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Senate Years of Service: 1906-1925 Party: Republican
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LA FOLLETTE, Robert Marion, (father of Robert Marion La Follette, Jr.),
a Representative and a Senator from Wisconsin; born in Primrose,
Dane County, Wis., June 14, 1855; graduated from the University of Wisconsin at
Madison in 1879; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1880 and commenced
practice in Madison, Wis.; district attorney of Dane County 1880-1884; elected
as a Republican to the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, and Fifty-first Congresses (March
4, 1885-March 3, 1891); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1890 to the
Fifty-second Congress; chairman, Committee on Expenditures in the Department of
Agriculture (Fifty-first Congress); resumed the practice of law in Madison,
Wis.; Governor of Wisconsin 1901-1906, when he resigned, having previously been
elected Senator; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate on January
25, 1905, for the term beginning March 4, 1905, but did not assume these duties
until later, preferring to continue as Governor; reelected in 1911, 1916, and
1922, and served from January 2, 1906, until his death; chairman, Committee on
the Census (Sixty-first and Sixty-second Congress), Committee on Corporations
Organized in the District of Columbia (Sixty-third through Sixty-fifth
Congresses), Committee on Manufactures (Sixty-sixth through Sixty-eighth
Congresses); one of the founders of the National Progressive Republican League;
unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for president in 1912 and 1916;
nominated as the Progressive Party candidate for president in 1924, winning 13
electoral college votes; died in Washington, D.C., June 18, 1925; interment in
Forest Hill Cemetery, Madison, Wis.
BibliographyAmerican National Biography; Dictionary
of American Biography; La Follette, Belle C., and Fola La Follette.
Robert M. La Follette. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1953;
Unger, Nancy C.
Fighting Bob La Follette: The Righteous Reformer. Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 2000.
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