Thorstein Hartvig Haugen Thoresen (December 9, 1885 – April 17, 1956) was a Norwegian-American lawyer and politician in the state of

North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, So ...

. He served as the 18th

Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota The lieutenant governor of North Dakota is a political office in North Dakota. The lieutenant governor's duty is to preside as President of the Senate, and is responsible for legislative relations, the state budget and agribusiness development. ...

from 1937 to 1939 under Governor

William Langer William "Wild Bill" Langer (September 30, 1886November 8, 1959) was a prominent American lawyer and politician from North Dakota, where he was an infamous character, bouncing back from a scandal that forced him out of the governor's office and ...

. Thoresen was born in Horten,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

in 1885, the son of Thor and Maren Sibile Thoresen. He previously practiced law in

Dunn Center, North Dakota Dunn Center is a city in Dunn County, North Dakota, United States. The population was 227 at the 2020 census. Dunn Center was founded in 1914. History Dunn Center was laid out in 1914, when the railroad was extended to that point. The city was ...

where he also served as state attorney of Dunn County. In 1924, he was an unsuccessful candidate for Attorney General of North Dakota, and in 1928 an unsuccessful candidate for Governor, losing both times to George F. Shafer. Thoresen served as the North Dakota Tax Commissioner from 1925 to July 1929; upon his retirement he established a law practice at Grand Forks, North Dakota. Though affiliated with the North Dakota Nonpartisan League throughout his life, he served as lieutenant governor from 1937 to 1939 under Republican

. Later, he served as mayor of Grand Forks from 1940 to 1944, was named assistant attorney general of North Dakota in 1952, and moved to Bismarck. He died at a hospital in Bismarck, North Dakota on April 17, 1954.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Thoresen, Thorstein H. H. 1885 births 1954 deaths Lieutenant Governors of North Dakota People from Horten 20th-century American politicians