ran for Congress, he told his supporters, “I will not raise money, I will not brag about myself, and I won’t criticize my opponent.” Judd instead released detailed plans about what he hoped to accomplish in Washington, D.C. and let the chips fall where they may. His disdain for political self-promotion — a characteristic now considered practically a prerequisite for political life — cost him the chance to be the vice-presidential nominee. After his rousing speech to the 1960 GOP convention, he perhaps sealed his fate as the most important conservative from Minnesota you’ve never heard of.

Early life

Walter Henry Judd was born in Rising City, Neb., on Sept. 25, 1898. He graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1920 and the University of Nebraska Medical School in 1923. He enlisted in the United States Army during World War I but was still in training when the war ended. After college and the army, Judd traveled the country giving speeches at universities for the Student Volunteer Movement. These early speeches helped the future politician become one of the best orators of his time in Congress. When Judd spoke on the House floor, people listened.

Missionary work

After a fellowship in surgery at the Mayo Clinic from 1924-25, Judd began the first stage of his life as a medical missionary to China. Judd did two “tours” in China. From 1926 to 1931, the young doctor worked in a small clinic in rural Fujian province, before persistent bouts of malaria forced him to return to the United States. He traveled back to China in 1934, where he ran a large hospital in the city of Fenchow in Shanxi Province. It was dangerous work. He was almost killed in a case of mistaken identity and had to talk his way out of several other near-death experiences with his not-so-grateful hosts. At one point, Judd put his wife and children on a train in the middle of the night to get them out of the county for fear of being captured by communist soldiers.

During his time as a missionary, Judd gained a deep understanding of communism and its practitioners. Some nights, he debated with them amicably about capitalism and the idea that human nature would always cause the fall of collectivist systems. Other nights, he witnessed terrible atrocities committed by communist soldiers and often cared for women and children who had been raped. Judd realized that Japanese communists used rape to weaken the Chinese by exploiting their love for family. The soldiers Judd met in China hadn’t learned communism from academic study of Marxist theory; instead, they saw it as a practical way to create a fair society, believing that conflict was unavoidable whenever property ownership and wages existed. This direct experience with communist leaders and soldiers shaped Judd’s future career in Congress.

Principled isolationist

When he returned home for good in 1932, Judd realized he had to alert the American people about the atrocities being committed by communist forces in China. He embarked on a national speaking tour, telling his story to any audience that would listen. His first campaign was to point out that America was unwittingly fueling the Japanese war machine by selling them scrap metal and American pickup trucks. He talked about pulling American scrap metal out of women and children in surgery. “What should we do?” he asked. “We don’t need to knock Japan out. All we need to do is to stop holding her up and her military adventure collapses for lack of supplies.” Judd pointed out that 60 percent of Japan’s sales to the United States were silk and 74 percent of that went into silk stockings, imploring American women to choose between “their silk stockings now or their sons later.”

Eventually, Judd brought this message directly to Congress, presenting his “eyewitness” testimony about the Chinese-Japanese situation before the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1939. Judd’s call for economic intervention in the Far East represented the first public articulation of the principled internationalist beliefs that would define his time in public life.

Judd believed it was in America’s best interest to be involved in the affairs of other countries, especially to curb the spread of communism worldwide. At the time, isolationism was the prevailing doctrine in Congress, especially among the Minnesota delegation. In 1940, Judd reconnected with friends from the Mayo Clinic and was recruited to take over a small medical practice in Minneapolis. He had finished missionary work and traveling the country to warn about the spread of communism throughout the world. Judd planned to finally put his family first and looked forward to a comfortable life as a doctor. Everything changed when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Judd had ominously predicted the attack 10 years earlier when Japan seized Manchuria without any opposition from the West. Soon after the attack, a group of local Republicans urged Judd to challenge the incumbent isolationist Republican Congressman from Minneapolis in the primary election of 1942.

Judd, ever the reluctant candidate, told the group he wouldn’t campaign, raise money, or criticize his opponent. He would continue practicing medicine and continue giving speeches and let the election take care of itself. The result: Judd defeated the popular Republican Oscar Youngdahl and began his 20-year career in Congress.

McCarthyism

In the early 1950s, Judd was quietly removing communists from the State Department before Sen. Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin sensationalized the issue with televised hearings of his Government Operations’ Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. In the House, Judd served on the Committee on Government Operations as they quietly rooted out 134 “security risks” from the State Department. Most of them resigned on their own after learning they were under investigation. There were over 100 more security risks under investigation when the McCarthy hearings began, ruining the work of Judd’s committee.

