Wisconsin Progressive Party
Countrythe United States
LeaderPhilip La Follette
Robert M. La Follette, Jr.
FoundationMay 19, 1934 (age 92)
DissolutionMarch 17, 1946 (age 80)
Ideology
PositionLeft-wing[5]
NationalNational Progressives of America
SplitRepublican Party (in part)
Democratic Party (in part)
MergedRepublican party
ColorsGreen (Customary)

The Wisconsin Progressive Party (1934–1946) was a political third party that briefly held a major role in Wisconsin politics under the two sons of the late Robert M. La Follette.[6] It was on the political left wing, and it sometimes cooperated with the New Deal.[7][8]

History

Background and formation

The Party was the brainchild of Philip La Follette and Robert M. La Follette, Jr., the sons of Wisconsin Governor and Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr. The party was established in 1934 as an alliance between the longstanding "Progressive" faction of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, led by the La Follette family and their political allies, and certain radical farm and labor groups active in Wisconsin at the time.[9] Journalist John Nichols argues that the 1924 platform that Robert La Follette Sr., ran on:

"taxing the rich, cracking down on Wall Street abuses, empowering workers to organize unions, defending small farmers, breaking up corporate trusts, strengthening public utilities — fueled a resurgence of left-wing populist movements across the upper Midwest: the Non-Partisan League of North Dakota, the Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota and the Progressive Party of Wisconsin."
The formation of the Wisconsin Progressive Party was held on May 19, 1934, at Fond du Lac City, Fond du Lac County,[10] William T. Evjue served as chairmen during the founding convention.[11]

Buoyed by popular discontent with both major parties, the La Follette brothers were successful in their bids, and the party saw a number of other victories in the 1934 gubernatorial election.[12] In 1935, a faction within the party formed the Farmer-Labor Progressive Federation (FLPF),[13] after which the party was victorious in the 1934 state Senate elections and won several U.S. House seats and a majority of the Wisconsin State Senate and Wisconsin State Assembly in 1936. In 1936 it was informally allied with the New Deal coalition and supported the reelection of President Franklin Roosevelt.[12]

Progressive governance

See also: Little New Deal

Following the re-election of Philip, he took a far different tone for his second term than he had for his first. In his second inaugural address he stressed the need for reform in more concrete terms, advocating for an increase in executive power and calling for increased spending towards schools and wages despite a projected $9 million dollar shortfall in the budget.[14]

Cooperation with the Socialists

During its heyday, the Progressive Party usually did not run candidates in the Socialists (known as the "sewer socialists") stronghold of Milwaukee. There were strong ideological differences between the two movements as the two aligned with differing national parties. (Socialist State Representative George L. Tews said during a 1932 debate on unemployment compensation and how to fund it argued for the Socialist bill and against the Progressive substitute, stating that a Progressive was "a Socialist with the brains knocked out"),[15] when both faced opposition from the conservative major parties. During the period from 1939 on, the Progressives and the Socialists of Milwaukee sometimes made common cause, with Socialist legislators caucusing with the minority Progressives. In 1942, Socialist Frank P. Zeidler, later to be elected mayor of Milwaukee, was the nominee on the Progressive party line for State Treasurer of Wisconsin.

1938

Main articles: National Progressives of America and 1938 Wisconsin gubernatorial election

In an attempt to take the success of the Wisconsin Progressive Party to the national level the National Progressives of America (NPA) was founded in 1938, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.[16] Philip sought a return to the policy of the "old days" in which

"our country did not pay people to remain idle or to do unproductive work. We gave everyone an opportunity to do wealth-creating work. If they did not take that offer, they could sink or swim as they pleased. Today we have idle resources, and also idle people.... Again we must provide every able-bodied man and woman with a real opportunity for wealth-creating work at decent hours and at decent pay. Then, let us return to the principle that he who is able and does not work—well, then, at least he shall not live at the expense of his neighbor."[17]
Ralph Immell was appointed as the National Progressive's National Director, Immell would go on to state:
"The next decade holds the most critical chapter of American history. it will unfold the story of the eclipse of the two major political parties in America in the struggle of our people to beat off the unwanted European doctrines of Communism, Fascism, and Nazism, and the unworkable European doctrine of pure socialism. We all should be too concerned with the insecurity and want amid plenty to smugly stand by and not play what part we can in the drive of the National Progressives of America to make America once again the land of opportunity and security for every child and man."[18]
By the 1938 elections, the divisions in the state Progressive Party had grown even more wide, and while the La Follette brothers remained neutral, they privately supported their ally Ekern over the more radical Amlie in the Senate primary that year, as the primary became a conflict between the traditionalist Progressive faction of the party and the more radical leftist progressive faction, and their lack of endorsement exacerbated tensions between both sides, with supporters of Amlie threatening to leave the party over it.[14][19]

