Progressive Party (United States, 1924)

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The United States Progressive Party of 1924 was a national ticket created by Robert M. La Follette, Sr. to run for president in the 1924 election. It did not nominate candidates for other offices, carried only Wisconsin, and vanished after the election. La Follette had created the "Progressive" faction inside the Republican Party of Wisconsin in 1900. In 1912 he attempted to create a Progressive Party but lost control to Theodore Roosevelt, who became his bitter enemy. In 1924 the party called for public ownership of railroads, and other leftist causes. La Follette ran with Senator Burton K. Wheeler, Democratic Senator from Montana. The party prepresented a farmer/labor coalition and was endorsed by the Socialist Party of America, the American Federation of Labor and many railroad labor groups. La Follette's run for the presidency under this ticket garnered 17% of the popular vote, but carried only one state (his native Wisconsin). La Follette continued to serve in the Senate as a Republican until his death the following year, and was succeeded in a special election in 1925 by his son, Robert M. La Follette, Jr.

The son was elected in 1925 under the Republican party banner and joined the GOP caucus in the Senate. He opposed the programs of President Herbert Hoover from the left, and campaigned for Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. In 1934 his faction severed ties with the Wisconsin GOP and created a new party, the Progressive Party of Wisconsin. It won a sweeping landslide in the state in 1934, including election of his brother Philip as governor. That was the highest office to which any U.S. Progressive has ever been elected while running as such. The Progressive party also had members of the House from Wisconsin during the 1930s and 40s. The party was fading by 1940 and young Bob was barely reelected that year. In 1946 the party was gone and he entered the GOP primary, where he was defeated by Joe McCarthy.

Philip La Follette won the state GOP primary in 1930 and was elected governor, but was defeated in the GOP primary in 1932. In 1934 he ran and was elected governor on the Progressive Party of Wisconsin ticket, and reelected in 1936. In 1936 the Progressive Party of Wisconsin endorsed Roosevelt for reelection. Phil La Follette launched the National Progressive party in Madison on April 28, 1938, flanked by banners and armed guardsmen. The national party did not catch on and he was defeated for reelection as governor in 1938. Orland Steen Loomis was the last Progressive to be elected governor of Wisconsin, in 1942. However, he died before his inauguration as governor and the party vanished.

References

Willlam B. Hesseltine; The Rise and Fall of Third Parties: From Anti-Masonry to Wallace (1948)
Philip LaFollette, Adventure in Politics: The Memoirs of Philip LaFollette (1970)
K. C. MacKay, The Progressive Movement of 1924 (1947)
[Herbert F. Margulies; The Decline of the Progressive Movement in Wisconsin, 1890-1920 (1968)]
Russel B. Nye; Midwestern Progressive Politics: A Historical Study of Its Origins and Development, 1870-1958 (1959)
Nancy C. Unger. Fighting Bob LaFollette: The Righteous Reformer (2000)

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