“Joe McCarthy was essentially right, but he was the best ally the Communists had because he never would present it in measured terms,” Judd said. “He had to use extravagant terms, and if you can prove that one of them was wrong, your accusations, they discredit all the other things that you’ve said. Joe was the best friend the Communists had in this country. I told him this a time or two.”

The 1960 Republican Convention keynote

The defining moment of Walter Judd’s career was his keynote address to the Republican National Convention in 1960. Judd used the address to contrast Republican foreign policy success against the failures of recent Democratic administrations. It was the first convention of the television era, and the speech was watched by over 20 million Americans. Judd laid out his outline in a series of questions:

Which party has the greatest capacity to keep this country safe and sound? Which party is most alert to and best understands the powerful forces against us, abroad and at home? Which party best understands the forces for us abroad and at home? And which party has the ablest, the most experienced, the best qualified and the finest men to lead our country through the perilous months and years ahead?

Judd did not hold back, charging that under Democratic leadership, “Six hundred million human beings disappeared into human slavery behind the Iron Curtain in the first five years after World War II.” Judd fired up the crowd, asking them a series of questions, with each “no!” louder than the last. The speech was so well-received that Judd’s name was immediately put under consideration to be Richard Nixon’s nominee for vice president. Ultimately, Judd’s lack of ego and refusal to self-promote allowed this opportunity to pass him by.

The 1962 campaign: redistricting and President Kennedy

While Judd was on top of his game on the national stage, forces back home were conspiring to end his political career. Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) leaders in the Minnesota Legislature used a special session in December 1961 to pare down Minnesota’s congressional districts from nine to eight. In the process, they added thousands of DFL voters from North Minneapolis to Judd’s base of Republicans in South Minneapolis. The new map made it impossible for any Republican to win, even the popular Judd. The DFL recruited State Sen. Donald Fraser to run for the seat. Knowing that Judd had worked well with President John F. Kennedy, Fraser immediately sent the White House a letter demanding the president’s support in the election. Judd understood politics and wasn’t upset that Kennedy endorsed his opponent, saying, “You have to root for your own team.” But he did take issue with the timing of the president’s endorsement. While Kennedy was speaking to the annual DFL Bean Feed at the Minnesota fairgrounds on Oct. 6, 1962, Judd was stuck in Washington working to pass the president’s foreign aid package. The split with the White House grew stronger throughout the campaign as Judd ramped up criticism of Kennedy’s handling of Cuba. Judd questioned Kennedy’s strength on the issue, saying, “If we are willing to stand by and permit the Soviets to turn this island into an advanced base for Soviet Communist aggression, the Soviets are bound to conclude that our response to any Communist adventures in Central Europe will be equally indecisive.” Criticizing an immensely popular president in a district full of new DFL voters was not a recipe for success and Fraser ultimately won the election 52-48 percent.

Judd’s brand of Republicanism

Speaking to the Minnesota Republican Convention in 1946, Judd gave us a glimpse into how he saw the differences between the two major parties: “Republicans stood for individual rights, personal liberty and a maxim of self-government, while Democrats have moved toward regimentation of our society and the concept of a political elite which knows better than the people how to govern.” His biographer Lee Edwards described him as “not so much a 20th century conservative as an 18th century liberal, a disciple of Thomas Jefferson who believed in limited government, individual liberty and the duty of government to help those who cannot help themselves.” He once opposed a bill that would have given a federal subsidy to almost every teacher in America because it would lead to “steadily increasing influence by the federal government over the public school system.” No more prophetic words have ever been spoken.

At the height of his career, Walter Judd had 120 congressmen (75 Republicans and 45 Democrats) who followed his lead on foreign policy issues, and he advised every president from Truman to Reagan on foreign affairs, especially China policy. When he arrived in Congress, he was a solitary voice opposing the global rise of communism. However, through his relentless efforts, many in Washington eventually stood alongside him. The New York Times called him a liberal who was trusted by conservatives. From Richard Nixon: “The name of Walter Judd carries a real wallop around the country and I’m deeply grateful that you’re in my corner.” Dwight Eisenhower campaigned for Judd in Minnesota during the 1962 campaign and later wrote in his biography that Judd was one of five people on his short list for vice president in 1952.

Judd eventually received public recognition for a lifetime of achievement and service. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, one of only six Minnesotans to receive this award. Reagan called Judd, “an articulate spokesman for all those who cherish liberty and a model for all Americans who aspire to serve mankind as physicians, spiritual leaders and statesmen.” As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of this great nation’s founding, we must remember the few Minnesotans who had a significant impact on America’s success. Walter Judd is one of those men.

American Experiment recommends “Missionary for Freedom: The Life and Times of Walter Judd,” by Lee Edwards. This was the source material for Bill Walsh’s American Experiment Book Club, from which this feature was adapted.