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. 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,
William T. Evjue served as chairmen during the founding convention. 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. 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.
Progressive governance 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.
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"), 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 announces formation of the
National Progressives of America, April 28, 1938. 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. 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."
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."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 radicle leftist progressive faction, and their lack of endorsement exacerbated tensions between both sides, with supporters of Amlie threatening to leave the party over it. 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 1938 Wisconsin gubernatorial election Philip lost re-election to
Julius P. Heil. Soon Philip found himself working alongside figures such as
Charles Lindbergh, which led some to assume he had shifted towards more conservative politics. 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.
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.
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. 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.) ==Officeholders==