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Robert Marion La Follette Research Paper

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Robert Marion La Follette was born on June 14, 1885 in Primrose, Wisconsin. Nicknamed Fighting Bob and Battling Bob, La Follette attended the University of Wisconsin from 1875-1879 and after he graduated he became the county district attorney from 1880-1884. During his time as a district attorney La Follette married his college sweetheart, Belle Case on December 31, 1881. La Follette was elected as a congressman for the southwest area of Wisconsin. As congressman, La Follette often voted against the majority and the party bosses. During his reelection in 1890, La Follette lost drastically and decided to go to Madison, Wisconsin to practice law. From these experiences La Follette became a popular leader due to his personality; he was outgoing and was an eloquent public speaker. …show more content…

In 1891, La Follette was approached by the Republican state senator Philetus Sawyer, who offered to rig a court case, this would allow Sawyer to win the case and La Follette to lose, but gain a large sum of money. Offended, La Follette refused and publicized Sawyer’s attempt to bribe him. This marked La Follette as an ‘enemy’ to the Republican party bosses. Driven by his personal experience, La Follette passionately spoke about standing up to the people currently in power, business groups and politicians specifically party bosses. In addition, he formed his own branch of Republicans consisting of neglected people such as Scandinavians, resentful politicians, young men, dairy farmers, etc. Leading this new group of Republicans, starting in 1896, La Follette ran for governor, he lost that year’s election, against the party bosses’ party, as well as the 1898 election. Persistent, La Follette ran again in 1900 and finally beat the dominant party and became governor of

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