Robert Marion "Fighting Bob" La Follette, Sr. (June 14, 1855 – June 18, 1925) is an American Republican (and later a Progressive) politician.
He serves as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, is the Governor of Wisconsin, and is also a U.S.
Senator from Wisconsin (1906 to 1925).
He runs for President of the United States as the nominee of his own Progressive Party in 1924, carrying Wisconsin and 17% of the national popular vote.
His wife Belle Case La Follette and sons Robert M. La Follette, Jr. and Philip La Follette lead his political faction in Wisconsin into the 1940s.
La Follette is one of the key figures pointed to in Wisconsin's long history of political liberalism.
He is best remembered as a proponent of progressivism and a vocal opponent of railroad trusts, bossism, the First World War, and the League of Nations.
In 1957, a Senate Committee selected La Follette as one of the five greatest U.S.
Senators, along with Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John C. Calhoun, and Robert Taft.
A 1982 survey asking historians to rank the "ten greatest Senators in the nation's history" based on "accomplishments in office" and "long range impact on American history," placed La Follette first, tied with Henry Clay.
