Robert Marion La Follette Sr. (June 14, 1855June 18, 1925), nicknamed "Fighting Bob", was an American lawyer and the leading progressive politician in Wisconsin from the 1890s until his death in 1925. He served as from Wisconsin for the last 20 years of his life; prior to that he served as the 20th governor of Wisconsin (1901–1906) and served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (1885–1891). A Republican for most of his life, he ran for president of the United States as the nominee of his own Progressive Party in the 1924 United States presidential election. Historian John D. Buenker describes La Follette as "the most celebrated figure in Wisconsin history".Buenker (2013), p. 490.
Born and raised in Wisconsin, La Follette won election as the Dane County district attorney in 1880. Four years later, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he was friendly with party leaders like William McKinley. After losing his seat in the Democratic wave election of 1890, La Follette regrouped. As a populist, he embraced progressivism and built up a coalition of disaffected Republicans. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor in [] and [] before winning the nomination and the office in the 1900 gubernatorial election. As governor of Wisconsin, La Follette enacted a bold progressive agenda, including progressive taxation, banking and railroad regulation, labor and sanitation protections, and campaign finance and civil service reforms. La Follette also pushed strongly for and achieved the passage of a law requiring state elected officials to be nominated by primary elections, replacing the old system in which small party conventions chose all nominees.
La Follette won re-election in 1902 and 1904, and in 1905, the legislature elected him to the . He took the unusual step of deferring his Senate arrival until January 1906, allowing himself to serve one final productive year as governor. His populist base was energized when he emerged as a national progressive leader in the Senate, often clashing with conservatives like Nelson Aldrich. He initially supported President William Howard Taft, but broke with him after Taft failed to push a reduction in tariff rates. He challenged Taft for the Republican presidential nomination in the 1912 presidential election, but his candidacy was overshadowed by that of former President Theodore Roosevelt. La Follette's refusal to support Roosevelt alienated many progressives, and although La Follette continued to serve in the Senate, he lost his stature as the leader of that chamber's progressive Republicans. La Follette supported some of President Woodrow Wilson's policies, but he broke with the president over foreign policy. During , La Follette was one of the most outspoken opponents of the administration's domestic and international policies and was against the war.
With the Republican and Democratic parties each nominating conservative candidates in the 1924 presidential election, left-wing groups coalesced behind La Follette's third-party candidacy. With the support of the Socialist Party, farmer's groups, and labor unions, La Follette briefly appeared to be a serious threat to unseat Republican President Calvin Coolidge. La Follette stated that his chief goal was to break the "combined power of the private monopoly system over the political and economic life of the American people", and he called for government ownership of railroads and electric utilities, cheap credit for farmers, the outlawing of child labor, stronger laws to help labor unions, protections for civil liberties, and a 10-year term for members of the federal judiciary. His complicated alliance was difficult to manage, and the Republicans came together to win the 1924 election. La Follette won 16.6% of the popular vote, one of the best third party performances in U.S. history. He died shortly after the presidential election, but his sons, Robert M. La Follette Jr. and Philip La Follette, succeeded him as progressive leaders in Wisconsin.
Early life
Robert Marion La Follette Sr. was born on a farm in Primrose, Wisconsin, on June 14, 1855, to Josiah La Follette and Mary Ferguson. His parents had broken off a prior engagement, but they reunited in 1845 when Mary's first husband, Alexander Buchanan, was killed at a barn raising.Unger (2000), p. 9-11. Josiah descended from French Huguenots, while Mary was of Scottish ancestry.Buenker (1998), p. 5. La Follette's great-great-grandfather, Joseph La Follette, emigrated from France to New Jersey in 1745. La Follette's great-grandfather moved to Kentucky, where they were neighbors to the Lincoln family.Stahl (2020), p. 23–24.
Josiah died just eight months after Robert was born,Ritchie (2000) and in 1862, Mary married John Saxton, a wealthy, seventy-year-old merchant.Thelen (1976), pp. 1–2. La Follette's poor relationship with Saxton made for a difficult childhood.Buhle et al. (1994), pp. 159–166. Though his mother was a Democrat, La Follette became, like most of his neighbors, a member of the Republican Party.Thelen (1976), p. 2.
La Follette began attending school at the age of four, though he often worked on the family farm. After Saxton died in 1872, La Follette, his mother, and his older sister moved to the nearby town of Madison.Thelen (1976), pp. 3–4. La Follette began attending the University of Wisconsin in 1875 and graduated in 1879 with a Bachelor of Science degree.Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921) He was a mediocre student, but he won a statewide oratory contest and established a student newspaper named the University Press.Buenker (1998), p. 6. He was deeply influenced by the university's president, John Bascom, on issues of morality, ethics, and social justice. During his time at the university he became a vegetarian, declaring that his diet gave him more energy and a "clear head".Wheeler et al. (1913), p. 1199.