With ongoing scandals and accusations of authoritarianism, fascism and demagoguery, the Progressive party succumbed to a united Democratic and Republican front in 1938 which swept most of them out of office, including in the gubernatorial race, where Philip La Follette lost re-election to Julius P. Heil.[20][19]

1939–1946

As one of the Senate's leading isolationists, Robert helped found the America First Committee in 1940 to oppose Roosevelt's foreign policy and denounce risk of U.S. entry into World War II.[21] Soon Philip found himself working alongside figures such as Charles Lindbergh, which led some to assume he had shifted towards more conservative politics.[22][23][24][25]

Some Progressive leaders such as Evjue began pushing for greater affiliation with the Democratic Party. By the early 1940s Amlie led an exodus of liberals and left-wingers in joining with the Democratic party with Philip viewing these defectors as traitors.[19]

Orland Steen Loomis was the last Progressive to be elected Governor of Wisconsin, in the 1942 election. He died, however, before his inauguration as governor.[26][27]

Dissolution

By 1946, the Wisconsin Progressive Party had all but collapsed, barely qualifying for major party status after the 1944 elections. Over the years the party became factionalized between the support of a rural electorate that was in the middle of ideologically shifting from progressivism to conservatism and the urban left-wing. While Philip La Follette had desired for the party to continue on, after being advised to stay out of the 1946 convention, the Party voted to dissolve itself, voting 284 to 131 to rejoin the Republican Party.[28][29][14]

Aftermath

Robert La Follette Jr. held on to his Senate seat until 1946, when the party decided to disband itself. Robert La Follette ran for re-election that year as a Republican rather than a Progressive, but was defeated in the Republican primary by Joe McCarthy.[citation needed] The last politician to hold office from the Wisconsin Progressive Party nationally was Merlin Hull, a U.S. Representative from Wisconsin, elected as a Progressive in 1944. (Hull continued to be re-elected on the Republican ticket, and served until his death in 1953.)[a]

Officeholders

Federal

U.S. Senators
U.S. Representatives

State

Executive branch officials
County officials
State Senators
State Assemblymen

Electoral history

Wisconsin state offices

GovernorLieutenant governorAttorney general
YearNominee
  1. votes
% votesPlaceNotesYearNominee
  1. votes
% votesPlaceNotesYearNominee
  1. votes
% votesPlaceNotes
1934Philip La Follette373,093Elected1934Henry Gunderson313,6822nd of 71934Fred M. Wylie303,3872nd of 7
1936573,724Re-elected1936465,918Elected1936Orland Steen Loomis394,252Elected
1938353,3812nd of 51938George A. Nelson313,0662nd of 51938316,6572nd of 4
1940Orland Steen Loomis546,4362nd of 51940Anton M. Miller411,0552nd of 41940Otto F. Christenson367,0092nd of 4
1942397,664Elected1942Henry J. Berquist256,8512nd of 51942William H. Dieterich205,7302nd of 5
1944Alexander Otto Benz76,0283rd of 51944Clough Gates79,0683rd of 4194484,9893rd of 4
Secretary of stateTreasurer
YearNominee
  1. votes
% votesPlaceNotesYearNominee
  1. votes
% votesPlaceNotes
1934Theodore Dammann419,249Re-elected1934Albert C. Johnson302,6392nd of 6
1936601,638Re-elected1936Solomon Levitan457,942Elected
1938391,1502nd of 51938368,7072nd of 5
1940Adolph W. Larsen332,5052nd of 41940Frank Zeidler382,2372nd of 4
1942John H. Kaiser196,2872nd of 51942Albert C. Johnson215,9952nd of 5
1944Adelaide Woelfel12,6814th of 4194473,4513rd of 4
Wisconsin SenateWisconsin Assembly
ElectionLeaderVotesSeatsPositionControlElectionLeaderVotesSeatsPositionControl
No.ShareNo.±No.ShareNo.±
1934N/A136,74932.53%112nd1934Jorge W. Carow304,80434.09%451st
1936Walter J. Rush242,63142.00%51st1936437,91638.73%11st
1938N/A154,89135.00%52nd1938Paul Alfonsi122nd
1940Philip E. Nelson212,63132.09%52nd1940N/A72nd
194285,80625.18%2nd1942Andrew Biemiller123rd
1944N/A47,8958.81%13rd1944Lyall T. Beggs73rd

