Robert M. LaFollette
“Fighting Bob” 1855-1925
Robert M. LaFollette was an American lawyer who became a charismatic politician and was considered Wisconsin’s most celebrated figure in history.
He represented Wisconsin in both chambers of Congress and served as the governor of Wisconsin from 1901 to 1906. A Republican for most of his life, he campaigned for president of the United States in Mountain Lake Park as the nominee of his own Progressive Party in the 1924 presidential election.
La Follette 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.
Looking to unseat Republican President Calvin Coolidge in the 1924 Presidential Election, La Follette won 16.6% of the popular vote as a Socialist Party candidate, one of the best third-party performances in U.S. history. His platform was to break the "combined power of the private monopoly system over the political and economic life of the American people"
La Follette campaigned in the Bashford Amphitheater in 1924.