Congress (1931–1933) , October 1, 1931 In October 1931, Amlie was elected as a Republican to represent
Wisconsin's 1st congressional district in the
72nd United States Congress, replacing
Henry A. Cooper who had died in office, and served until March 1933. He then switched to the
Wisconsin Progressive Party, an alliance established in 1934 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. He was reelected on the party ticket to the
74th and
75th United States Congresses and served from January 3, 1935, until January 3, 1939. In the primary election, Amlie and Blanchard were the only two Republicans to run. Blanchard won a narrow victory, defeating Amlie with 51.75% of the vote.
Progressive Party politics (1933–1934) In 1933, Amlie helped form the
Farmer-Labor-Progressive League. In the Spring of 1934, the progressive faction split off from the
Republican Party of Wisconsin and started the
Wisconsin Progressive Party on the left, dramatically altering the politics of the state. By 1934, the Great Depression had caused a sharp decline of conditions in Wisconsin, and this decline, alongside a resurgence of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, forced Progressive Republicans to seek new avenues to power. The first major figure calling for progressives to split from the Republican Party was Amlie. He was one of the most radical Republicans to have prominence within the party, and he "firmly believed that capitalism itself was dying and that Roosevelt could at most postpone the inevitable."
Return to Congress (1935–1939) From 1936, Amlie and other Progressives were informally allied with the
New Deal coalition and supported the reelection of
President Franklin Roosevelt. Amlie had abandoned his hopes for a third party around this time for a similar reason that other progressives had, as he realized that "liberal reform would have to come via a Roosevelt-led Democratic Party." Just two days after the vote, his brother
Hans was reported to have volunteered for the pro-
Republican International Brigades. Amlie later supported a fundraising drive sponsored by the Friends of the
Abraham Lincoln Brigade to bring wounded Americans home. In 1938, Amlie joined Democrats
Jerry Voorhis and
Robert Allen in sponsoring the Industrial Expansion Bill, which would have created a
planned economy in the United States.
Democrat Jerry Voorhis, the sociologist and pacifist
Emily Greene Balch, the New York attorney and feminist
Dorothy Kenyon and the poet
Sara Bard Field. The Committee reported hostile pressure from members of the ILD and numerous anonymous threats. In 1938, Amlie declined to run for re-election, instead seeking to challenge Senator
F. Ryan Duffy in the
senate election that year, but was defeated in the Progressive primary by
Herman Ekern, the incumbent lieutenant governor, by 7 points. The primary would prove to be a bitter contest, as it reopened old divides in the Progressive Party between allies of La Follette and younger radicals. The divide also symbolized a split between the supporters of Robert M. La Follette and younger progressives who had emerged from the various farmer-labor organizations. During the primary, Ekern had garnered the private support of Philip and
Robert La Follette Jr., while Amlie had gained the endorsement of Milwakee Mayor
Daniel Hoan. Amlie would later blame his defeat on Evjue,
The Capital Times, and even the Wisconsin Progressive Party itself. == After Congress ==