Wisconsin federal offices

U.S. SenateU.S. House of Representatives
YearNominee
  1. votes
% votesPlaceNotesElectionLeaderVotesSeatsPositionControl
1934Robert M. La Follette Jr.440,513Re-elected1934George J. Schneider334,34537.76%71st
1936No seat up1936George J. Schneider479,26342.69%1st
1938Herman Ekern249,2092nd of 61938George J. Schneider330,82336.26%52nd
1940Robert M. La Follette Jr.605,609Re-elected1940N/A469,06336.96%12nd
1942No seat up1942N/A185,11424.72%13rd
1944Harry Sauthoff73,0893rd of 51944N/A104,3779.01%13rd

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Served as a Republican (1931–1933)
  2. ^ Served as a Republican (1931–1933)
  3. ^ Served as a Republican (1931–1933) in
  4. ^ Elected as a Republican
  5. ^ Served as a Republican (1929–1931) in , (1946–1953)
  6. ^ Served as a Republican (1923–1933) in
  7. ^ Served as a Republican (1931–1933) in , (1949–1961)
  8. ^ Served as a Republican (1940–1944)
  9. ^ served as a Republican (1933–1937)
  10. ^ served as a Republican in the State Assembly (1933–1935)
  11. ^ served as a Socialist in the State Assembly (1931–1933)

References

  1. ^ Dreier, Peter (2011-04-11). "La Follette's Wisconsin Idea". Dissent. University of Pennsylvania Press. Archived 2025-06-18 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-04-16.
  2. ^ Dreier, Peter (2011-04-11). "La Follette's Wisconsin Idea". Dissent. University of Pennsylvania Press. Archived 2025-06-18 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-04-16. Though he died of a heart attack less than a year after the election, La Follette’s success inspired other progressive movements and campaigns around the country, including farmer-labor parties in Minnesota and North Dakota, the Progressive Party in Wisconsin, and the American Labor Party in New York City.
  3. ^ Miller, John E. (1982). Governor Philip F. La Follette, the Wisconsin Progressives, and the New Deal. University of Missouri Press. ISBN 978-0-8262-0371-7.
  4. ^ John Nichols, "La Follette lost 100 years ago, but his progressivism lives on". The Cap Times. 2024-11-05. Archived 11 December 2024 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-01-14. In fact, the program that La Follette ran on — taxing the rich, cracking down on Wall Street abuses, empowering workers to organize unions, defending small farmers, breaking up corporate trusts, strengthening public utilities — fueled a resurgence of left-wing populist movements across the upper Midwest: the Non-Partisan League of North Dakota, the Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota and the Progressive Party of Wisconsin.
  5. ^ Haala, Cory (2020). The Progressive Center: Midwestern Liberalism in the Age of Reagan, 1978-1992 (Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)). Wisconsin: Marquette University. Archived 2024-06-01 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-04-16. In the majority of these states, during either the 1890s or interwar years, left-wing third-party movements—the Populist Party, Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, North Dakota Nonpartisan League, and Wisconsin Progressive Party
  6. ^ Paul W. Glad, The History of Wisconsin, Volume V: War, a New Era, and Depression, 1914-1940. Vol. 5 (Wisconsin Historical Society, 1990) pp.398-565.
  7. ^ Donald R. McCoy, Angry voices; left-of-center politics in the New Deal era (1971) pp.47–53.
  8. ^ Jonathan Kasparek, Fighting son: a biography of Philip F. La Follette (Wisconsin State Historical Society, 2006) chapter 5.
  9. ^ McCoy, Donald R. (1951). "The Formation of the Wisconsin Progressive Party in 1934". The Historian. 14 (1): 70–90. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6563.1951.tb00127.x. ISSN 0018-2370. JSTOR 24436133. Archived 2025-04-30 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
  10. ^ "Wisconsin Progressive Party". Wisconsin Historical Society. 2017-08-08. Retrieved 2026-02-17.
  11. ^ "The Press: Life with Evjue". Time (magazine). April 1, 1946. "Last week, 63-year-old Bill Evjue (pronounced Ev-you) was mad again. What irked him this time was the death of the Progressive Party (TIME, March 25). A faithful disciple of old “Fighting Bob” La Follette, he had been convention chairman at the party’s birth at Fond du Lac in 1934."
  12. ^ William E. Leuchtenburg. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1940. 1963, p. 190.
  13. ^ "Farmer-Labor Progressive Federation Collection". Milwaukee History
  14. ^ Kasparek, Jonathan (2006). Fighting Son: A Biography of Philip F. La Follette. Wisconsin Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-87020-353-4.
  15. ^ Kaveny, Edward T. "$10,000,000 Tax: Assembly Passes Compromise Bill by 73 to 15 Vote" Milwaukee Sentinel January 6, 1932; p. 1, cols. 7-8
  16. ^ "National Progressives of America (photo)". The Escanaba Daily Press. 1938-05-01. p. 1. Retrieved 2026-02-14.
  17. ^ "La Follette Launches THE Party: National Progressives of America". Wisconsin State Journal. 1938-04-29. p. 8. Retrieved 2026-02-14.
  18. ^ "national progressives". The Capital Times. 1938-05-16. p. 1. Retrieved 2026-02-14.
  19. ^ Miller, John E. (1982). Governor Philip F. La Follette, the Wisconsin Progressives, and the New Deal. University of Missouri Press. ISBN 978-0-8262-0371-7.
  20. ^ Kasparek, Jonathan (2006). Fighting Son: A Biography of Philip F. La Follette. Wisconsin Historical Society. ISBN 978-0-87020-353-4.
  21. ^ "America First Committee". Spartacus Educational. Archived 2025-04-14 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  22. ^ "An Arsenal of Progressivism: How Familial Bonds Built and Broke the La Follette Dynasty of Wisconsin (1924–1953)". Archived March 25, 2025 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved January 14, 2025.
  23. ^ "Archival Resources in Wisconsin: Descriptive Finding Aids: Summary Information". digicoll.library.wisc.edu. Archived 2025-04-19 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-05-01.
  24. ^ "America First Committee". Wisconsin State Journal. 1941-12-05. p. 6. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
  25. ^ "America First Committee". Wisconsin State Journal. 1941-09-29. p. 6. Retrieved 2025-05-02.
  26. ^ T.tES, Specla3 to T3EE-' YOR (1942-12-08). "-gV.-ELECT LOOMS OF WISCONSIlq DIES; nly Progressive Elected in ecent Campaign Succumbs to Hear[ Malady at 49". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-02-15.
  27. ^ Krock, Arthur (1942-11-04). "A NATIONAL TREND; Favor for Opposition Party Is Definitely Shown in Returns". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived 2025-12-08 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2026-02-15.
  28. ^ "WI State Journal 18 Mar 1946 p2". Wisconsin State Journal. 1946-03-18. p. 2. Archived 2025-04-30 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-04-30.
  29. ^ "La Crosse Tribune 14 Nov 1945 p6". The La Crosse Tribune. 1945-11-14. p. 6. Archived 2025-04-30 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-04-30.

