Lowden, Frank Orren, 1861–1943, American political leader, b. Chisago co., Minn. He practiced law in Chicago after 1887 and gained extensive agricultural holdings in Illinois. A leading member of the Republican party from 1900, Lowden served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1906–11) and as governor of Illinois (1917–21). He gained wide notice as governor by his reorganization of the state government and by his effective handling of the Chicago race riots in 1919. A contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 1920, he was deadlocked with Leonard Wood at 3111⁄2 votes on the eighth ballot, which enabled Warren G. Harding to gain the nomination. In 1924 he refused to run as Vice President on the Republican ticket, but he remained an influential party leader and a spokesman of the farmer.
See biography by W. T. Hutchinson (1957).
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