William E. Borah, served from 1907 to 1940

William Edgar Borah was born on a farm near Fairfield, Wayne County, Ill., June 29, 1865.  He attended the common schools of Wayne County and Southern Illinois Academy at Enfield.  He attended the University of Kansas at Lawrence until 1889 where he studied law.  He was admitted to the bar in 1890 and commenced practice in Lyons, Kansas. 

He moved to Boise, Idaho, in 1891 and practiced law.  He was an unsuccessful candidate on the Silver Republican ticket for election in 1896 to the Fifty-fifth Congress and again for nomination as United States Senator in 1903.  He was ultimately elected as a Republican to the United States Senate in 1907and reelected in 1913, 1918, 1924, 1930, and again in 1936.  He served from March 4, 1907, until his death in Washington, D.C., on January 19, 1940.

He was the Chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor (61st, 62nd, 67th and 68th Congresses), Committee on Indian Depredations (63rd and 64th Congresses), Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Justice (65th Congress), Committee on Inter-oceanic Canals (66th and 67th Congresses), and Committee on Foreign Relations (68th through 72nd Congresses).  

He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1936.  Funeral services were held in the Chamber of the United States Senate and he was buried in Morris Hill Cemetery, Boise, Idaho. 

A statue of Borah is located on the second floor of the U.S. Capitol near the central Senate entrance.  Borah and Senator Shoup represent Idaho in the Hall.

Bibliography

American National Biography; DAB; Ashby, Leroy. The Spearless Leader, Senator Borah and the Progressive Movement in the 1920's. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1972; McKenna, Marian C. Borah. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1961. 

Photos provided by the Idaho State Historical Society.  Biographical information compiled by Congressional Research Service.