La Follette met Belle Case while attending the University of Wisconsin, and they married on December 31, 1881, at her family home in Baraboo, Wisconsin. She became a leader in the feminist movement, an advocate of women's suffrage, and an important influence on La Follette's ideas.
Early political career
House of Representatives
La Follette was admitted to the state bar association in 1880. That same year, he won election as the district attorney for Dane County, Wisconsin, beginning a long career in politics. He became a protégé of George E. Bryant, a wealthy Republican Party businessman and landowner from Madison.Buenker (1998), pp. 7–8. In 1884, he won election to the House of Representatives, becoming the youngest member of the subsequent 49th Congress.Thelen (1976), p. 1. His political views were broadly in line with those of other Northern Republicans at the time; he supported high tariff rates and developed a strong relationship with William McKinley.New International Encyclopædia (1905) He did, however, occasionally stray from the wishes of party leaders, as he voted for the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 and the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890.Buenker (1998), pp. 8–10. He also denounced racial discrimination in the Southern United States and favored the Lodge Bill, which would have provided federal protections against the mass disenfranchisement of African Americans in the South.Thelen (1976), pp. 10–11. Milwaukee Sentinel referred to him as being "so good a fellow that even his enemies like him". Views on racial and ethnic matters were not central to La Follette's political thinking. His wife was a stronger proponent of civil rights.Brøndal (2011), p. 344–346.
At 35 years old, La Follette lost his seat in the 1890 Democratic landslide. Several factors contributed to his loss, including a compulsory-education bill passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature in 1889. Because the law required major subjects in schools to be taught in English, it contributed to a divide between the Catholic and Lutheran communities in Wisconsin. La Follette's support for the protectionist McKinley Tariff may have also played a role in his defeat.Unger (2000), pp. 95–97. After the election, La Follette returned to Madison to begin a private law practice. Author Kris Stahl wrote that due to his "extraordinarily energetic" and dominating personality, he became known as "Fighting Bob" La Follette.
Gubernatorial candidate
In his autobiography, La Follette explains that he experienced a political epiphany in 1891 after Senator Philetus Sawyer attempted to bribe him. La Follette claimed that Sawyer offered the bribe so that La Follette would influence his brother-in-law, Judge Robert G. Siebecker, who was presiding over a case involving state funds that Republican officials had allegedly embezzled. La Follette's public allegation of bribery precipitated a split with many friends and party leaders, though he continued to support Republican candidates like John Coit Spooner.Buenker (1998), pp. 9–11. He also strongly endorsed McKinley's run for president in the 1896 election, and he denounced Democratic presidential nominee William Jennings Bryan as a radical.Buenker (1998), pp. 18–19. Rather than bolting the party or retiring from politics, La Follette began building a coalition of dissatisfied Republicans, many of whom were relatively young and well-educated.Buenker (1998), pp. 11–13. Among his key allies were former governor William D. Hoard and Isaac Stephenson, the latter of whom published a pro-La Follette newspaper.Buenker (1998), pp. 13–14. La Follette's coalition also included many individuals from the state's large Scandinavian population, including Nils P. Haugen, Irvine Lenroot, and James O. Davidson.Buenker (1998), p. 15.
Beginning in 1894, La Follette's coalition focused on winning the office of Governor of Wisconsin. With La Follette serving as his campaign manager, Haugen sought the Republican nomination for governor in 1894, but he was defeated by William H. Upham.Buenker (1998), pp. 16–17. La Follette ran for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 1896, but he was beaten by Edward Scofield; La Follette alleged that Scofield only won the nomination after conservative party leaders bribed certain Republican delegates. La Follette declined to run as an independent despite the pleas of some supporters, and after the election, he turned down an offer from President William McKinley to serve as the Comptroller of the Currency.Buenker (1998), pp. 17–19. In 1897, La Follette began advocating the replacement of party caucuses and conventions, the traditional method of partisan nominations for office, with primary elections, which allowed voters to directly choose party nominees.Buenker (1998), pp. 19–20. He also denounced the power of corporations, charging that they had taken control of the Republican Party.Buenker (1998), pp. 21–22. These progressive stances had become increasingly popular in the wake of the Panic of 1893, a severe economic downturn that caused many to reevaluate their political beliefs.Thelen (1976), pp. 21–23
La Follette ran for governor for the second time in 1898, but he was once again defeated by Scofield in the Republican primary.Buenker (1998), pp. 22–25. In 1900, La Follette made a third bid for governor, winning the Republican nomination, in part because he reached an accommodation with many of the conservative party leaders. Running in a strong year for Republicans nationwide, La Follette decisively defeated his Democratic opponent Louis G. Bomrich in the general election, winning just under 60 percent of the vote.Buenker (1998), pp. 25–29.
Governor of Wisconsin (1901–1906)