Further reading

  • Backstrom, Charles Herbert. "The Progressive Party of Wisconsin, 1934-1946" (PhD. Dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  1956. 0018371).
  • Beck, Elmer A. The Sewer Socialists: A History of the Socialist Party of Wisconsin, 1897–1940. Fennimore, WI: Westburg Associates, 1982.
  • Brye, David L. "Wisconsin Scandinavians and Progressivism, 1900-1950." Norwegian-American Studies 27 (1977): 163–193. online
  • Glad, Paul W. The History of Wisconsin, Volume V: War, A New Era, and Depression, 1914–1940. (State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1990). pp. 398–565.
  • Gosnell, Harold F., and Morris H. Cohen. "Progressive Politics: Wisconsin an Example." American Political Science Review 34#5, (1940), pp. 920–35. online
  • Johnson, Roger T. Robert M. LaFollette, Jr. and the Decline of the Progressive Party in Wisconsin (The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1964).
  • Kasparek, Jonathan. Fighting Son: A Biography of Philip F. La Follette. pp. 125–249.
  • McCoy, Donald R. "The Formation of the Wisconsin Progressive Party in 1934." The Historian 14.1 (1951): 70–90. online
  • Miller, John Edward. "Governor Philip F Lafollette, the Wisconsin Progressives, and the New Deal, 1930–1939," (PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin - Madison; ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  1973. 7321167).
  • Rosenof, Theodore. "The Political Education of an American Radical: Thomas R. Amlie in the 1930's." Wisconsin Magazine of History (1974) 56#1: 19–30 online
  • Schmidt, Lester Frederick. "The Farmer-Labor Progressive Federation: The Study of a 'United Front' Movement Among Wisconsin Liberals, 1934-1941" (PhD Dissertation, University of Wisconsin—Madison;  ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  1955. 0201215.)
  • "Progressive Party, Wisconsin." Encyclopedia of American History. Answers Corporation, 2006. Answers.com 26 February 2009. http://www.answers.com/topic/progressive-party-wisconsin