page_title: Robert M. La Follette
section_title: 1924 presidential campaign
hierarchical_section_title: Robert M. La Follette / 1924 presidential campaign
caption_attribution_description: Robert La Follette, Sr., three-quarter length, facing front, standing at microphone, with clenched fists. La Follette was an American politician: US Congressman, US Senator from Wisconsin, Governor of Wisconsin, and presidential candidate.
context_page_description: Robert Marion La Follette Sr., colloquially known as Fighting Bob, was an American lawyer and politician. He represented Wisconsin in both chambers of Congress and served as the Governor of Wisconsin. A Republican for most of his career, 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."
  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 United States House of Representatives, where he was friendly with party leaders like William McKinley. After losing his seat in the 1890 election, La Follette 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.
  La Follette won re-election in 1902 and 1904, but in 1905 the legislature elected him to the United States Senate.
context_section_description: By 1924, conservatives were ascendant in both major parties. In 1923, La Follette began planning for a third party run for the presidency, sending his allies to various states to build up a base of support and ensure ballot access. In early 1924, a group of labor unions, socialists, and farm groups, inspired by the success of Britain's Labour Party, established the Conference for Progressive Political Action (CPPA) as an umbrella organization of left-wing groups. Aside from labor unions and farm groups, the CPPA also included groups representing African-Americans, women, and college voters. The CPPA scheduled a national convention to nominate a candidate for president in July 1924. In early 1924, La Follette disavowed the support of Communists. He had changed his previous pro-Bolshevik stance after visiting the Soviet Union in 1923, where he had seen the impact of Communism on civil liberties and political rights. With other left-wing groups supporting La Follette, the Communist Party nominated its first ever candidate for president, William Z. Foster.
  On July 3, 1924, one day before the CPPA convention, La Follette announced his candidacy in the 1924 presidential election, stating that "to break the combined power of the private monopoly system over the political and economic life of the American people is the one paramount issue." The CPPA convention, which was dominated by supporters of La Follette, quickly endorsed La Follette for president. La Follette's first choice for his running mate, Associate Justice Louis Brandeis, refused to join the campaign. The convention instead nominated Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana, a progressive Democrat who had refused to endorse John W. Davis, the Democratic nominee for president. Though the Socialists pushed for a full slate of candidates, at La Follette's insistence, the CPPA did not establish a formal third party or field candidates for races other than the presidency. La Follette would appear on the ballot in every state except Louisiana, but his ticket was known by a variety of labels, including "Progressive," "Socialist," "Non-Partisan," and "Independent."
  After the convention, the Socialist Party of America, acting on the advice of perennial presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs, endorsed La Follette's candidacy. The American Federation of Labor and numerous other worker's groups also threw their support behind La Follette. Among the notable individuals who endorsed La Follette were birth control activist Margaret Sanger, African-American leader W. E. B. Du Bois, author Thorstein Veblen, and newspaper publisher E. W. Scripps. Harold L. Ickes and some other progressives who had supported Roosevelt's 1912 candidacy threw their backing behind La Follette, though other progressives, including Gifford Pinchot, endorsed Coolidge. Another group supporting La Follette was the Steuben Society, a group of German-Americans that claimed a membership of six million.
  La Follette's platform was based on many of the issues that he had been campaigning on throughout his political career. He called for government ownership of the railroads and electric utilities, cheap credit for farmers, the outlawing of child labor, stronger laws to help labor unions, more protection of civil liberties, an end to American imperialism in Latin America, and a referendum before any president could again lead the nation into war. Professional gamblers initially gave La Follette a 16-to-1 odds of winning, and many expected that his candidacy would force a contingent election in the House of Representatives. As election day approached, however, those hoping for a La Follette victory became more pessimistic. The various groups supporting La Follette often clashed, and his campaign was not nearly as well-financed as those of Davis and especially Coolidge. Corporate leaders, who saw in La Follette the specter of class warfare, mobilized against his third-party candidacy. Republicans campaigned on a "Coolidge or chaos" platform, arguing that the election of La Follette would severely disrupt economic growth. H
caption: La Follette making a radio speech shortly before his death
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