Robert Marion La Follette, Sr. (14 June 1855 – 18 June 1925) was a member of the US House of Representatives (R-WI 3) from 4 March 1885 to 3 March 1891 (succeeding Burr W. Jones and preceding Allen R. Bushnell), Governor of Wisconsin from 7 January 1901 to 1 January 1906 (succeeding Edward Scofield and preceding James O. Davidson), and a US Senator from 4 January 1906 to 18 June 1925 (succeeding Joseph V. Quarles and preceding Robert M. La Follette Jr.). In 1924, he ran for President of the United States as the nominee of his own US Progressive Party.
Biography[]
Robert Marion La Follette, Sr. was born in Primrose, Wisconsin in 1855, and he became a lawyer and won election as the Dane County District Attorney. In 1884, he was elected to the US House of Representatives as a progressive Republican Party member, only to lose his seat in the 1890 Democratic wave election. He sought the Republican nomination for governor in 1896, 1898, and 1900, and he won the 1900 election and served as Governor from 1901 to 1906. During his term as governor, he sought reforms such as workers' compensation and women's suffrage. From 1906 until his death in 1925, he advanced to the US Senate. He was a vocal opponent of railroad trusts, bossism, World War I, and the League of Nations, and, in 1924, he created the US Progressive Party to challenge incumbent President Calvin Coolidge and the Democrat John W. Davis. He carried Wisconsin and 17% of the popular vote, but he lost the election to Coolidge. He died shortly after the election, and his sons Robert M. La Follette Jr. and Philip La Follette also entered into politics.
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