Edward Kriz was a traditional Socialist Labor Party Ungovernor. Like others before him, he was a true laborer who belonged to an isolated party that didn't have a lot to do with labor unions or other socialists. And like other SLP member before him he was clobbered at the polls.

Kriz was born in Michigan, Dec. 1866, the son of Frank and Kate (Bruga) Kriz, immigrants from Bohemia. The family moved to Duluth, Minnesota shortly after Edward's birth. This area was  where Edward was raised and spent most of his life. Here he began his lifelong occupation as a boilermaker. He married around 1892.

His earliest political run that I can find is in 1898, when he was the SLP candidate for U.S. Congress in Minnesota's 6th District, placing third out of three with a mere 412 votes (0.93%). This would be the greatest percentage of votes he would ever receive in any election that I'm aware of.

In 1900 he ran for Governor of Minnesota in a field of six candidates and placed fifth with 886 votes (0.28%). His rival from the Social Democrat Party (later Socialist Party) tallied up 3,546 votes. During the years the two parties co-existed as election competitors, the SLP never quite got out from under the shadow of the main Socialist Party.

At some point in the next 20 years, Edward's wife died and he moved to Superior, Wisconsin, a stone's throw from Duluth.

He remarried in the 1920s and by 1924 had moved to Seattle where he soon found employment with the Puget Sound Machinery Depot in his boilermaker trade. Exactly how and why he became involved with the local SLP is not known, but he certainly joined a group that was almost nonexistent by the time he arrived. In 1932, when the SLP nominated him for Governor in their Seattle meeting, Kriz was their only name on the statewide ballot.

He was now 65 years old. It had been 32 years since his last campaign. He finished sixth out of the seven candidates with only 449 votes, far behind the Socialist and Communist Party candidates. Voters were clamoring for change, but that change didn't include serious consideration of Socialist Labor Party office-seekers.

Two years later he ran for the U.S. Senate and was seventh out of eight with 556 votes (0.11%).

Edward Kriz died in Seattle on Jan. 29, 1938. His body was sent back to Duluth for burial.