Robert M. La Follette

Lore & Background

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. After losing his seat in the Democratic wave election of 1890, he regrouped. As a populist, he embraced progressivism and built up a coalition of disaffected Republicans. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor in 1896 and 1898 before winning the nomination and the office in the 1900 gubernatorial election. As governor, he enacted a bold progressive agenda, including progressive taxation, banking and railroad regulation, labor and sanitation protections, and campaign finance and civil service reforms. He also pushed for and achieved a law requiring state elected officials to be nominated by primary elections. La Follette won re-election in 1902 and 1904, and in 1905 the legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate. He deferred his Senate arrival until January 1906. He emerged as a national progressive leader in the Senate, often clashing with conservatives. He initially supported President William Howard Taft but broke with him over tariff rates. He challenged Taft for the Republican presidential nomination in 1912, but his candidacy was overshadowed by Theodore Roosevelt. La Follette supported some of President Woodrow Wilson's policies but broke with him over foreign policy. During World War I, he was one of the most outspoken opponents of the administration's domestic and international policies and was against the war. In the 1924 presidential election, left-wing groups coalesced behind La Follette's third-party candidacy. He won 16.6% of the popular vote. He died shortly after the election.

Reader's Guide

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 reunited in 1845 when Mary's first husband was killed at a barn raising. Josiah descended from French Huguenots, while Mary was of Scottish ancestry. Josiah died just eight months after Robert was born, and in 1862, Mary married John Saxton, a wealthy, seventy-year-old merchant. La Follette's poor relationship with Saxton made for a difficult childhood. Though his mother was a Democrat, La Follette became a member of the Republican Party. 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 Madison. He began attending the University of Wisconsin in 1875 and graduated in 1879 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He was a mediocre student but won a statewide oratory contest and established a student newspaper. He was deeply influenced by the university's president, John Bascom. During his time at the university he became a vegetarian. La Follette met Belle Case while attending the university, and they married on December 31, 1881. She became a leader in the feminist movement and an advocate of women's suffrage. La Follette was admitted to the state bar association in 1880. That same year, he won election as district attorney for Dane County. In 1884, he won election to the House of Representatives, becoming the youngest member of the subsequent 49th Congress. He supported high tariff rates and developed a strong relationship with William McKinley. He voted for the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 and the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. He denounced racial discrimination in the Southern United States and favored the Lodge Bill. At 35, he lost his seat in the 1890 Democratic landslide. After the election, he returned to Madison to begin a private law practice. He became known as "Fighting Bob" La Follette. La Follette experienced a political epiphany in 1891 after Senator Philetus Sawyer attempted to bribe him. He continued to support Republican candidates like John Coit Spooner and strongly endorsed McKinley's run for president in the 1896 election.

Did You Know?

• La Follette was nicknamed "Fighting Bob" due to his extraordinarily energetic and dominating personality.
• He was the youngest member of the 49th Congress when elected to the House of Representatives in 1884.
• La Follette won 16.6% of the popular vote in the 1924 presidential election, one of the best third-party performances in U.S. history.
• His sons, Robert M. La Follette Jr. and Philip La Follette, succeeded him as progressive leaders in Wisconsin.