Robert Marion LA FOLLETTE, Congress, WI (1855-1925)

LA FOLLETTE Robert Marion , a Representative and a Senator from Wisconsin; born in Primrose, Dane County, Wis., June 14, 1855; graduated from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1879; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1880 and commenced practice in Madison, Wis.; district attorney of Dane County 1880-1884; elected as a Republican to the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, and Fifty-first Congresses (March 4, 1885-March 3, 1891); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1890 to the Fifty-second Congress; chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Agriculture (Fifty-first Congress); resumed the practice of law in Madison, Wis.; Governor of Wisconsin 1901-1906, when he resigned, having previously been elected Senator; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate on January 25, 1905, for the term beginning March 4, 1905, but did not assume these duties until later, preferring to continue as Governor; reelected in 1911, 1916, and 1922, and served from January 4, 1906, until his death; chairman, Committee on the Census (Sixty-first and Sixty-second Congress), Committee on Corporations Organized in the District of Columbia (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth Congresses), Committee on Manufactures (Sixty-sixth through Sixty-eighth Congresses); one of the founders of the National Progressive Republican League; unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for president in 1912 and 1916; nominated as the Progressive Party candidate for president in 1924, winning 13 electoral college votes; died in Washington, D.C., June 18, 1925; interment in Forest Hill Cemetery, Madison, Wis.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; La Follette, Belle C., and Fola La Follette. Robert M. La Follette. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1953; Unger, Nancy C. Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present