Robert LaFollette

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.

He was the youngest of five children born to Josiah La Follette and Mary Ferguson, who had settled in Wisconsin in 1850.

Josiah descended from French Huguenots, while Mary was of Scottish ancestry.

Robert Marion "Fighting Bob" La Follette Sr. (June 14, 1855 – June 18, 1925), was an American lawyer and politician.

Robert Marion La Follette Sr. was born on a farm in Primrose, Wisconsin, on June 14, 1855.

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, like most of his neighbors, 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 the nearby town of Madison.

La Follette 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 named the University Press.

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".

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 House of Representatives, where he was friendly with party leaders like William McKinley.

La Follette was admitted to the state bar association in 1880.

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 the development of La Follette's ideas.

After losing his seat in the 1890 election, La Follette regrouped.

As a populist he embraced progressivism and built up a coalition of disaffected Republicans.

He sought election as governor in 1896 and 1898 before winning the 1900 gubernatorial election.

As governor of Wisconsin, La Follette compiled a progressive record, implementing primary elections and tax reform.

He represented Wisconsin in both chambers of Congress and served as the governor of Wisconsin from 1901 to 1906.

La Follette won re-election in 1902 and 1904, but in 1905 the legislature elected him to the United States Senate.

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 Taft after the latter 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, though 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 World War I, La Follette was one of the most outspoken opponents of the administration's domestic and international policies and was against the war.

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 presidential election.

Historian John D. Buenker describes La Follette as "the most celebrated figure in Wisconsin history".

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, labor unions, and others, 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.